How to pronounce mirror | American English

2 Feb 2016 · 2 min

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1:50

This short YouTube tutorial (by Hadar Shemesh) teaches how to pronounce the word "mirror" in American English. The instructor breaks the word into parts: the initial /m/ plus a short /ɪ/ ("mi"), then the r-coloring where the tongue lifts, lips round, relaxes to a schwa, and returns to an r—often reduced in casual speech to a single long R (so "mirror" is pronounced like /ˈmɪɹər/ but often realized as /ˈmɪɹ/). The video gives example phrases ("Look in the mirror", "Mirror on the wall") and encourages practice.

Chapters

Hi, it's Hadar. And this is the accent's way, your way to finding clarity, confidence and freedom in English. Let's talk about the word mirror. Mirror. So although it may be threatening on the page with all these Rs and O in the middle. And what are we supposed to do with this O in the middle and all these Rs? So I'm going to give you a great tip on how to pronounce the word. But let's begin at the beginning. The mi syllable. Mi. Close your lips for an M and then shift to an as in sit vowel sound. Mi Mi. Then you round your lips, lift the tongue up for the R. The tongue goes up. The sides of the tongue are touching the insides of the upper teeth and the lips round. Then you relax it to a schwa sound. And then you lift it up again really quickly to another R. Mirror. Now, I know it's difficult. That's why I'm going to tell you. The R schwa R is usually reduced when you speak quickly to one long R. Listen. Mirror. Mirror. Alright, so instead of saying mirror, definitely no O sound there or not even mirror, which is the proper way with a schwa R, you just say mirror. Mirror. Look in the mirror. Mirror. Mirror on the wall. Who's the fairest of them all? Mirror. All right. Simple, right? Good. So go ahead and practice it and we'll end it here. That's it. That was quick. Right? Thank you for watching. I'll see you next week in the next video. Don't forget to subscribe if you haven't yet. Bye.