Pronunciation challenges - Tricky Transitions | Live English Class

Hello, everyone. What is up? Good to see you. Today we have a live class where we are going to talk about tricky transitions. So it's a live pronunciation class. And if you struggle with tricky transitions like the word world or through or texts or special or squirrel, then this is the class for you. So let me wait for everyone to join in and before that, let me ask you a question. What is one of the most challenging words for you to pronounce in English? I'm asking this because I want to show you how tricky transitions can create a challenge for a lot of you. Because I bet that a lot of the tricky words that you have that you struggle with pronouncing are words with tricky transitions. And if you. If we solve the tricky transition first, then it's going to make it easier for you to pronounce almost any word in English. Of course, if you've heard it before. Okay, so this is the title for today. Let me. Hold on, let me see if it can do like a nice split screen. And then I'm going to wait for you. Let's start with that. Tremendous. Okay, Tremendous. That's a tremendous word. Good. I guess the tricky transition here could be the tr. And here's a quick tip. Tr result in ch sound. And that's it. It makes it easier. Tremendous development. So a lot of. A lot of long words. Good. Now, before we get started, write your challenging word in the chat. And if we have time at the end, I promise I will teach you how to pronounce the words that are challenging for you, whether they have tricky transitions or not. Let me tell you one more thing that is really exciting. I have a live pronunciation masterclass coming up tomorrow and on Saturday and on Monday. So if you want to learn with me about pronunciation, if you want three steps to make your. Your pronunciation in English simple and clear, by all means, join the live class. It's absolutely free. So go to hadar shemish.commasterclass. so it's a free live class about pronunciation. I'm going to teach you my top strategies in the fluency three simple steps to make your pronunciation in English simple and clear. Not just so you can sound like a native. Because I believe that owning pronunciation in a language that you learn that is not your first language is key to sounding more confident, to feeling more confident, to feeling more expressive, to understanding how to tackle challenges, and also to just understand others better. So it really allows you to own the language and to also improve your. Your fluency in general, because it's all about fluency. And feeling like English belongs to you and pronunciation is definitely going to help you with that. I'm going to teach you how to do that again for free. I'm going to teach four live classes. You can just choose your preferred time. Go to this link Also, Christina from my team shared it in the chat the link and if you join me live, that means that you actually show up for the live class. You are going to get from me a gift, which is a list of the 100 most common conversational phrases with with a recording so you can practice along and drill it. We're going to tackle pronunciation connected speech reductions. You're going to get that for free when you join the live class. That is all also free. So just click the link below and join to learn about the three steps as well as to get this free gift that I have for you. Okay, good. So let's get started with. Great. Do you have a lot of great example words? I'm going to come back to them after I teach because some of the words that you mentioned here are going to be in today's class. Hold on. And I'm going to make it bigger so you can see it. Good. So in this training, you will learn what sound transitions are, why some transitions can be harder than others, and tricky transitions. So first of all, let's talk about this lesson is about tricky transitions. What are transitions? What do I mean when I say transitions? What are sound transitions? A sound transition is any transition from one sound to another, and some transitions are trickier than others. And specifically, we're talking about consonant transitions. A consonant is a stop sound, like, And we want to make sure that you know exactly how to pronounce any transition in English. Because if it's challenging, if you drop sounds, if you add sounds, it's going to affect your intelligibility, your clarity. Okay, now, why are some transitions harder than others? First of all, consonant transitions rather than vowel transitions can be harder for us because in our first language, some of them may not exist specifically in English. If we think of the thumb sound or we think of the R sound, if you don't have one or both sounds in your first language, if you don't have r or th, then pronouncing each sound in isolation can be challenging. Pronouncing both of them together like three or through can be even more challenging. Right? And I bet, let me know in the chat, do you struggle with throw words through three throughout throat? If yes, it's probably because it's the transition and some of these Sounds don't exist in your first language. Here are some transitions that I know are challenging for. For some of my students. Now, basically, it's a consonant cluster where you have two or more consonants at the beginning of a syllable or at the end of a syllable. A syllable is a unit in a word. Unique two syllables. Schedule Scripture texting, right? So we have usually 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 syllables in a word. And if within one syllable, you have more than