A short American-English pronunciation lesson by Hadar Shemesh focused on the word "vulnerable." The speaker breaks the word into sounds (V, a neutral vowel as in "cup", a dark L, N, schwas, and R), emphasizes articulatory details (bottom lip contact for V vs rounded lips for W, jaw/tongue positions), notes that the first syllable is stressed and higher in pitch, and concludes with repetition and practice advice.
Chapters
Hey guys, it's Hadar. And this is the accents way. Purushutam asked me to talk about the word vulnerable. Now, I do not want you to feel vulnerable when saying this word. And this is why I'm gonna explain to you how to say this word clearly and effortlessly. So let's begin. We begin with a V sound. To make the V sound, you bring the bottom lip to the top teeth. You release air with sound. Now this sound is very simple for some speakers, but for others, hi Russian speakers. The sound is sometimes confused with a W sound. So you may say something like vulnerable W instead of vulnerable. Now here's the difference. To make the V sound, you gotta have contact. So the bottom lip must touch the top teeth. You have this friction sound and you feel the vibrations and it's tickling a little bit. To make the W sound, you don't. You just round the lips and there is no contact. Your teeth are not involved. W. So you do want to have contact here. V. V. Now you shift to the. As in cup. Love. Fun. A very neutral vowel. It's also considered to be a stressed chua. The tongue is, you know, pretty relaxed in the center of the mouth. The jaw drops, the lips are relaxed. But then you have an L sound and this is a dark L. So it colors the vowel before val and it actually sounds like you're putting a neutral sound or the o as an all before the l sound. Vol. Val. Then you shift to an N sound and a schwa Volume N and then another schwa. R and then another schwa. Bull. Neurable. NER able. Vulnerable. Now, since the cup sound and the schwa are not that different, then the jaw is pretty much in the same place for the entire word. Vulnerable. Vulnerable. The emphasis is different because the first syllable is more stressed. So I. I engage more energy here. Val. It's a little higher in pitch than the rest of the syllables that are soft. Lower in pitch and shorter. Vulnerable. I'm feeling very vulnerable today. Vulnerable. All right, good. Say this word slowly a few times until you get used to the new pronunciation. Practice it over and over and over and then use it in a sentence. That's the only way to make a change and to really get this new word into your system. Alright, so I hope this answers your question and I hope it helps you guys as well. Alright, so that's it. Thank you for watching. Please share this video with your friends if you liked it and come on over to my website to check it out and get more great content. Have a great week and I'll see you next week in the next video. Bye.
