Hadar Shemesh breaks down the W+R consonant cluster in words like work, world, and were. The lesson covers tongue tension for R, lip rounding for W, and the dark L in world, with practice sentences like 'Where were you working? Around the world.'
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Welcome to the Influency Podcast. I'm Hadar, and this is episode number 299. And today we're gonna talk about a tricky pronunciation pattern as we find in the words work world. And. Hey, hey, everyone. This is a short how to pronounce episode where I'll be teaching you a pattern that I see so many of my students struggle with, especially because the words that have these patterns are so freaking common. And as you heard in the intro, these are words that have the W sound, W, and then the stir sound, as in the word work, work. Now, I'm going to explain this pattern and why it's so confusing. First of all, it's confusing because these are tricky sounds. The R in and of itself is challenging for many people. So remember that if you want to pronounce the R, the tip of the tongue or the back of the tongue shouldn't touch anything. The tongue pretty much doesn't touch anything. Or so it feels. The sides of the tongue do touch the sides of the teeth, and there's a lot of tension. And that's what creates the sound. And what helps it sound deep and substantial is the work of the lips. So you want to round your lips a little bit. All right, so just practice that with me. Good. As if I'm saying R or just if someone were to ask me, how do you pronounce the R sound in English? And I would just say R. R. All right. This is the foundation of all of the words that we're going to practice today. It's the key sound in those words. R. Good. Another reason why it's challenging is because of the W sound. For some speakers, the W is challenging, and you might be substituting it with. With a V sound. So for the W sound, make sure that the lips don't touch. They come close, as if you're about to give someone a kiss or yourself in the mirror. W. W, as in wow. And the lips should not touch each other. That's what happens when they come closer or too close. And the lips should definitely not touch the teeth. V, that's a more distinct V sound. So W, W. Now, for some people, the W and the R sound almost the same. The lips pretty much do the same thing. All right, this is another reason why it's confusing, because maybe you're perceiving both as the same sound. So notice the difference between W and R. While the lips might do the same thing, the tongue for the R sound is in a totally different position. It goes up, tenses up, R. Vs. W. The last reason why it could be confusing is because of the spelling patterns. In the word work and world and worth, there is the letter o, and a lot of people think that the O is pronounced as an o. So I often hear people saying work and world, but there is no O here. Why? Because the vowel in the middle of the word is a stir sound, a stir vowel that is always associated with the R, which means that it doesn't function as an isolated vowel like O and then an R or as in the word for. That's a different vowel sound. Here. It almost feels as if the R takes over the vowel before R. R. It's really like a stressed schwa. Now, if you know a little bit about the schwa, you know that it's a very neutral sound. And then if it appears before an R, the R takes over. Now, if you want to learn a bit more about the schwa and the R, I encourage you to go check out my full episode about the schwa, episode nine. And also I have a long episode about the R sound, how to pronounce it, and the different Rs. And that is episode 17. So 9 and 17, if you want to go deeper after this. So back to the pronunciation. Basically, what happens is that you transition from the W sound to the R, skipping the O, skipping the representation of the O. Work. Work. Now, here's something interesting. The same quality of sound also appears in the word were. W, E, R, E, Were. So here it's the same sound. Can you hear it? Were. Work. But here it's spelled with an E. So it's not where the letters don't represent anything. You just have to listen to the sound sounds. Were, We. Were. We were happy. So you transition from the W to the R directly. Were. Were, we were happy. And then from were, if we add a sound, we get the word work. And if you replace the C with a D Word. Word. Now here's something funny. If you were to pronounce the O sound as a phoneme, as a sound, ward, you would be actually pronouncing a different word which is spelled W. A R. D. Ward. Ward. Like the neurological ward at the hospital. Ward. Ward. Word transfer. Try it with me. Ward. With an A word. Good. Now let's replace the D with a Th. Worth. Worth. Worth. Now let's replace the th with an M. Worm. Worm. Worm. Now, again, if you were to pronounce the O as an O. O. Warm. Warm. And that's a different word. W, A R, M that you might use to describe the weather, it's pretty warm. But worm W o r M is the small, soft creature that has a tube like shape. The early bird gets the worm. Warm worm. Warm worm. All right. And to wrap up this short episode, now that your mouth is well prepared for it, let's practice the word world. So we're gonna start it with were. Were. You already know how to pronounce it. Then let's add a D. Word. Word. The difference between word and world is the dark L. And the tricky part here is to transition between the R to the L. Now, the dark L is created by bringing the tip of the tongue to touch the upper palate. Even though it might not always be the case because most of the tension is created in the back of the tongue. But in this case, unlike the R, the sides of the tongue don't touch the sides of the teeth. But it almost feels as if you're putting in the same tension for the dark L and the R. A light L sounds like this. It's just the tip of the tongue touching the upper palate. Dark L, L. So let's transition from the R R to the L. Now, if your L tends to sound like a W sound, make sure you bring the tip of the tongue to touch the upper palate. That is the most important thing. Otherwise it's going to sound like word when you say the word world. Okay. Were. Whirl. Bring the tongue to touch the upper palate. And make sure it's an L sound before you pop it to a D. World. World. World. Around the world. Worldwide. We were around the world. We were working. Around the world. Were. Where? Where were you working. You can do it. You can do it. Let's do it again. Where were you? Where were. Where were. Where were you? And then working. We've practiced it. You got this working. Where were you working? Around the world. Good. All right, that's it. You're ready. You're ready to go. You're ready to go and speak about the world and speak about your work and speak with all the words you can find. Have a great day. Thank you for being with me here today, and I'll talk to you soon. Ram.
