A short Accent's Way "How to Pronounce Friday" podcast episode (host Hadar Shemesh) answering a listener's question about pronouncing "world." The host breaks the word into segments (W → R → dark L → light D), demonstrates mouth and tongue positions, gives practice tips and example phrases (e.g., "around the world," "worldwide"), and closes with subscription and Instagram CTA.
Welcome to the Influency podcast and this is your how to Pronounce Friday, where I share with you the pronunciation secrets of tricky and confusing words.
Hey, guys, it's Hadar. And this is the accent's way, your way to finding clarity, confidence and freedom in English. Diego asked me if I can explain how to pronounce the word world. He says, and I quote, the sound is never perfect. I know how to say it and in my mind it sounds perfect, but when it comes out, it's never correct. And that's such a great point because sometimes we know exactly how a word should sound. We hear it so many times, but then when it comes out, something along the way gets stuck. Stuck. Or the tongue is not in the right position and it just sounds off. So today we are going to learn how to pronounce the word world and solve all those issues around this word, because I know there are many. Alright, so let's begin at the beginning. We begin with a W sound. W as in wow. So round your lips, W. And then you shift immediately towards the R. Were. Do you hear that? So although there is the letter O there, there is no sound. It's not world. All right? Warld. No, were. World. So I round my lips for the W, I keep them rounded and then I just lift the tongue up for the R. Were or pull it back. Were, as in the word were. We were happy we were there.
Were.
Did you hear that? Were. Then after the R there is L and D. All right, so this cluster of the R, L, D is difficult for a lot of speakers. So let's break it down. Your tongue is up there for the R. Right? R. Then you need to shift for the L to make an L sound. The tongue goes up to touch the roof of the mouth. Right? But this is a dark L, which means there's a lot of muscles engaged in the back here. It's practically produced here and not necessarily here in the front of the mouth. Do you hear that? That's the dark L. It's not just L. World. Alright, that's not enough. You need that extra sound of a dark L that will transition from the R to the L. Whirl. Oh. Oh. And then you bring the tongue up for the L, so everything's kind of like blended together. Whirl. Then you bring the tongue up and you close it with a D. World. All right, so basically you have the R, a transitional sound. The tongue pushes down here, then the tongue goes up for the L. Now imagine like the L is longer than just one single sound. Okay. Because in many cases I hear people saying it as word, right? And the L just disappears. Okay? So visualize it like you have three L's in this word so you don't miss it. World. And then you close it with a light D. The D is very subtle. World. World. Around the world. I like to travel around the world. Worldwide. Worldwide. The world is yours. The world. You hear that dark L sound? The world is yours. World. All right, I know it's a tricky word, but if you practice it and you start thinking of it differently, not the way it's written, but the way you actually hear the sounds, then I bet it's going to be a lot easier for you to pronounce it. Alright, so thanks, Diego, again for your question and I hope it helps. Alright, guys, bye.
Okay, that was your how to Pronounce Friday episode. I hope you enjoyed it. And if you like the podcast, then consider. 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. Sa.
