Episode 94 of the Influency Podcast (host Hadar Shemesh) teaches listeners how to pronounce Israeli actress Gal Gadot's name with an Israeli/Hebrew accent. Hadar gives phonetic guidance — 'Gal' has a vowel like the 'u' in 'cup' and a light, non-dark final L; 'Gadot' uses a pure short O and an audible T — contrasts these with common American English renderings, and praises Gal Gadot's authentic, resilient approach to speaking English as a non-native speaker. The episode also contains a personal intro (Instagram was disabled and restored) and a CTA to follow Hadar on Instagram.
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Welcome to the Influency Podcast. I'm Hadar, and this is episode number 94. And today I'm going to teach you how to pronounce Gal Gadot with an Israeli accent.
Hey.
Hey, everyone. Welcome back. Thank you so much for tuning in to another episode of the Influency podcast. And I've been away for a while. I just checked, and the last time we released an episode was on January 1st on how to pronounce resolutions. And then we took a week off the team and I. Because New Year's and stuff. But the thing is that not only that, I've been away here, my Instagram account was disabled for almost a month, and I just got it back, and I feel like I've been abroad for like a month. And I'm now back, you know, with a pod and with this intro and with Instagram. So I'm very excited to be back. That's it. I just wanted to say that. And if you're listening to my podcast for the first time, then I'm not crazy. And this episode is going to be about how to pronounce Gal Gadot. But every now and then, I like to give you a little update on my life in the podcast intro. So this was it. And the reason why I'm excited about today's episode is because Wonder Woman 1984 is out. I haven't seen it yet because it's not playing here in Israel, but I do want to join the party. And the way for me to do that, you know, that is through pronunciation. And since Gal Gadot is an Israeli actress, I figured it's time for people to really know how to pronounce her name, because, you know me, I'm all about pronunciation. And it's also going to be fun to kind of reverse engineer everything that I've been doing since we've met, which is talking about how to speak with American pronunciation or how to use the sounds of English. And now I'm telling you, no, scratch that, let's do something differently. But this episode is a little deeper because it's also about the importance of the pronunciation of someone's name. And, you know, I have a long story with that, because first, when I was 21, I changed my name so it's easier for people to pronounce, so it doesn't sound so foreign. And if you've been here for a while, you know the story. And if you don't, then go back to episode number two and listen to my story. But even when I introduce myself I don't see. Say it the way I pronounce my name in Hebrew, because in Hebrew, my name is pronounced Hadar. Hadar. Notice the at the end. And I always introduce myself as Hadar. And I've gotten used to it because that's truly now my name in English. But, you know, it's exactly the opposite of what I'm talking about in this episode. And yes, it may seem a little inconsistent, but that's life. Life is sometimes inconsistent, and I'm sharing that with you right now. But to be honest, another reason why I wanted to talk about Gal or Gao or Gal, how native English speakers call her is not just because of the pronunciation of her name. That's not really the reason why I wanted to create this episode, because I actually really wanted to talk about what makes her so awesome when it comes to English, because English is not our first language. As you know, she's a Hebrew speaker, and she had to overcome some struggles and some barriers. And I want you to recognize what has worked for her and allowed her to be where she's at. And because I know that it wasn't easy, and I wanted to take the time and to acknowledge that and to show my respect and appreciation for her journey and also to use that as a source of inspiration for all of us. Okay, so let's go ahead and listen to today's episode. Oh, and by the way, if you are not following me on Instagram, it's activated and ready for you to chat. So come on over to Hadar Accentsway and. And send me a dm. So I know you're coming from here from the podcast. Okay, so let's roll the episode.
Hey, everyone, it's Hadar. Thank you so much for joining me today. I'm going to teach you how to pronounce the name Gal Gadot.
Gal Gadot.
Wow, they are good.
So who is Gal Gadot?
Gal Gadot.
Gadot. Gadot. That's good.
The Gadot can be better.
