89. Practice Your Christmas Vocabulary + Pronunciation!

Welcome to the Influency Podcast. I'm Hadar, and this is episode number 89. And today, and because it's very suitable for the season, we are going to talk about holiday vocabulary and how to pronounce it. Hey. Hey. Welcome back to the Influency Podcast. Thank you so much for being here and for tuning in. I hope you are well and this episode is going to be festive. And all about pronunciation. First, because I love pronunciation. And second, because I love the holiday season, even though I do not celebrate it. I mean, I celebrate Hanukkah, but I don't really celebrate it. I mean, I celebrate it, but I don't celebrate it. I don't make a big deal out of it. But when I used to live in New York, I loved Christmas. Loved. First, because I was a server working right by Rockefeller Center. And if you've ever been to New York around Christmas time, you know that there is this gigantic tree that they bring in every single year. And that tree attracts a lot of tourists. Less now since there are no tourists in New York City because there's a global pandemic. But when I used to work there, it used to be insane. Like, I remember me getting off the subway stop, and it took me forever to get to the restaurant, even though it was, like 60 seconds away, because I had to go through so many people, and I would be, like, all pissy and, like, just, you know, get out of my way in my head. Of course, I was very polite and all. I'm sorry, Excuse me. I'm sorry, excuse me. But I was generally late and I had to get there on time. And that's it. This is why I was angry with the sea of people. Gosh, I missed those times. Anyway, I used to love Christmas because it was, like, the busiest time of the year. We would make a lot of money working in the restaurant, so I would work, like, double shifts every single day for, like, a week, you know, And I used to love it. Like, I used to love working hard because, you know, the days would fly by, go by really quickly, and you have that holiday spirit. And everyone's excited, buying gifts, excited about the tree. So I used to really love seeing all those people coming in, having their pasta, and continuing on with our lives as I was cleaning up all the empty plates. Really, I do miss it. I loved waiting tables. So it was a really great time. And of course, like, everything's festive and the lights and the smells, and I really miss it. So this is why I'm very excited about the holiday season. Even though I've been living in Israel for the past forever and we don't celebrate it here, that did not stop me from creating this podcast about holiday vocabulary. So the first word I want to talk about is the word Christmas. Christmas. Now, to say the word Christmas, we start with a K sound and then there is an R. Chris. For those of you who struggle with the R, you might pronounce something like quis que with a w or maybe a different r sound. So just a quick reminder of the R sound, you do want to round your lips like a W sound, but you want to bring the tongue to the middle of the mouth and the sides of the tongue should touch the sides of the teeth. Kr until you hear that tense, rough sound of the R. Chris. And then it's relaxed sound. Chris. And then it's an M, a schwa and an S. Christmas. Christmas. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Next up, we have the word holidays. Holidays. There is nothing interesting about this word. It's usually not a hard work. There's nothing too difficult about the pronunciation of this word, and most people really do get it right. But there are two fun nuances that I want to talk about here. So first is the first syllable, ha. Even though it's spelled with an o. When you listen to me saying it right now, ha. Notice it sounds more like an ah sound than an O. Ha. Ha. Then the li is actually l and not li. A lot of people just say holidays put an e sound, but in fact this vowel is reduced to a schwa. If you don't know what a schwa is. I'm going to link to my all time fav episode about the schwa sound in the description. Hala. L. L. Right. It's just like a very neutral sound. Hol. Day or days. Holidays. Holidays. And the rhythm plays a significant part here because it's not holidays. But one syllable is longer than the rest. Ha. The L is super short and days is somewhere in the middle. So every syllable here receives a different beat, like holidays. Holidays. Then we have New Year. New Year. Happy New Year. Now, if you struggle with the word year, you need to listen to episode number 88 where I answered a question about how to pronounce the word year. Some people may pronounce it as ear. If that's you, go back and listen to episode number 88 where I answered questions. In general, that's a J sound, as in yes. And then it's the E as in C sound. Year. And