How to pronounce symbol | American English

20 Nov 2019 · 2 min

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1:58

A short instructional YouTube video by Hadar Shemesh teaching how to pronounce the word "symbol" in American English. The speaker gives a step-by-step phonetic breakdown: start with an S sound, use a relaxed short-i vowel as in "sit" (sim), close lips for the final M of the first syllable, then produce a B + reduced vowel (schwa) + dark L for the second syllable ("-bul"). The speaker emphasizes the dark L (back/tongue-body tension) which can make an O-like quality but is not a full vowel. The video ends with practice instructions (say it ~10 times, make a sentence and post it in comments) and standard outro prompts (like/subscribe).

Chapters

Hey, what's up? It's hadar. And this is the accent. Suede. Today we are going to talk about how to pronounce the word cymbal symbol. To pronounce this word, you begin with an S sound. S. And then you move on to the relaxed I as in sit, si se, so it's not seen. But Sim, Drop your jaw, relax your lips. Sim. Sim. Close your lips for an M. Sim. The second syllable is a B, B, Schwa, and L. Bull. The L@ the end is really dark. The O is a reduced vowel, so you don't really hear anything there. And you basically move from the B to the l directly. Bull. Bull. Because of the dark L, it almost sounds as if there is an O sound there. But notice that it's not symbol, but it's just that B sound with this tension that you create in the back of your throat or the bottom of your tongue. Bull. Bull. You don't even have to lift the tip of the tongue to touch the upper palate for the l at the end. Symbol. Symbol. Okay, so now I encourage you to say this word about 10 times out loud and then come up with one sentence that has the word symbol in it and write it in the comments below so we can all practice together. Okay, that's it. Thank you so much for watching. If you like this video, don't forget to like it and to subscribe to my channel. And if you have other words that are difficult for you to pronounce, make sure that you write them in the comments below because that's how I can create new videos for you. How about that? Have a wonderful week and I will see you next week in the next video. Bye.