one consonant, at the beginning day, you have one consonant, just the D. But stay. You have two consonants, but it's still one syllable day, one consonant, right? And stay, two consonants. That's a cluster. That's a transition. And that's when it can get tricky. So, for example, the word school, we have sk at the beginning. That's a transition, right? It's a cluster. And that might be challenging for some speakers. We'll talk about this one. Or throw thr. We already mentioned it. Now, when it comes to school, a lot of times I hear people adding a school. Spanish speakers, Brazilian, Portuguese speakers. So the reason why that happens is because you may not have this cluster in your first language. Maybe it's not legal to just start with a S sound School or Spain. And this is why people who speak those languages where an S and another sound at the beginning is just. It's just not something that happens. And then people just tend to solve it by adding a vowel, in this case, an S sound. Or, for example, if in your first language, you don't have the two clusters or the two consonants at the beginning. For example, Japanese speakers, where clusters don't exist at the beginning and mostly at the end, if it's not a nasal consonant, you might hear something like thorough adding a vowel in between. Thorough. Or just changing the structure, like throw. Changing the consonant. Now, when it comes to tricky pronunciation, you want to first practice each consonant on its own. So, for example, if we talk about the school, we want to identify the sound it starts, S, Okay? You want to isolate it to kind of like connect with the sound. Make sure you pronounce it in isolation and then the next sound. So you kind of like train your brain to understand what comes first, what comes later. And then you want to prolong each consonant slowly and then connect them together. Cool. School. And then you go a little faster. School, school, school. Same thing with the thr. You start with a th, right? You identify each sound, and then you connect them. Th. Th. And then you go a little faster. You put it in a word through 3th. Rote. Okay. You kind of like take your brain and your tongue by the hand. You can also pause between the consonants and gradually eliminate. Eliminate the pause, which is what I just did. Thorough. Throw, throw, throw. Right. Really taking your brain and your mouth by the hand, showing it how to make this transition. Okay, so the first tricky transition that we're going to practice is one that a lot of my students complain about, and that is the flap T and the R sound. The flap T or D only exists in American English, and it sounds something like this. We find it in words like get it. See the t, get it. Or activity, activity, activity. Literally, someone asked about this word. So the t at the beginning. Lita. Lita, literally. Attitude, Atta, atta, attitude. And this is the same sound that occurs that we pronounce when the D appears between two vowels. So a flap T is a T that appears between two vowels in unstressed syllables. But the D when it appears between two vowels in unstressed syllables is also pronounced as a sound. Riding. I mean, riding a motorcycle or bicycle or wedding. Right. Think about it. Wede re. So the D between two vowels in unstressed syllables is pronounced the same. Now, if. Let's say, someone might ask me, okay, what's the difference between riding a book and riding a motorcycle? So I'd say for the untrained ear and for most of you, it's practically the same. Sometimes people claim, and a lot of people do pronounce it, but it's very subtle when what changes is the length of the vowel before writing versus when there is a voiced consonant, the D, and writing when there is a voiceless consonant, it is so subtle that most people don't even notice the difference, and most people don't even pronounce the difference. So technically, treat it like the same sound. Exactly. This is like a very nuanced explanation for people who know a little bit more about linguistics and phonetics and phonology. But technically, the T and the D, they're pronounced exactly the same. Now, what happens when the flap T that sounds like an R, like a trilled R for a lot of speakers, if you have a trilled R in your language, so you might categorize it as an R. Right. For example, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Portuguese. So you might think of this sound as a trilled R, and then you might have another R that is the American R. Okay, These are two different sounds, but sometimes in your brain, they might be categorized as the same sound if you have a trilled R in your language. So this is why it could Be tricky. Also, it's a tricky transition, so this is why it's tricky. Let's talk about how to make it. For example, 40, what you want to do here. You want to pull the tongue in. And if you can think of more words with R and flap T or D or vice versa, flap T or D and then an R, write it in the chat. See if you recognize what those are. So 40, 40. 40. And let me just remove this for a little bit. For those who joined recently, if you're wondering what this. Just realized that I left it. I left it hanging. There is a link with the word masterclass. If you go to buy to this link hadarjemage.com forward/masterclass. You can join my live pronunciation class with three simple steps to make your pronunciation simple and clear. And it's absolutely free. And if you join, you get a free gift for me with 100 conversational phrases and recordings. So you can join. The link is also in the description, but for now I'll remove this link. So 40, you want to pull the tongue in for the R4 and remember what I said. Say each sound in isolation to first identify it. R. R. I deliberately don't pronounce the E sound after R.40. So you kind of like pull the tongue in and then you release it for the flap T. Again, you pull the tongue in for the R. Er, it's like a slingshot. You pull the tongue in and then you release it for the flap D. For the flap D, the tongue has to touch the upper palate really slightly. 