you want to transition smoothly from one sound to another year. Year. And by the way, notice the R sound at the end year, that it doesn't start too soon. You want to make sure that you pronounce the E sound clearly before you bring the tongue up for the R. That's what happens when you pronounce the R. The tongue goes up year. And you want to make you stretch the word before you get to the R year. The beauty of R vowels. The word new. You can pronounce it as N with a Y sound. So it's an N sound. A Y as in yes. And then oo as in food. Round your lips, push them forward and bring the tongue back up. Think as if you're adding a w at the end. New. Or if you want to use more contemporary American pronunciation, nu, nu, you drop the Y sound new, so it's just an N. And then oo. And make sure you round your lips and pretend like there is an extra W at the end. That's a long vowel or a longer vowel. New Year. Happy New Year. Happy New Year. And here the stress falls new. Even though if you were to say, oh, it's a new year, you would put the emphasis on year. But when it's a set phrase, you put it new Year. It's the new Year. New Year's Eve. New Year. Then we have the word Santa Claus. Santa Claus. I have a separate video about Santa Claus. I'm going to link to it. But for now, the quick lesson is going to be Santa or Santa. Both are correct. The T can drop after an N in an unstressed syllable. This is why you will hear people saying Santa or Santa. If you say Santa and drop the T, you want to say it rather fast. Not too fast, but faster. Santa Claus. That's the A as in cat. Sa. But before an N, it's modified. Santa. Choose whatever is easier for you. And then clause. It's not Klaus, it's clause. Clause. A K sound, an L, an ah. Round your lips a bit, drop your jaw. The mouth is open. Here, Clause. And. And with a Z clause. Speaking of Santa Claus, we want to talk about his reindeer. Rain. Rain. Just like the word Rain. And then deer. That's again a high E sound. Deer. And then an R. Reindeer. Reindeer. Now, when you go to a Christmas party, you might stand right under a mistletoe. Mistletoe. Mistletoe. For those of you who have never been to a Christmas party because you don't celebrate it and you're like, what's a mistletoe? It's this plant that if you happen to stand beneath it. You need to give someone a kiss or something like that. I'm sure you've seen it in movies before. So that's mistletoe. Me. Soul. Toe. So it's an S sound. There is a schwa there, and then the O is in go at the end. Mistletoe. And on Christmas, you also drink eggnog. Eggnog. I'm not a fan of eggnog, but I'm a fan of pronouncing it egg. Just like an egg. And then nog. It's an N sound. The asen. Father. You want to open your mouth for this one. Eggnog. Eggnog. And also another word that you might come across during Christmas is mitten. Mitten or mittens. Mittens. And I want to talk about it because it has the nasal T, which means a T sound that goes into an N right away. Mitten. A mitten is a glove that only has two sections, you know, just like one for the thumb and one for the rest of the fingers. So it's not a real. You can't do much with it. You can't play piano with a mitten. So mitten or mittens. So you bring the tongue up for the T. Took me a second to remember what I wanted to say. You bring the tongue up for the T, you keep it there, and then you release air through the nose. Mitten. Or you just block your breath. Mitten. And I'm going to post a link to a video about the T's, so maybe if you struggle with it, that could be helpful. Actually, the video is going to be on my Instagram account because I did a really good one not so recently. And if you haven't been following me on Instagram, I add bonus lessons once a week, like practice drills of things that people really struggle with. So make sure you follow me on Instagram. Hadar Accentsway if you want those extra bonus lessons. And they're fun. On Christmas, we sing Christmas carols. Carols. What's interesting here is that even though there is an O, there is no O. So it's ca. Again, it's the as and cat. But before an R, the A changes a bit. So it's not carols, but ka. Carols. An R sound, a schwa, and a dark L. Carols. Carols. And one more word that might be confusing is sleigh. It's confusing because in the spelling, you have L, E, I, G, h after an s, and it's just sleigh, Sleigh, sleigh. And what else? We have? Wreath. Wreath. That's. It's a beautiful word, I have to say. It's like the arrangement of flowers, right? Like that you put on the door. It's like a decoration. Wreath. I don't know why. I think maybe because I used to read a lot of Shakespeare and this word appeared quite often. Wreath. And I loved it. But it has an R and a high E and a th, so it might be challenging for some. It has a W at the beginning in the