Hadar Shemesh breaks down how to say vulnerable: stress the first syllable, touch your bottom lip to your top teeth for the V, and shape your mouth like you're saying "love" for the vowel. Practice by repeating it slowly and using it in sentences.
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. Purushutam asked me to talk about the word vulnerable. Now, I do not want you to feel vulnerable when saying this word. And this is why I'm going to explain to you how to say this word clearly and effortlessly. So let's begin. We begin with a V sound. To make the V sound, you bring the bottom lip to the top teeth. You release air with sound. Now this sound is very simple for some speakers, but for others, high Russian speakers, the sound is sometimes confused with a W sound. So you may say something instead of vulnerable. Now here's the difference. To make the V sound, you gotta have contact. So the bottom lip must. Must touch the top teeth. You have this friction sound and you feel the vibrations and it's tickling a little bit. To make the W sound, you don't. You just round the lips and there is no contact. Your teeth are not involved. So you do want to have contact here. V, V. Now you shift to the as in cup. Love. Fun. A very neutral vowel. It's also considered to be a stressed choir. The tongue is, you know, pretty relaxed in the center of the mouth. The jaw drops, the lips are relaxed. But then you have an L sound and this is a dark L so it colors the vowel before val and it actually sounds like you're putting a neutral sound or the as in all before the L sound.
Vol.
L. Then you shift to an N sound and a schwa. Vol N. And then another schwa. R and then another schwa. Bull.
Neurable. Vulnerable.
Now, since the cup sound and the schwa are not that different, then the jaw is pretty much in the same place for the entire word.
Vulnerable. Vulnerable.
The emphasis is different because the first syllable is more stressed. So I, I engage more energy here.
Val.
It's a little higher in pitch than the rest of the syllables that are soft, lower in pitch and shorter.
Vulnerable.
I'm feeling very vulnerable today.
Vulnerable.
All right, good. Say this word slowly a few times until you get used to the new pronunciation. Practice it over and over and over and then use it in a sentence. That's the only way to make a change and to really get this new word into your system. Alright, so I hope this answers your question, Purushutam, and I hope it helps you guys as well. All right, so that's it. Have a great week and I'll see you next week.
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, 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. It.