40. Now if this is tricky, just make it sound like a light d. 40. 40. As long as it's light and it sounds like a D, you're good. 40, 40, 40. Just make it light. It's not necessarily 40. Not for D, not for D. 40. 40, 40. Party. Party. Who here struggles with these words or with these transitions? Party. Let me know in the chat. Party. Party. Slowly and then together. Party. Party. Next one. Say it out loud first to yourself. I'll drink some water in the meantime. Okay, now let's try together. Does it get all messed up in your mouth? Order here. It's also tricky because you have that additional R at the end order, flap D that sounds like a flap T. And then you pull it in back to the ring. Order, order, order. Let's do all three. 40. Party. Order. Very good. Let's do a few more hearty. 30. So from the th to the R, you just transition directly. Thir. Thur. Thir. 30. 30. And then quarter. Quarter. Quarter. That's one of the ways in which you can pronounce it. Okay, we ordered a hearty meal before the party. So let's say the words again. Ordered, hearty party. Again. Ordered, hearty party. Good. We ordered a hearty meal before the party. One more time. We ordered a hearty meal before the party. Good. The next transition we're going to talk about is the W to the R. Were. Were. Were. So here I want you to think of it as if you're going from the W. W. Here's what's tricky about this transition, and you can find it in words like worm or work. We'll go into those words in a second, but just let's talk about the transition. You start with a W, where lips are rounded. W. Now, your lips need to be rounded for the R as well. R. Now, it's a stir sound, which means it's kind of like a vowel where the R takes over. So the beginning sounds like er, as in urgent. Er. Just do this as if. Let's say, I'm asking you, how do you pronounce the R sound in English? R. Okay. That's the sound we're looking for. And then before that, we pronounce a W. R. Were. So look at my lips. They move from a W, where the lips are a little closer, were. To a little bit more open were. Right. So it's not where there isn't this opening. It's not wor. Right. There is no O even in words spelled with O, like word, W, R, W, R. Were. Now, what happens inside the mouth for the W? The tongue is down, like this. The back of the tongue is up. And then you lift it up for the R. Then you lift it up for the R, down for the W, up for the R. Lips are closed for the W. A little bit more open for the R. Were. Why is this important? If you lift the tongue up too soon, it's going to sound like this. Just like one big R. I wouldn't be able to hear the W at the beginning. Okay. If you don't keep your lips closed, were, you're gonna end up adding a vowel in between where or war. We don't want that because then you might end up pronouncing a different word without intending to do it. So were. Let's look at some words. Worm. Okay, so notice the beginning is the same. Were. Were. Worm. Were. Were. World. Right, Sorry. Word. Just a D word and then world. Here we have rld. So this is another tricky transition. Not just wr, but also so from the R, you want to bring your tongue up to touch the upper palate for the L. The tangent remains for the dark L. And then a D. D. World, World, world. Let's try a few more. Work. Worse and twirl a little different. Still a WR transition. Okay. Even though we have I, even though we have O in between, it doesn't matter because technically the sounds are W and r of the str sound. So work worse. Twirl. Not work. Not worse. No. Work worse. Twirl. Ready? Let's practice a fancy sentence. I learned at work that one word can change your world. If only it were that easy. I learned at work that one word can change your world. Your world. One more time. Please say it out loud with me. Okay. I can hear you. With a new technology, I can hear all of you repeating after me. It's AI. I learned at work that one word can change your world. Good. All right, as promised, let's practice the THR transition. Let's do it together. Right. Th. R. 3. A common challenge is that people tend to touch the upper palate with their tongue, and then it's like three. Three. Not a big deal. It's going to. You're still going to sound clear. In fact, there are. There's a group of native speakers who actually pronounce it with that small tap. Three. Okay. Not exactly like that. It sounds a little different, but with a slight tap. It's an allophone in English. But for non native speakers, especially if you're trying to kind of like, own your speech, I would recommend to identify the thumbnail and the R. Er, American or English R and practice this transition properly. Three. Three. Three. Throw. Throw. Throw through. Through. Through. All three. Three. Throw through. Three. Throw through. Good. Thrive, thrive, threat, thrill. Thrill. Thrive, threat, thrill, Thrive, Threat, thrill. Very good. Great job. Okay, let's take a minute. Let me just comment on some of the comments. Comment on the comments. So, first of all, Armando, thank you so much. Yes, it is a live class, and you are live right now with me tagging your comments. So thank you so