367. Pronunciation Q&A with me: Answering your questions

Welcome to the Influency Podcast. I'm Hadar, and this is episode number 367. And today we are going to listen to a recording of a live Q and A session where I answered a bunch of questions my followers asked. So I wonder if maybe one of the questions that were asked is a question that you might be asking yourself. Let's listen until the end to find out. I hope you enjoy this one. Okay, today I wanted to answer a bunch of questions that you guys have been asking me. A bunch of really, really great questions. So I wanted to take the most common ones, the ones that I felt people were asking many times. So I'm going to first discuss that general topics like intonation and general pronunciation patterns. And then I'm going to move on to random words, words that you may struggle with. Okay, so here we go. The main things we're going to discuss today is intonation. A lot of you asked about intonation, connected speech, how to become more fluent, and how to practice. I actually won't start with that because I feel that some pronunciation practice will get you all warmed up. So let's begin with talking about the er ending at the end of words. We're going to begin with er endings when it appears after different sounds. And then we're going to talk about er when it comes after a flap, T that I think is a little harder, as in the word letter or water. And then we're going to move on to R D and R as in harder and border, which is kind like the next level. Okay, so let's begin with words that have er at the end. So er at the end. Look, although the word is spelled with e and then R, okay? As in, let's take the word teacher. Okay? The letter E does not represent an actual sound. It's a schwa sound. Okay. It's not teacher, okay. Or anything like that. What you want to remember is that the R takes over the vowel before and connects to the consonant before the E. In this case, it's the ch sound. So it's not T. Chair. It's T, chair. Ch. Ch. Ch. Okay, so I'm moving from the ch sound to the R immediately. Ch. Cher. Now, of course, I'm expecting you to practice it with me. Okay? So try it with me. Let's take another word. Manager. Manager. Okay. It is not manager. Okay. I don't know if you tend to pronounce it like that. English is not a phonetic language. And. And the er suffix is so, so frequent. It is never an s Sound. Always a schwa. Always think of it as if it's just an R sound. Okay? The R after a schwa takes over the schwa sound. Okay? So there. There isn't really a vowel there. It's not manager jer, it's mana jur jer. So I'm moving from the sound to the R. J Jer. Let's take the word faster, faster. Here it's a true T. Okay? It's a regular T because it appears after an S, unlike the word butter. That is a flap T. Because here the T is between two vowels. Okay, we're still talking about other sounds than the T. The flap T. So faster we move from the T sound sound T to the R. Ter. Ter, as in Turkey. Faster, not faster. Okay? There is no S sound. Let's look at another example. Thr. Father. Therr. So you bring the tongue up for the th and you pull it in for the R. Th. Father. Another. The. Okay, the secret is to close your lips. Get ready for the R sound. Okay? I've made a couple videos about the R sound. The first is called the American R. And the other one is a live video, live lesson about the different Rs. The. Okay, so I said that in order to pronounce the R, you want to bring it to the middle of the mouth. Now, there are several ways to. To make the sound. You can bring the tip of the tongue up, you can keep it down. The secret is to keep the sides of the tongue glued to the upper teeth because that's what really creates the R sound. And there is no contact here. So the tip of the tongue doesn't touch anything. It's not okay. Another paper per. Okay, so now that we established that we eliminate the vowel before the R, there is no E. Let's talk about the er when it appears after a flap T. A flap T actually sounds like a D, as in the word letter. Letter. So it sounds like a D. The tip of the tongue goes up to touch the upper palate. Letter. Okay? So you bring the tip of the tongue to touch the upper palate and you pull it in for the R. Not letter. Letter. Letter. Letter. Okay? If you open your mouth a little bit. Ladder. Ladder. It's the pronunciation of two different words. Ladder can be L, A, T, T, E, R. The ladder of the. The what? I've mentioned, the last thing I've mentioned. The ladder or a ladder that you climb up. Okay? With a D sound. Ladder. It's pronounced the same. So here as well, you bring the tip of the Tongue up and you pull it in. Letter. Water. Open your mouth for the ah sound. Wa. Bring the tip of the tongue up and bring it in for the