So Wonder Woman 1984 is out, and a lot of people are speaking about Gal Gadot. But this is not how you pronounce her name. This is how English speakers pronounce her name. So this is what I'm here for. I'm going to use my Israeliness to tell you how you really pronounce her name. And then I'm going to talk about the things that make Gal so awesome and inspirational when it comes to English fluency and pronunciation. So stay tuned. Let's begin with the first name, Gal. Now, here's the thing when you say someone's name, what you're likely to do is transform the sounds that exist in their native language and in their name into sounds that you're more comfortable and that exist in your native language. This is why a lot of English speakers say gal instead of gal. Or sometimes they might say galaxy. So the G sound is the same. Great. Check. And then we have the sound in Hebrew. Very simple. Actually, it's closer to the as in cup in American English. So the beginning of the word gal actually sounds like gut. I have a gut feeling. Right. The spelling doesn't help because a lot of people see the a in the name, and then they think, okay, it's probably A as in cat gal or ah as in father gal. But no, it's right there in the middle. So you want to keep your jaw more closed. The tongue is flat, the lips are relaxed. G, G, G. Very straightforward. And then the L, The L in American English is a dark l when it's at the end of the word. That means that when you pronounce the l, you also raise the back of the tongue and. And you restrict something there in the back that creates this weird sound. We call it weird sound. Native speakers just call it an l at the end of the word. Gal, gal or gal, gal, gal. However, in Hebrew, we don't have that. It's a very simple, clear L where you bring the tip of the tongue up, and that's about it. La la gal, gal. So it sounds a little lighter and a little shorter. Gal, gal, gal, gal. Then the last name is Gadot. Gadot. The beginning is very much the same as in gal. Ga, Ga. Gadot. Czech, you already know how to pronounce that. The second syllable is dot dot. While in American English, there is no pure O sound. There is either o as in go or ah as in honest O. Ah. This is why most people pronounce it as godot. But in Hebrew, it's a pure O. O. So it's kind of like the beginning of o, but then you stop right after the beginning. It's like, it's also super short. And then the T in English, it's a hell T, which means there is no T there. It's just an abrupt stop of air. Gadot. Right. You don't hear anything there. Gdot. That doesn't happen in Hebrew. A T is a T is a T is a T. Gadot. T. It's not overly pronounced. Gadot. No, but it's not hidden or swallowed like most people pronounce it. Gadot. In Hebrew, There are only five vowels in comparison to English that has between 16 to 18 vowels depending on the dialect. So this is why we want to reduce it. There's a lot less jaw movement. Everything is super chill and relaxed. It's kind of like we don't want you to read our lips when we speak. Now, let me share with you why I absolutely love Gal Gadot. And it's not just because she's a rock star and she's like one of the biggest movie stars ever. And she's also Israeli and she is very much herself. Like, she's so charming and her personality always shines through, but not because of that. I love her because of her English journey. Because what is so unique to her is that she never tried to hide the fact that she's a non native speaker. And she never used it to stop her from achieving her goals and for showing up fully like herself, authentically and genuinely. And whenever she faced a struggle. And I've seen many interviews where she said something wrong or people didn't understand her and instead of feeling self conscious about it, she simply laughed it out. She said, oh, no, it's my English or no, that's not how I pronounce it, or something like that. And she stepped into her power and she said to herself, this is not going to stop me. But Godlin, Amy, you guys got to be really great friends on this, right?
Oh my God, we really did. We, we. Sorry, my English. No, we had a slumber party. It's a foot.
Foot.
Like foot or food foot. You said foot, so that means is it a foot you eat foot or foot with toes. Oh, foot is a foot.
And even though I'm sure that inside herself she might have thought, you know, I should know better by now, or this or that, and what are people going to think? She never let it stop her, which I think is so incredibly important because as speaker of a second language, you there's always going to be a struggle and there's always going to be something. The question is, are you letting it stop you on your way to your success? And I can tell you that she absolutely did not. And when she did face a struggle, she simply made it her own and she let it go easily or actually made fun of it, which is always, always, you know, like such a, such a beautiful gift to be able to laugh at yourself and not to make a big deal and not to take it personally.
I don't want to. Bob Sponge.
Bob SpongeBob. Bob Sponge.
As a gig geek.
Didn't get the joke.
So that's it. Practice the pronunciation of the name or you don't have to. You can also work on your Israeli accent. Dm me. If you want more information about how to speak with an Israeli accent, you can find me at Hadar Accentsway Instagram. And in the meantime, I hope you enjoyed it. It was a little different than what I usually do, but I think it was fun, at least for me. Thank you so much for watching and I'll see you next week in the next video.