much. And Joelle, thank you so much. You saw both your comments. I'm glad you enjoy the class. I'll answer some questions in a second. Just so you know, if you're watching this on Facebook, if you write the word class in the comments, you will get a link to your inbox on messenger with a link to sign up to my masterclass. So if you want, you can just write the word class. There is an automation just for those of you who got Coincidentally, a link right now, just so you know, there is an automation that triggers that. If you write the word class, you get a link. So if you want to join the class, just write class and get a link. To sign up, if you're on YouTube, you'll have to go to hadar shemesh.com forward/class. Now it's forward slash Masterclass. This is available for the beginning of May, so if you're watching this after, it's no longer relevant. But if you click the link, you'll find other surprising resources. So definitely go check it out. And. And in the live class, in the masterclass, it's a live pronunciation masterclass. I'm going to do a few things. First, I'm going to teach you the three things that are going to help you make your English pronunciation simple and clear so your pronunciation and your English would not get in your way anymore. You'll learn how to sound more effortless, how to get into the right mindset if you want to improve your fluency and pronunciation. And also some tips and tricks that I only teach my students. So I'm going to teach that in the live class. And if you join me live, you will get a free PDF with 100 of the most common, commonly used phrases in a recording of me saying them, focusing on connected speech and reductions and intonation. So you can just practice it. It can get into your system so you can use them more confidently. You'll get that for free when you join live. So if you're on YouTube, go to hadar shemish.commasterclass if you are on Facebook, just write the word class and get a link to join. And it's absolutely free. And I'm going to teach it tomorrow and I'm going to teach it on Saturday, and I'm going to teach two classes on Monday. So you have a few options. Okay, let's move on to practicing. He was thrilled to throw the ball through the through the hoop. He's not prepared for this. He was thrilled to throw the ball through the hoop. I want to say loop, but it's not a loop. It's a hoop, like a basketball. He was thrilled to throw the ball through the hoop. Focus on those transitions. You got this, my friends. He was thrilled to throw the ball through the hoop. One more time. He was thrilled to throw the ball through the hoop. Very good. Well done. Perfecto. S clusters. Okay, so if you add a vowel before S clusters, like special or ski or street, maybe you say a special ski, a street, then this is for you. Okay, when we have words starting with an S, we do not add a vowel at the beginning. So try to start with an S. You got this. You already know how to do this. You're just not used to doing it at the beginning of words. So s. Just start with this. What. What is the sound of a snake? S. Special. Sp. Special. Special. Special. Squirrel. Square. Three consonants. That's quite a cluster in the beginning, right? S, K, W. That's a tricky transition. Don't start with an S sound. Not a squirrel. No. Squirrel. And then an R sound. Right? Squirrel. Squirrel. Isolate each sound. S, T, R, str. Not estra. Now, prolonging the S is going to help you here with that. Str. Str. Structure. Structure. Smile. Not a smile. Not smile. Smile. Smile. Splash. Splash. Strategy. Strategy. Let's do all three. Smile. Splash. Strategy. Smile. Splash. Strategy. The squirrel. Let me make it bigger for you. The squirrel had a special strategy to find food. The squirrel had a special strategy to find food. One more. The squirrel had a special strategy to find food. All right, that is it. Before I answer questions, I want to remind you what we did in this short but effective training. We. We talked about what sound transitions are, and we talked about the fact that it's usually clusters more than two consonants at the beginning or the end of a syllable. We talked about why some transitions can be harder. And we said that it's mostly because you don't have it in your first language. At least one of those consonants or this transition is not possible in your first language. That's when it becomes like, speak. And then we practice tricky transitions. We talked about the flap tr. We talked about the thr. We talked about wr, and we talked about S clusters at the beginning of words. That is it. Well done, my friends. You did it. Congratulations. Okay, I hope some of these transitions are a little easier for you. And here's the link again, if you want to take it further and join my live class tomorrow on Saturday and on Monday, it's going to be on a special platform, so it's not going to be on YouTube. And you'll be able to interact with me, ask me questions. And if you join live, you'll get my 100 phrases PDF with audio recording. So it's really cool. You should definitely check it out. Broader is incredibly difficult for me to pronounce. Okay, so let's talk about the word broader. Broader. So here we can also consider the flap D and R transition as a tricky one, because the beginning. Think about it. It's just bra, bra. In American English, you can just pronounce it as the oz and father. Bra. Some dialects will pronounce it with a more rounded sound, Bra. But it's fine whatever you choose, as long as it's not bro or something like that. Bra. Then you bring the tongue up quickly for the D, and you pull it in quickly for the r. Br. It's like the ending of water. Greater, Broader. And if that's difficult, then just make it stronger. D. Broader, broader. It's still going to be clear. Also notice that English is not. The rhythm of English is really unique, and stressed syllables are usually longer than unstressed syllables. So in this case, bra is going to be shorter than der. Okay, so that is also important. 