R. Water, not water. Okay? So it's a flap T. And there is no vowel. Remember, er endings is just an R. And the secret is to connect the R to the consonant before. So wherever your tongue is, you gotta move it immediately to the R sound. Okay, let's practice together a few more words. Better. I'm doing better, thank you. I'm better. It's a better solution. And let's talk about the word greater. It's a greater opportunity. Greater. Greater. Okay. Not greater. Greater. Yes. British speakers do pronounce it as a T. Greater. And then they don't pronounce the R at the end. Okay. The R at the end is pronounced mostly by American speakers. Okay. Depends on the dialect. But in American English, you pronounce the R. You pronounce the T as a flap D. Okay? You pronounce the T as a D. So I'm speaking about American pronunciation. British pronunciation is completely different, especially when it comes to these words. Water. T. Right. My British accent is terrible. But as an example, it's not water. Okay? It would be more like water T. Now let's talk about words that have a D, Schwa, R. And then an R before. Okay? Like harder. Harder. So you bring the tongue up for the R. Har. And then you bring it forward for the D. Harder. It's a light, light D. Okay. It's not harder. You'll get stuck. It's going to be difficult for you. Hard. The R here is really light. Harder. You touch it really lightly, the upper palate. And then you bring it back for the R. Harder. Reporter. Porter. Okay. Re. That's a strong R around your lips for it. Re. Pore. The P is aspirated here. So there is a little H here. Pour. Make sure that the R is not too dominant so it doesn't come out as reperter. Right. Or poor. If your tongue is too tense for the R, it's an R vowel, so it has to be light. Yeah. Then it's going to be hard for you to move on to the next word. Reporter. And make sure that you pronounce the vowel completely. Shorter. Shorter. It's not shirter. Shirter. Okay? If this word sounds like shorter and not shorter, then you're not leaving enough room for the vowel. You're not opening your mouth for the. Or, as in for shorter. And then it's a light, light D. And you bring it in immediately for the R. Let's practice a few more words. Border. Border. And order. Order. Okay. Order in the court. Order. So remember, the R needs to be very light. You have to leave enough room for the vowel before a very light D. And then you bring it in for an R immediately. So there is no vowel in between. That's the E sound. Good. Let's move on to another tricky pronunciation pattern. And that is the flap T and the L. Okay? As in the word little. Little, Little, little. Okay, so here for the flap T, same thing. You bring the tongue up and it slightly touches the upper palate. It sounds like a D. But then just as you do with the R, you pull it in for the R sound. Here, you bring it up for a dark L. You bring the tongue to the position of the dark L. What is the position of the dark L? If you don't know, watch my video the dark L. Or actually the L. Because I talk about the light L and the dark L. But just a little recap to make the dark L sound that appears after vowels, you engage a lot of muscle here. So you don't even have to bring the tip of the tongue up. It's not little. Okay? It's little. Right. That's half of the word little. And you pull it in for the dark L. Little. Little. Seattle. Seattle. Beetle. And let's say Beatles. I love the Beatles. All right. Or there is a beetle on my table. Beetle. It's not beetle. Not beetle. Right. It's not a light. Light L. Beetle. Beetle doll. Right. It almost sounds like you're saying B, D, O, W do. Right. Think about that. Now, if you are a Portuguese speaker, especially Brazilians, then ignore what I just said because you tend to pronounce the dark L as an O anyway. So you don't do that. But everyone else, if you hear the dark L, think of it as if there is an O sound. O as in go. But you need to engage the root of the tongue more. Okay? So it's not little. It's almost as if you're saying lido, little, little. But you gotta cheat, so you gotta engage the back of the tongue a little bit. Little hurdle shuttle. Now we'll move on to the next two. Two of my favorite battle versus bottle. So here we're going to talk about the ending. Dole. Right? So it's a light D. And then that dark L sound, dole. And the vowel before is really important because it's. A lot of people say, choose your bottles. Right? Let me know if you're one of them. If you say choose your bottles instead of choose your battles. Because when you say choose your bottles, it sounds like we're saying choose your bottles. Okay. And that's not exactly what you mean. I bet. It's not bottles. It's battles. You gotta drop your jaw, pull the lips to the sides, and