YouTube tutorial (spoken transcript) by Hadar Shemesh explaining American English pronunciation differences for the words “coffee” and “cafe.” The speaker demonstrates articulatory details (jaw position, tongue placement, lip rounding), prosody (syllable length, aspiration, rhythm), and gives practice phrases and tips for non-native speakers, contrasting American rhythms with Romance-language realizations.
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Hey, guys, it's Hadar. Today we're going to talk about the words coffee and cafe. Two of my favorite concepts in this world. Coffee and cafe. The idea for this video came from Dimitri. I was sitting at a cafe this morning, and I was trying to come up with ideas for today's shoot, and I went completely blank. I couldn't think of a good word to practice. So. So I went on my Facebook page and asked the people for recommendations for a video. And Dimitri said that since you're sitting at a cafe drinking coffee, it's only a natural choice to make a video about this. So, Dimitri, you're absolutely right. And here we go. Now, the word coffee starts with a k sound, and then the O that is usually associated with this neutral o sound by non native speakers is probably pronounced as ah. Ah. It's actually the ah as in father. Okay? So to make this sound, you want to drop your jaw, relax your lips, pull the tongue back a bit, create a lot of space inside your mouth. Okay? Caw. Coffee. Coffee. One more thing. The k sound at the beginning of words before a vowel sound, since it's a stop sound that is voiceless, is aspirated. So it feels like there is a little h after coffee. Coffee. So it's not coffee. Coffee, Coffee. And the first syllable is longer than the second one. Coffee. Let's get some coffee. Okay, now, some speakers may pronounce it with a more rounded sound, Coffee. Okay, so you see that I round my lips just a bit. But what I usually tell my students is that try to make a pure ah as in father sound if your immediate intention is to make a neutral o sound. And the result is probably going to be something between an ah and an o, because we can, like, merge the two sounds, and then the result would be a perfect O, as in daughter. Right? Coffee. Coffee. Now, the word cafe has a very unique rhythm. Okay? And this is what I want you to focus on when pronouncing this word cafe. This word is very common and exists in many languages, usually pronounced with a neutral and a cafe. Right? But in American English, the beginning syllable is the a as in cat. So you want to take the time and drop your jaw a lot when you're making it. Ca as in cat. Okay. Ca. The second syllable is a as in day. It's not a pure sound. Cafe. No, actually, in English, you don't have words that end with a pure sound. It has to close into this nice diphthong. A as in day. Cafe. Now, to be able to make those two sounds you have to stretch the syllables a little more than you're used to, okay? Because if you're trying to fit it into the rhythm of the word, the way you say it in your own language, let's assume that you're saying something like cafe. Okay? I'm talking about most Latin languages, like French and Italian and Spanish and Portuguese. So if you try to fit it into the rhythm of the neutral pronunciation, then you'll never be able to make the actual sound because you have to open your mouth wide and to make a long diphthong at the end. Okay? So it's about stretching the two syllables. Ca. Fay. It's like you're saying it in slow motion. Cafe. Now, since you have time for yourself when you go to a cafe, you want to have time for yourself when you say this word. Let's go to a cafe and get some coffee. Cafe. Coffee. Okay, good. I really like this video. So go get some coffee and practice these two words with your friends and your family and your kids, if you have kids. And don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel as you're practicing. Thank you for watching, and I will see you next week in the next video. Bye. Coffee. Can I get some coffee, please?