spelling. But remember that every time you have a W and then an R, the W is pretty much silent. You don't pronounce it really. Wreath. Wreath. Round your list, both for the W and the R. Wreath. And lastly, I want to go over a few greetings. Just, you know, if you don't know what to say or what to write at the end of an email, then I'm just going to review some of them. And I asked my content developer to help me with that because I'm really not in shape when it comes to holiday greetings. So if you feel that one of them is really outdated, let me know. But we're gonna practice them anyway. I think all of them are pretty legit. Legit. Legit is a good word, too. Okay, so we talked about Happy Holidays. Happy holidays. Speaking of tone of voice, you want to do that with that pitch, right? Like friendly pitch. Happy holidays. Because if you say with a slow Happy holidays, Happy Holidays could sound a little creepy. Not that it means that you shouldn't do it. Just know that that's what might happen. And maybe that's exactly what you want to sound a little creepy and eerie. Holidays. Happy holidays. Oh, by the way, not related, but I just came across the word facetious. Facetious. And I said I have to share it with my audience because I love that word. It's such a good word. It has nothing to do with the holidays. So you can just skip the audio like 30 seconds down the road if you don't want to talk about the word facetious. But it's such a good word, and I feel that not a lot of people use it as they should. So to be facetious is to say something but without meaning it. So it's not sarcastic, because sarcasm has this really negative sense to it and sometimes mean. But facetious is like to tease someone and to say it to spite someone, but to not really mean what they're saying. And sometimes when you're being facetious, people may misunderstand you because they don't get that you're being facetious. So, for example, if I were to say, oh, I really love the holidays. Really. No, I'm being facetious. Right. So usually it also has this different tone to how we say things. Anyway, that was not related to Christmas or the New Year, but I just wanted to share it with you. Another good word is resolution, right? What we set out to do, do, or to change in our lives, and these are decisions that we're making. So, for example, I can say, my New Year's resolution is to really focus on my health and to eat healthy. Right? So that could be a resolution. Or to practice English every day or to work out more. Resolution. Re Z. It's a Z sound in a schwa. Re Z Lu oo as in food shin. Resolution. Okay, back to greetings, my friends. Best wishes for a wonderful year ahead. That's a little formal, I would say, but you can use it in writing. Best wishes for a wonderful year ahead. Best wishes for a wonderful year ahead. God knows we need this. A wonderful and healthy year ahead. Wishing you a wonderful holiday season. Wishing you a wonderful holiday season. I like this one. Wishing you a wonderful holiday season. And there's the greeting. Good tidings to you. Good tidings to you. Tidings is like news or recent news. So good tidings is like, I hope you get good news. And that's kind of kind and nice, too. May you have a great year. May you have a great year. May you. That's a polite way of saying, have a great year. May you have a great year. And of course, you can go a little more informal and say something like, have a great year, or just, happy New Year. Speaking of the new year, very soon I'm going to release a podcast episode with some motivation for the coming year when it comes to learning English, and also an episode about. About my year. So I always sum up my year at the end of the year and prepare for the next year. And this year is not going to be different. And, oh my God, it is different than the way I envisioned it at the end of 2019, because 2020 was not a very typical year, as you all know. So everything that I had planned had to change. And I'm not saying right now if it was for better or for worse, probably both, you know, depending on what I'm talking about. But I'm going to share my end of the year and my kind of, like, plans for the coming year here on the pot, and I hope that inspires you to also take a moment to sum up your year and to think about all your wins and achievements and great stuff that has happened to you, even though this year was challenging. And also, you know, to set intentions for what's coming next. Okay, so happy Holidays, my friends. Whether you celebrate the holidays or not, sometime, somewhere, there's a holiday somewhere. And since this podcast is Evergreen, whenever you're listening to it, there might be a holiday somewhere out there. Okay, Have a beautiful, beautiful rest of the day, and I will speak to you on the next episode. Bye.