say ah ba. And then it's gonna sound like the word battles. Right, the battlefield. Battle. Okay. Battle versus bottle. Bottle is the oz and father. Drop your jaw, pull the tongue back. Ah, Right. It creates a lot of dark sound in the back. Battle. Bottle. Okay, so that's the flap T and then the L. Let's compare another pair that. I've been getting a lot of questions about this pair. So it also has to do with the R and the T. And then we'll move on to intonation. So if you're more interested in intonation, practice connected speech. So stick around. Don't go anywhere. Heard versus hurt versus hard versus heart. Again. Heard. Hurt. Hard heart. So let's begin with the first pair. Heard. I heard the news. Heard. H, E, A R. D. Heard. So it's the stir sound. It's an h sound. Then the ers and stir her, which actually means there is no vowel. The R eats of the vowel before you shift from the H to the R. Immediately. Her. Her. Her. Tongue position. Er. So you move from the H to the R. Her. Her. Heard. I heard the news. So the tip of the tongue ends the R by going up to touch the upper palate. Heard. Now, what's the difference between that and hurt? I'm hurt. You hurt my feelings. Right. What's the difference? Do you hear the difference between heard and hurt? Heard, Hurt. Well, yes, it's a D versus T. But what is different? Because I don't say hurt D or hurt. I don't really pronounce the d and the t at the end. Right. So for the word hurt, as in you hurt my feelings, I bring the tip of the tongue up and I block the air immediately. Hurt. Hurt. Right. Just block the air. And that's it. I end the word. And that's how people recognize that it's a T. Hurt. Right. So someone said the neck stops vibrating right away. Exactly. Right. The vibrations of the vocal cords stop. Hurt. If I pronounce that with a D. Heard. I heard the news. Then I still activate the vocal cords, but just slightly, because I don't say heard. I don't release the D. Heard. Right. So I block the air immediately, but I still make a little bit of a Sound here. Heard. Right. As if I'm swallowing something. Heard. That's the difference. Yes. And this is why it's hard to understand native speakers if you don't know that this subtle nuance changes the entire word. Because if you. You are expecting to hear a T or a D and you hear heard or heard. Some people may even think they someone is saying her right. Tell her right. Because you don't hear the T or you don't hear the D. So you got to start recognizing those nuances and associate them with the sounds that you're familiar with from your native tongue or from reading and writing. Because a din doesn't always sound like a D sound and a T definitely doesn't sound like a T sound in all positions. When it's at the end, it's just an abrupt sound. Stop of air. Hurt. Heard. Let's move on to the next one. Again, we'll compare the T and the D here as well. Hard. My heart is yours. Heart and hard. Here, the difference is in the vowel. Here it's the R as in car. It's an ah sound. So you gotta drop your jaw har. Only at the end. You bring the tongue up for the R. Har. And then for the T, you just block the air. You bring the tip of the tongue up. Heart. Heart. For the D sound. It's really hard to understand all that. Hard. It's not hard. Maybe challenging, but it's not hard. So for that I keep vibrating the vocal cords. Hard. Right? So more than. It's okay if you say heart and hard. Okay. Pronounce the actual T and D. It's okay. It's not a big deal. Look, when you gotta choose your battle. Speaking of battles and not bottles. So you gotta choose your battle sometimes it's not a big deal to pronounce a T at the end or a D at the end. It's more important to recognize what you're hearing, to know that what you heard now is a T and what you heard now is a D. I truly think that when as a non native speaker, the purpose is not to become a perfect, flawless English speaker, American speaker. It's really being clear, understanding the things that you do and understanding why people may not understand you. And when you say hard and not hard, then people will understand you perfectly. I think that word stress and the sheep ship vowel and the R sound are more important. Intonation, definitely more important than that. Okay. So you gotta know where to focus. So what I'm doing now is good to know and practice it for fun, don't obsess over it, okay? Don't get all frustrated and judgmental. If you can't do it, it's more important to recognize it, especially when you listen to native speakers, because that'll help you understand native speakers better. Okay? And in terms of your own pronunciation, it's great to. To own it, to be able to do it. But honestly, that's not the most important thing for you as a non native speaker. What