80%, 20%. Da. Da. Broader. Broader. If you're trying to pronounce both of them the same broader, then it's going to end up. You're going to end up adding vowels that are not there. So what is the difference between broader and brother, as Trang asks or mentions here, this one starts the same, but instead of going into bra. Bra. We go into a cup sound. Bruh, bruh. A cup sound is like a schwa, a reduced vowel that is stressed. So the mouth is a bit more open, and it's always stressed bruh, bruh, bruh. And then we go into the th, and then an R. It's not a D. It's not a flap. T. It's not brudder, but brother. Brother. The tongue has to be out, not brudder. Brother. Let's pronounce both words. Broader, brother. Broader. Brother. And water has the same ending. Water. Good. Okay, how to pronounce the. The R sound? Bring the tongue up. Listen. It's. Think of it like a combination of a W sound and. And just like a. Think of it. Okay, I'm gonna. I'm gonna help you. Think of it as from a different perspective. If you want to imitate a dog, a barking dog, I don't know how you do it, but if you kind of like move away from the language and don't think about sounds. If I had to make a sound of a dog to bark, really, or to growl, then I would do something like this, right? So try to do that. Just be childish for a second and pretend like you're playing with a kid and be like, ruff, ruff. Making that sound. That is an R sound. How do we get there? The tongue pulls in the sides of the tongue. Touch the sides of the teeth. R. The tip of the tongue doesn't touch anything, so don't bring the back of the tongue up to touch something. Don't bring the tip of the tongue to touch anything or no, it's just the tongue sitting there in the middle. See how my camera is moving? It's weird. And then you bring it kind of like to the middle and you can hold it out. Sides of the tongue, touch the sides of the teeth. Tip of the tongue, not touching anything. Pull the tongue in, little bit of tension round your lips. You can also take it from the J sound and you pull it in until it doesn't touch anything round your lips. Okay, Let me see. Rakesha says hello. I actually know English, but it is in my native language. So I feel difficult having conversation with an English speaker for that. We may have several reasons. One, maybe pronunciation maybe are used to a different pronunciation that what the native speakers expect. And then there are communication issues like maybe you don't understand them, they don't understand you, they use reductions, you use different sounds. And then you might get asked, asked questions like, what was that? Can you repeat yourself? So even if you know English really well, that can really, really reduce your confidence if you feel not understood. So this is why working on your pronunciation is so important, because it can help you bring confidence. And if people don't understand you, you know what to do to change that. Okay. Because then you're more, you're still in control if people don't understand you and you know what you're saying. So it's not the English that is the problem. You might feel very, very helpless. And this is why, and I talk about it a lot in the masterclass, I give you tips and tricks on how to do it. So make sure you check it out. Had come forward Slash Masterclass. If you're on Facebook, you can just write the word class, class and you'll get a link to sign up. If you just joined, maybe you haven't heard it yet. So you can, you can do it. So going back to the challenge, so it could be pronunciation and then it's not about improving your vocabulary or improving your grammar. It's really about making sure that you understand what is expected, what is the expectation, the pronunciation expectation in a way that, and then you kind of like fit into that. Now of course you can say, well, they need to improve their listening abilities as well. True. But you can't control what other people do or how they think or how they listen to you. You can only control what you do. And if you struggle with being understood, what can you do to improve so that you can improve your circumstances so that you can improve your confidence so you can get what you want right at the end of the day. You know, of course it would be ideal if everyone understood all of the accents. Unfortunately, people are very limited and if you don't sound like them, they might have harder time understanding you. The problem is not you. And there is nothing wrong with having a non native accent as long as you're clear. The moment you are not clear, you get in your way. Maybe you add sounds, you drop sounds, you speak in a certain way with certain rhythm that is very different. You might come across some challenges that will affect how you communicate with people. Your confidence, your fluency. And it will prevent you from getting what you want and doing the things that you want. And that is the thing, like English is not for the sake of English. English is for the sake of getting the things that you want and love and, and tapping into your full potential and feeling like you've, you know, you did it right. Okay, More words. Oh, I had one more thing to