Her/hair, can/can’t: 8 of the hardest pairs to pronounce EXPLAINED

Hey, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me and welcome to my classroom and my whiteboard. I love my whiteboard. As you can see on the board, we are going to talk about confusing pairs. And I actually asked my students what were the most confusing pairs that they struggle with, and they gave me a long list of different pairs. So I selected the most common ones and what I believe to be the most confusing ones, and here they are on my whiteboard. Now, of course, there are more confusing pairs in the world and specifically in English, but we're going to start with these. By the way, if you are new to my channel, then hello, my name is Hadar. I'm a non native speaker of English. I'm a pronunciation and fluency coach and I'm here to help you speak English with clarity, confidence, and freedom. If you want more resources to help you master your English, then check out hadarshamish.com or subscribe to my channel. All right, let's begin with the first pair. The first one is her versus hair. Now, first of all, let's talk about the distinction between the two. Her has a stir sound. Her. So you actually don't hear the vowel letter. Here you transition from the h to the r directly. Her. Her. And this is hair. Hair. Here you can hear the e sound. It's an r diphthong where you pronounce a full e and then you transition to the r. Ha. Now, the reason why it's confusing is, first of all, this is more challenging where you actually eliminate the vowel her. But also because of the spelling, you have the letter e there. So you would assume, especially people who come from languages where the spelling is phonetic, what you see is what you hear. In English, that's not the case. And this is why you expect to hear an e sound. But there isn't. Her. Her versus hair. The next one is word versus world. The good news is that the beginning is exactly the same. Were. And here's where it gets interesting. The O is not pronounced. Were. Were. So just like here, H to the R. Her. Her. Here we want to transition from the W to the R directly. Were. Were. Word. Word. Say it with me. Word. So from the W, you round your lips W. And then you transition to the R. Er. Were. Were. There is no o in the middle. Were. So the word word has that wr transition. And then a d word. Here you also have a dark L, an L that is produced in the back of a throat. There is a lot of tension here at the root of the tongue. Whirl. And then A D. D World. The reason why it's confusing is because a lot of times people don't get to the l and then they pronounce the word world as word. So the L is not fully pronounced. You want to imagine as if there are three L's here. World. And then pop the D. World. World. Let's compare word world. Take your time with the L until you're certain that you're pronouncing it and then get to the D word world. Good. Let's move on to the next one. Here we have the words can versus Can't. Can versus can't. Now, this pair is challenging on so many different levels, but I'm going to explain the difference between the two, so pay close attention. This word is a k sound, then the A as in cat, and then n K, A, n. But when the A as in cat, which is an open front vowel sound, appears before an N, what happens is that this changes a little bit to an sound and then something like a schwa. Can, Can. So you hear a transition from the K to the N through an s sound. Can, Can. However, this word is often reduced when it's unstressed in a sentence. It's not pronounced can as in yes, we can. In this case, it's stressed. Usually it's pronounced as can. Can. I can do it. I can go there. I can think about it. I can, can. So actually, what you hear is a very short, small sound between the k sound and the n. Kin. So this is how you pronounce this word. The positive. Can, can, or kin. Stressed and unstressed. This word is never reduced. So even if it's unstressed in a sentence, it's always going to have the pure vowel in it. And here we have again the A as in cat, that because of the N, actually changes to can. Can't. Now, I really popped the t here, and that is perfectly fine. Can't. So if you want to be clear, just pop the T at the end. Can T. Can T. But you might struggle with hearing the difference, because sometimes native speakers might not pop the T. The T after an n at the end of a word is usually a held t. And especially after an N, it almost feels like you are just stopping the N abruptly. Listen. Can't. Can't. Can. The stressed form can, can't. It's just a little more nasal and the N stops abruptly. And that is the representation, the phonetic representation of the t at the end. Again, can, can't, can, can't. But if you're Just starting out. And if you don't have a lot of experience with pronunciation work in English, please, please, please just pop the t at the end. Can't a lot of native speakers pronounce it like that? With a pop t, it is perfectly fine, and you'll feel a lot more clear. Okay? But when you're hearing. People expect to hear that nasal sound. Can't. When you hear the negative form. Also, when you hear the pure vowel, it is more likely that it's the negative form rather than the positive form, because this is usually reduced. I can do it. I can't do it. I can do it. I can't do it. Okay, now, of course, if you feel more comfortable, it is perfectly fine to say, I cannot. I cannot do it. Okay, if you want to be clear, I can't do it. I can't do it with that nasal stop. And I cannot do it. It's all good as long as you express your thoughts clearly and what you can or cannot do. All right, the next one is body versus buddy. Okay, Sometimes it's okay to confuse it. Sometimes it's not okay to confuse it. Depends on the context. So body has the ah, as in father sound body. So you need to drop your jaw ba and take your time. This is the primary stress body. Body. Now, you may hear this, but the D is like a flap D, so it sounds more like a sound body. Body. Now, it's okay to say body