is important is the difference between hurt and heart and heard and hard. This is important, the vowel difference, okay? Heard, I heard you, and hard should be pronounced differently. The first one has no vowel in the middle heard. The second one has the R as in car, hard. Okay? Now if you pronounce the second word hard, it's a really hard job, right? Hard. And you don't open your mouth enough. You kind of like allow the R to take over the word because you get all nervous because there is an R here. So you just get prepared too soon to pronounce it, and then it's going to sound like heard. It's a hard job. Do you do that? Do you open your mouth? R as in car, as in hard, as in part, as in cards. Okay? If not, it's going to sound like pert, curds, heard. And then hard is going to sound like heard. Heart is going to sound like hurt. And we don't want that because these are two different words. Okay, good. Let's move on to intonation. Let's talk about connected speech a little bit. If you've seen my recent video about intonation, I talked about the difference between the stressed words and the reduced words, right? The stress words, usually content words, nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs, are the words that you prolong, that you stress, that are higher in pitch, whereas everything else is reduced sort of to a schwa. So, for example, let's think of the sentence. I'll say it separately. What are you waiting for? Okay, so let me ask you this. What are you waiting for? What word should be stress? To your opinion, what do you think should be stressed? What are you waiting for? So in this case, the what is not that important. You is not that important. Waiting. Absolutely. Guys, waiting is the verb. That's the word that is going to be higher in pitch. Waiting for what are you? Is going to be reduced. What turns into what are turns into er, you turns into what? Y. What are you? What are you? What are you? And yes, what are you? Sounds like what are you waiting for? So waiting is the one Word that really sticks out. Here, try it with me. What are you waiting for? What are you waiting for? And yes, it sounds like, what are ya? What are you? What are you waiting for? And let me tell you this. What are you? And what do you? Sound exactly the same. What do you want? What do you want? What are you doing? What do you want? What are you doing? What do you. Now is that clear why it's hard to understand what native speakers say? Because the same utterance, the same phrase represents two different sentences. What are you? And what do you. That causes us to make grammar mistakes? Because we think that this is how you should say a certain thing. Because you hear what are you? And actually someone said, what do you? And then you think, what are you want? Oh, that's okay, because I just heard what do you want? They meant what do you want? What do you. Okay, so it can get really, really confusing. So always challenge what you're hearing and understand that those reductions kind of like change the entire word. So don't expect to hear the words as they're written. Let's look at a few more examples, and I think I wrote down a few. Okay, so we talked about what do you want? What do you want? So practice it with me. What do you want? Want is stressed. What do you want to do? So in this case, want is not stressed. The do is stress. We turn it into wanna. Do you want to do? What do you want to? Not what do you want to? What do you want to do? Where are you? Where are you? Where are you? Where are you? Where are you going? Where are you going? Where you. Right. The secret is to take the function words, the M is are could, what should on in, at and turn them into a schwa. Are turns into er. In turns into N. What's turns into what's. Okay. Where are you going? What is going to happen? How do you think I should say it? How do you think? How do you think? I'm not saying how do you think? Going back to my question, I tend to drift as you see. What is going to happen? What's going to happen? What's going to? What's going to happen? Right. Happen sticks out. Everything else is reduced. What's going to? What's going to? What's going to? What did you do? What did you do? How should it sound? What'd you do? What'd you do? What'd you do last night? Would you? Would you? Did you. Turns into did you. So here, not only that, we talk about reductions. We're starting to hear different sounds. Again, English is not pronounced as it's written. So I'm thinking, did you should sound like I should have a D sound? An E sound, A D. Okay, let's say I know it's not deed, but it's did. Okay, good for me. Did. And then I'm expecting to hear you, and all of a sudden I hear this J sound. And did you. What's up with that? Yes. Whenever