A short YouTube pronunciation tutorial by Hadar Shemesh explaining how to pronounce the word "national." The speaker breaks the word into phonetic parts (na- + -sh- + -nul), contrasts the common mistaken vowel ("neigh" vs. "na"), and gives articulatory guidance (jaw/tongue position) and an example sentence: "It's a national holiday."
How to pronounce the word National Na tional. It's a national holiday. You start with an n sound, then the a as in cat na. Now, a lot of times I hear people pronouncing it as neigh. A as in day. So listen to the difference. A na, na. Drop your jaw, lower your tongue. The front part of the tongue is low, the back part of the tongue is high, as in cat nah. And then the second part is sh. So the t becomes a sh sound. And then we have a schwa. Na sh. And then null, an n sound and a dark l in between you have a schwa. You don't really hear it, so think of it as if you're connecting the n to the dark l. Nacional. It's a national holiday.
Read Out Loud with me! Dare to Lead by Brené Brown | Pronunciation & Vocabulary practice
