A short solo episode of the Influency Podcast (How to Pronounce Friday) in which host Hadar Shemesh teaches the pronunciation and usage of the words "million" and "billion." The episode explains stress placement (primary stress on the first syllable), vowel reduction (schwa in the second syllable of "million"), lip/jaw positions for each word, gives numeric examples ($1,000,000; $1 billion), and closes with practice encouragement and subscription/social links.
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.
Today we're going to talk about the two words, million and million. Billion. Very important words, right? Especially if we're planning to make a lot of millions and billions. So million. First of all, both of them sound kind of the same, so we're going to concentrate on the word million. The first syllable is a relaxed sound, mill. So it's not mil, but mill. So your jaw is kind of dropped and there is space between your teeth, and you're kind of lazy when you're saying it. Mill, mil. Then you have a reduced vowel. It begins with a sound, a schwa, although it's spelled with an O. Okay. There is no o. It's not miljon, but mil, ye, and then an n at the end. Million, Million. The primary stress falls on the first syllable, so it's higher in pitch. Million. Million. $1,000,000. On the other hand, you have billion, right? So you kind of like, close your lips for the b. B. Billion. $1 billion. All right? Million and billion and billion. So you don't have to say it a million times in order to get it, but you do want to practice it quite a few times until you get used to the new pronunciation. So go for it. Good luck, and I'll see you next week in the next video. Bye.
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 me or 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.