there is a D, and right after there is a J sound, we get a J sound. Did you. Would you. Could you. Could you do it? Would you do it? Did you go there? Did you eat? Okay, so sometimes we add extra sounds. Get your ch. Ch. Ch. Where did that come from? When there is a T at the end and then a J right after we get a ch sound. Get your keys, get your. What's your. What's your plans? It's not grammatically correct because you'll ask, what are your plans? But what you doing? Okay, so that's another reduction instead of what are you doing? What you doing? Okay, so sometimes we insert extra sounds. For example, hi, Alice. Hi, Alice. You always want to connect the words together. When I say, hi, Alice, okay, I connect it. What sound do you hear me adding? Hi, Alice. What do you hear there? What sound do you hear me adding? Hi, Alice. Hi Y, Y. Hi, Alice. I add a Y sound. Now, look, all you need to do is keep your voice going as you're saying the words, and then the sounds are going to be there anyway. Okay? When you say hi and Alice, and you say to yourself that you just need to connect the two words together. Hi, Alice. You'll hear a Y sound coming in without intentionally adding it. If that's difficult. Yes. Learn to add the Y sound between words, between two vowels, whenever there are high vowels. And if you've seen videos out there, you know that that's something that happens. But the secret is to just keep your voice going and not pause between the words. Look, words are connected in English, okay? And sometimes non native speakers try to be clear. And to be clear, they try to separate the words to be clear, and it actually goes against you. It makes you sound a little choppier. It. It affects your confidence, it affects your flow. And the secret is to connect the words together. Not everything, okay? Just phrases, ideas, some parts of the sentence, and then it'll give you that nice feel of the American intonation and of course, that flow that you hear when native speakers speak. Or not just native speakers. But when you hear that, there is a nice Flow and rhythm to the language. It definitely has to do with connected speech. Okay, so Yvonne asked me about the IGN spelling pattern, as in foreign designer. I added the word sign. So look, I have nothing interesting to say about this pattern except that the G is silent, right? Foreign. We don't hear anything. It's not for rain. Even the EI that we have there, it's not a. It's just a schwa. Foreign. Run. So it's an R sound, a schwa and an N. Foreign. In the word design or designer, we have an I sound. Design. Okay. Or designer. So here as well, we don't hear the G sound in the word sign. Again, it's the I as in my sign. We don't hear the G sound. Okay. And Costanza asked me about the ous sound suffix. She is a Spanish speaker and she says that she struggles with the suffix. Okay. She was asking it on my Facebook page. If you haven't liked it yet, then come on over, because sometimes I go live there. So I don't want you to miss it out. So come say hi on my Facebook page. Accent suede. So look, Constanza, the ous suffix is just a schwa sound and an s. So for example, in the word famous, you don't want to say something like famous or famous. It's just a schwab. Famous. Miss. Miss. Ridiculous. Nothing there. So again, like with the er, you pronounce the l sound, the consonant, and then you shift immediately to the s. Ridiculous. Gorgeous. Just not gorgeous. Oh, someone was just asking about this word gorgeous. Gore. Or as in for. And then a J sound and an s. Gorgeous. Gorgeous. Gorgeous. Picture. Dangerous. Wrist. Wrist. An R sound and then a schwa. Outrageous. Just. Yes. And Emmanuel. Yes. We just talked about famous. Miss. Miss. Okay, so Claudio asked me to talk about three versus tree versus free. I bet that a lot of you can relate to this question. Three, free and tree. So here you want to make sure that for the word three, the tongue comes out for the th. So the th is a tricky sound. Some people substitute it with a T sound, and that's why three will sound like tree. Some people substitute it with an F sound, and then three may sound like free. They're all very similar. Okay. So you gotta stick the tongue out and allow air to pass between the tongue and teeth. If your tongue is not going to be out, the tongue is going to be in, but you still hear the air coming out. It's probably an S sound. Sri. Sri. We don't want that either. So you want to stick the tongue out. Allow air to pass. The secret is to be able to hold it out. If it gets stuck, then your tongue is too tight against the teeth or the body of the tongue touches the roof of the mouth. You're blocking the ear here. Three. Three. Okay. That's a th sound. Three for the word tree. A tree in the forest. Then