with a strong D, but if you're again, more experienced and more advanced in your practice, you can also think of the D and make it like really light, like a light tap body. Some of you may also want to think about it as a flap R. Sound body. Body. Okay? So even though there is an o here, it's not bo. It's a body body. Okay? The body of work. Or you have a strong body body. This is buddy. Buddy. This is a cup sound. A cup sound, also known as the stressed schwa. This is the schwa that we talked about. But a cup is always stressed. The jaw is a bit more open. The tongue is a little higher for the cup. B, B, Buddy body. Ah. The mouth is open. Buddy, body. Buddy body. Buddy body. Buddy, now you. Very good. Okay, let's move on to where, where and were. Where, where were. These are homophones, so they are pronounced the same. I deliberately put both of them here together so that it clarifies all confusion. But here we have the air diphthong, just like we have here. Hair. Wear hair. Where? Where? What are you going to wear? And where are you? Where. Where? Hair. And this is not where. Even though we have the letter E here, it's reduced just like in this word, her. So here we're going to transition from the W to the R. Were. That's it. Were. If it helps you, you can think about it as if you have a U sound here. Were. Were. Were. Where? Where? Were. So transition from the W to the R. Were. Where? Were. Does this sound familiar? Were. Word. Were. World. Can you hear the similarities? This word were is inside the word. Word. You just add a D at the end and you just add an ld at the end. World. Okay. It's all patterns. Okay. This triplet is often confusing because it really looks the same, except for the E, obviously. Right? And this is what makes it confusing. Now, these three words have completely different meaning. So this is quit. Quit. I'm going to quit my job. Quit. So we have a K sound, a W sound, an E, Que, que, que. And then a T. Qu? Now I pronounce it as a held T. So it's an abrupt stop of air. Quit. Quit. Now, of course you can pop the T. It's all good. Quit. Quit. Whether you pop it or you hold it, both are fine. We're focusing on the vowel here. Quit. This is quite. That is quite interesting, my friend. Quite. The beginning is the same W, but instead of I, you have I as in my quite. Quite. And then again a T. Quite or quite. Quit. Quite. Quit. Quite. Good. And lastly we have sh. Quiet. The beginning is the same. You got to be quiet to hear the difference between those words. K, Y. Just like here, qui. But here it's quite. And here it's qui. And then there's another syllable here. That's a schwa sound. It's not very clear. That's a schwa sound. And then a T. A healthy or regular T. Qu. Two syllables. One syllable. One syllable, two syllables. So we need to hear that distinction. Now here is something interesting that happens when you transition between the kwai and the ut, right? When you transition from here to here, what happens is that you hear an intrusive sound. The transition of the tongue from the A, the front vowel, to the neutral vowel, the schwa, gets the tongue to pronounce a Y sound. It's called an intrusive sound. So thinking about this y sound, as in yes, might help you pronounce it better. So actually, I'm going to write it like this. Quiet, Quiet, quiet, quiet. You have to be quiet or don't be quiet about it. Quiet. Do you hear the lt but you can pop it quiet. Quite Quit. All right, here we have want versus won't. Want, won't. And yes, I am popping the T. I have a lot of words with T's here. Want has the oz and father sound. Want, Want. If you keep it very closed. Want, want. What will happen is it's going to sound very similar, so be mindful of it. Want. Want. If you don't want to pop the T, this is how it's going to sound. Want, Want. This is won't, won't, Will not, won't, or won't, won't long. O as in go. So this is what we're focusing on right now. Want, Won't. Want, Won't. Want, Won't. Want, won't. Very good. Lastly, we have Tuesday versus Thursday. Tuesday, Tuesday or Tuesday. I'm going to pronounce both options. This is a strong T sound and actually it's an aspirated T, so it feels like it has a little bit of air there too. Too. Then you have a tense oo sound. Let's delete this for now. Two Z with a Z. Twos, twos, twos. Some people might even pronounce it as a ch sound. Choose, choose. It's up to you. Tuesday or Tuesday with a tense oo. You can also add a Y sound. Tu. Perfectly fine. However you want to pronounce it. You do. You two Z. Make sure it's a Z. And then day. Tuesday. Here we don't pronounce the oo sound. There is no oo sound here. There is an oo sound. Two like the number two. Here it's thir. We have a th sound. Voiceless th. This is the phonetic symbol f. And then it's a stir sound. So we transition from the th to the R. Thur. Just like in her or in were. Th to the R. Thur. Thur. Th. And then a Z sound. Thurs. Thur. I'm going to write the R here because it's an arc colored vowel. It's a stir sound. Thur. Thurs. Day. Tuesday. Thursday. All right, let's have a quick review. Her hair. Now you Word world. Can. Can't or can? Can't. Body Buddy. Where. Where were? Let's do it again. Where. Where were? And now quit quite quiet. Quit quite quiet. Want. Won't. Want, won't. Thursday. Tuesday. Thursday. All right, my friends, that's it for today. Let me know in the comments which one of those pairs is the most confusing one for you. And also if you have any additional pairs that you struggle with. Write them in the comments below as well so I can make another video answering or explaining those pairs, just like I did today. All right, thank you so much for joining me today in my classroom. And that's it. I hope it's eas. If you like this video, hit like and subscribe. And you can also sign up for my email list to get my weekly lessons to your inbox every single week, just go to hadar shemesh.com and sign up. That's it. Have a beautiful, beautiful rest of the day and I'll see you next week in the next video.