Hadar Shemesh breaks down the vowel sounds in staff and stuff, which non-native speakers often confuse because some languages lack the /æ/ sound. She shows how to position your jaw, lips, and tongue for each one, then has you practice with the sentence: Her staff brought her personal stuff to the meeting.
Chapters
Welcome to the Influency podcast. I'm Hadar and this is how to Pronounce Friday, where we take a confusing word or word pair, we learn how to pronounce it and how to use it with confidence. Let's get started. I want to talk to you today about the two words staff versus stuff, staff and stuff. Now, these two words are very similar except for one sound, the middle vowel. You have the a as in cat, staff and the as in cup, stuff, ah versus staff and stuff. Now, here's the thing. Most non native speakers don't have the a sound in their language. However, they do have this really small neutral sound in their language that is closer to the as in cup. So it's very easy to pronounce the word stuff, but the word staff is a little harder to say. This is why a lot of non native speakers reduce this sound into this very familiar neutral sound. But then the word staff turns into stuff, and then they both sound the same stuff and stuff. Okay, so what I think you should do is focus on pronouncing the word staff, focusing on the ah as in cat. So to make this vowel, you drop your jaw a lot and pull the lips to the sides a bit. As you can see, my tongue pushes forward. The tip of the tongue touches the bottom teeth. Right, right behind the bottom teeth. And the tongue is flat and forward. All right, now we have the st. And then you open it to the as in cat sta. Staff versus stuff. For this one, you just relax your jaw, relax your tongue, relax your lips, release a short, quick sound. It's like a stress chua. Stuff. Staff versus stuff. Let's try it in a sentence. Her staff brought her personal stuff to the meeting. All right, so make sure these two words sound differently. Her staff, not her stuff, brought her stuff, but her staff brought her personal stuff to the meeting. Staff versus stuff. All right, that's it. Okay. That was your how to Pronounce Friday episode. I hope you enjoyed it. And if you like the podcast, then consider subscribing to the podcast. And if you feel really crazy, you can even rate and review the podcast. And you can find me at Hadar Accentsway on Instagram, where you can DM me and ask for all the crazy, fancy, confusing words that you'd like to know how to pronounce. Have a beautiful day and I'll see you next time.