the tongue is inside, and then you move it directly to the R. Tree. The secret here is to connect the T and the r and then it turns into a ch sound. Ch. Ch. Tree. Do you hear that? So three and tree are very different. It's not three and three. Okay? It's two different sounds. It's three tree. Okay? And then the word free is pronounced with an F sound. So you've got to bring the bottom lip to the upper teeth. And then bring it. Bring the tongue in for the R. Free. Three free throws. Let's practice this tongue twister. Three free throws. Three free throws. Okay. Three trees. Three free trees. Oh, that's a good one. Three free trees. So try it again with me. Three. Thr. Three. Three. And then trees. Notice the TR is a ch sound, so it's completely different than the other two. I actually think that three and free are closers. Closer. Three free trees. Very good. Okay. Javier wanted to ask about the difference between ranch and range. So there are two differences here. Ranch is the A sound. Ranch before an N. Rare. It's like it's not a pure as in cat. It's not ranch. It's like an eh sound that opens to an a. Ranch. So it's. You hear the transition there, and then it ends with a ch sound. Ranch. The word range is A as in day. Ray. Ray. Okay. Rang. So the sound is the voiced pair of the ch sound. That's the difference. So you have to activate your voice. Now, Javier, by your name, I would take a wild guess and say you are probably a Spanish speaker. Okay. And if that's the case, then you may have difficulties with distinguishing between the and the. Is that true? As in vision. A lot of Spanish speakers may say vision, turn the sound into. So maybe for you, you are substituting the at the end in range to a ch sound. And maybe you're saying range. Range, perhaps. So here you want to be able to distinguish both by changing the vowel ranch and range, and also this, the voiced consonant at the end in range. You want to feel your vocal cords vibrating at the end range. Okay, good. Before we move on to other questions, someone asked about the ing suffix. I think it's an important Topic to discuss. So the ing suffix, very common, especially for all the progressive tense or the continuous tense, like singing, laughing, dancing, gerunds, walking. So the ing doesn't really have a G sound at the end. I talked about the ng consonant sound in one of my videos. So if you haven't watched it, when there is an ng, especially at the end of words, we don't pronounce the G sound. It's a separate consonant, and it's pronounced like this. So you bring the back. It's like you're pronouncing an N sound. For that, you bring the tip of the tongue up in the back of your mouth. So it's not sing. It's sing, sing. And then you don't need to add the G sound to indicate that there is a G sound. That ng sound is enough. Sing. There is a difference, a subtle one, between sin and sing. Again, this is really important just for pronunciation, because it's not a big deal if you say sing. Not a big deal. But you need to recognize those differences, especially when you listen to native speakers. Now look, work on it. Improve your pronunciation and work on not pronouncing the G sound at the end. If it's really, really difficult, forget about it. There are more important things about pronunciation than pronouncing or not pronouncing the G at the end of the ng consonant. But when you listen to people and they say sing and you think they said sin, S, I, n because you didn't hear the G sound, that's a problem that affects your. Your listening, affects your confidence. Because all of a sudden you're like, challenging yourself. You're saying, hey, what is it? I can't understand what they're saying. It can put you in awkward situations, understanding different things than what was actually said to you. Okay? Ran versus rang. Ran. That's an N. Ran away. And rang, as in rang the bell. Okay? Two different sounds. They sound very similar. For people who don't have this distinction in their language, what other words can we think about? Ron. The name Ron. R, O, N. Ron. And Wrong. Wrong. It's a wrong. It's the wrong idea. Wrong. I bring the back of the tongue up, and that's the ng. Okay, so that's about the ng. Ing. Suffix. Same thing. Ing. Play. Playing. Not playing. G. Playing. Sing. Singing. No GS, no G sound whatsoever. Singing. Work. Working. King. King. Right. Not working. Okay, so that's the ing suffix. Now let's look at some of your questions. The R in very and every. It's the Same R. It's just a little harder in every. Because it appears after a consonant. So you want to move from the V sound to the R. Ever. Every. Okay. The idea is not to add a vowel there. Not every. Every. Okay. It's every. Who asked me about it? Ezekiel, I think. Yes. About the word nearly. Nearly. So he also asked about nearly. He says that when he pronounces it, it's hard for him to move from the R to the l. And he says something like nearly, nearly. So here it shouldn't be difficult. You know why? Because you want to move on from the R that is right there with the tip of the tongue. Like, the tip of the tongue is just up there. Near. All you need to do is to push it forward to touch the upper palate. Near. So it's not a long journey. Near. Near. Right. It's not near once you release the tongue. So the sides of the tongue kind of like disconnect from the upper teeth. Then you'll hear a schwab neera li. Keep the back of the tongue connected to the teeth. Near. And as you pronounce the R, push the tongue forward until you hear it change to an L. Rarely. Same thing here. We also have an R at the end. So round julips for the r. Ra. Push the tongue forward for the leave. Rarely. Nearly. Barely. So pronounce the R until you hear it change to an L because you moved forward for the L. Okay. So Emmanuel says, oh, nearly. Sometimes my R flaps. I've been working on it. So first of all, good for you. Let's see if I can give you more tips. Nearly. Maybe something like that. And that's okay. The secret is to hold it for a long time when you practice. Near. And then it doesn't have the energy to flap against the upper palate. Okay. So to flap it near, you need to push the tongue to thrust the tongue against the upper palate. So if you have control there, if you keep the control and keep the tongue held and glued to the back part of the tongue for the R. Near. And then move to the L, then it's easier for you to prevent that flap from happening. Same thing with the thr. A lot of people say three. Okay. By the way, a lot of Americans say that as well. But if it troubles you and you feel self conscious about it, same thing. Control your tongue. Don't let it just do its own little thing, right? Hold out the R. And then you know that you really hit the right sound and it won't flap anymore. It Flaps lapse when the tongue has the control. If you control the sound, then you can hold the tongue in the same position for a while until you hear the strong R. Okay, so let's see what other questions we have there. How to pronounce the word pallet. Pallid. That's easy. It's a P sound. Pa. PA as in cat. And l sound choi. And a T. Pallid. L. It's a light L, although it's darker for many speakers. Pal, Schwa, Pallet palette. Okay, Something else not related to pronunciation. Many people ask me about how to practice intonation. So first of all, imitation exercises. Don't just pick anyone to imitate. Pick someone you relate to. Here's the thing. Sometimes when non native speakers speak another language. No, when they speak English in particular, the patterns of English are very different from their own patterns. So for example, in Hebrew, intonation is very flat. What do you want to do? I'll use my Israeli accent. What do you want to do? What do you want to do today? Where are you going? Okay, so it's kind of flat. So for Israelis and for Spanish speakers and for French speakers, it's really strange to all of a sudden go high in pitch. What do you want to do? Right. And what they automatically do is they go to the caricature of American speakers. Okay? And that's something that is not always positive to them that what do you want to do? Right. We don't want to go there. We don't want to go to a caricature. We want the character of the voice, but not a caric of a speaker that you associate a certain sound with. Okay? So you don't pick just any speaker. You pick a speaker that you really like, that you relate to, that you feel comfortable with his or her voice. Of course, if you're a male, then pick a male speaker. If you're a female, then pick a female speaker that you like, that you admire. Okay. That you are inspired by. And then find an interview with them, a TED Talk, a movie scene, and then imitate it. How do you imitate it? You play a line, you pause it, and you repeat it. Okay? If you have the script, that's even better. So look at the script. Have the video or audio of the person can also be an audiobook. And then play a line, pause it and repeat it. It's okay if you don't get it. All right? It's okay if you mess up some of the sounds. Focus on one thing, intonation. So don't think about the R. Don't think about the th. Just think about the patterns, the, the rhythm, the words that you choose to stress. So I asked you, what do you mostly struggle with? Some of you said melody, some of you said stress. If stress is the thing that you struggle with the most, then listen to the. To the text first and underline the stressed words as you detect them. So first of all, work on your perception, work on your listening skills, on your ability to recognize the stress words. Okay, we always hear English, but we never think whether a certain word is stress or not. We just hear it and get it, and we assume that that's how it sounds. But look into it, really analyze what you're hearing, and you'll be so surprised to discover that something that you've been taking for granted are things that are completely different. Okay, so underline the stress words. A really great tool to do it effectively is to slow down the speed of the video. If you go to the bottom right corner of the video, you'll see the small wheel, the cog wheel, and you click it. And then you can change the speed of the video to half the speed. And if you do that, then you'll hear me saying half the speed. And then if you were to listen to it and kind of like underline the stress words, then probably speed would stick out more because it's higher in pitch. Okay? So you start recognizing it. If you slow everything down, you can start underlining it and then repeat it. Looking at the text and reading it out loud and stressing the very same words. Okay, so that is great. If you want to work on strats. If you want to work on melody, then just play it and then try to find the tune. So just like I said, now try to find a tune. So for example, if I were to hear someone say that, I would do something like this. Ta da ta da ta ta da ta da ta. Just play the melody of what I've heard. And don't tell me that you're tone deaf or that you can't sing a song or you don't have a musical ear. Look, if you can sing a simple tune, you can recognize a tune. So all you need to do is focus on that one thing to know what you're doing. Play the tune of the words that I was saying, then play the tune and try to say it with the same tune. Okay? That would help you working on the melody. If you want to work on rhythm, okay, Rhythm is actually a result of everything. But if you want to work on rhythm, then take the tacks and mark all the unimportant words, all the function words, and see how you can reduce them and connect them. So one of the examples that we had here was what's going to happen, right? So instead of what's, just write W, T, S. What's. What's. Instead of going to write gonna. And practice it. What's gonna. What's gonna. What's gonna. Okay. And then it's easier to distinguish between the less important and the more important. What's gonna happen? What's going to happen? Okay, what are you doing? What do you really. Write it down in a different way. Write down all the reductions. So when you're practicing, focus on one thing and the thing that challenges you the most, the thing that you'd like to improve in the most. And if you are practicing with attention, with the right goals, okay, then it'll be an effective practice. If you're just repeating it over and over again, you'll improve, but it's not going to be sufficient. You won't feel accomplished. But when you practice something in particular, focusing on the one element that troubles you, it can also be a sound, just the th sound or the r sound. Then you'll improve in that aspect, and the next time, the R is not going to be a problem anymore. Focus on intonation. If you've improved in intonation, then start working on the sounds that are difficult for you, okay? So when you practice in particular in imitation exercises, then always know what you're working on, okay? Always come prepared. Preparation is the key here, okay? So that's a really great way to practice. If you're driving and you can't pause and repeat, let's say you're listening to a podcast and you want to practice it, then just echo it, okay? So hear whatever the person is saying and echo it. Maybe you won't really understand what they're saying, but it'll get in your body. The idea is to let the words that come in into your ear and allow them to come out through your mouth without thinking about it too much. Okay? Get it in your body. Sometimes it's okay if you don't understand it, but you just feel it. If that happens, you'll develop intuition. You'll develop a strong feeling as to what's right and what's not. Sometimes I know that something is right and I can't explain why, okay? It's just that's how it is. And sometimes it goes against any grammar rule or any intonation rule, but I know that that's how I'VE heard it many, many times. So. And that's okay, because that's intuition, and intuition is a huge part of this work. Okay? So work on developing your intuition. I think that's a very important point and important lesson I'd like to could teach you. Okay, I think we're done for today. We talked about many different things. Intonation and pronunciation on different words. Thank you so much, guys. Take care and have a wonderful week. Bye, Sam.