say. Sorry. I. This is thing. This is something that I talk about a lot about this. It's also mindset. So it's not just pronunciation, it's also knowing that no matter how you sound, you are an equal. If you approach a conversation feeling like they're better than you or they might have negative thoughts about you because of your English, maybe you've had negative experiences and that kind of like colors every future experience that you have. This is something that you need to tackle, but not from the perspective of pronunciation or English, but from the perspective of mindset and really recognizing the thoughts that limit your confidence and your ability to communicate fully and working on your thoughts and the way you think about your English and how you sound in English because you are an equal and you deserve to be heard. And you, you can take your time communicating and it's okay that you don't sound like a native speaker, right? And if you make mistakes, nothing bad is going to happen. No one's going to think that you are not intelligent. And if they do, it's their problem because you're speaking a second language. There are all these things that you can say to yourself to remind yourself that you are okay and you are enough and your English is enough. And that that shouldn't affect how you feel when you communicate because when you feel bad or afraid or nervous when speaking to native speakers or like it's difficult, it's going to affect your ability to stay present and focus in the conversation. Your fluency, because you're going to be thinking about your English and how you sound and your mistakes, and you won't be thinking about what you have to say. So it's going to affect. It's going to end up causing you to sound worse than what you could sound like. Right. You might end up making mistakes, getting stuck just because you're thinking about your English or feeling like it's difficult. So your thoughts affect your feelings and they affect your ability to show up and the actions that you take and whether or not you respond or how you listen. And that is critical. So in the master class, by the way, if I haven't talked about my masterclass just yet, we talk about mindset and we talk about why it's so important when working about on pronunciation or when trying to communicate confidently in English. What about the word opportunity? I'm sorry, I had institute and institution. I'll do that next. Opportunity. Ah. Ah. Ah. Just an open ah. Ah. Per. Per. Per. Upper two tense. Ooh. That's the primary stress that's going to be longer than the rest. Nuh. Schwa. No. I D, Flap. T. I. Nari. Nari. N, Na. Di. You can also say na ti. Na. Ti. If you pronounce it as a T. That's okay. Opportunity. In longer words, focus on the primary stress. Going to save you. Opportunity. Opportunity. Opportunity. Okay, where was that comment? Institute. Primary stress on the first syllable. Ins. Tute. Institute. Tut. Tut. The last T is a health T, so you don't have to pronounce it. It's like a abrupt stop of air. Inst. It's not too. It's toot. And you can pop the T at the end. Institute. It's also okay. Institution. Tution. Tution. Insta. Insta. Like, let me. Let me check your insta account. Instagram. Insta. Insta. Institution. Insta. Tution. Institute. Good. Okay. Obi says I easily forget the next word. I should, should have r or not. So I end up making mistake in the word that shouldn't have art. Wait, I think you might have written a previous comment. Maybe not. Let me see if I understand this. I really forget if the next word should have an R or not. So I end up making mistakes in the words that shouldn't have r. You know what I think you're talking about? I think you're talking about British pronunciation where the R is dropped. Correct me if I'm wrong, but sometimes in American English where the R appears. No, in British English, where the R appears at the end of words, you often drop It. So for example, sugar in American English would be sugar. Or stir would be st. Or urgent would be urgent or car would be ca. And then sometimes there is like this over compensation where you know that you drop the R and then you start adding it. What I would do if that is the case, if I'm answering the correct question, is to start monitoring where that happens. It probably happens for specific words. So it doesn't happen all the time. It probably happens in specific words and it probably happens with specific vowels before. So once you identify where exactly the challenge. This is what I do with my students. I really try to identify, you know, where the challenge is because there's always a common ground. There's always that one vowel that makes it more difficult or one transition or, you know, specific cases or just specific words. And when you identify the rule, it doesn't feel like a problem. You're like, oh, it's only in these words. And then you can just practice it. And then that's like the 20% that get you 80% of the results, right? The Pareto principle, where you don't have to practice all words with R or all words ending with a vowel, but just the specific words or transitions or vowels where you have where this happens. Okay, I think we are about to wrap up. Let me see if any. Okay, what about the word luxury? Luxury. You can pronounce it both with a G or a K. Lug or luck. Start with a luck. Sh. Re. Luxury. Luxury. Or with a G sound. Lug. Luxury. Okie dokie. I think that is it for now. Okay, one. One last one. How to pronounce the word exactly. Exactly. Is the T silent here? That's a good question. Yes and no. So you can pronounce exactly, but it's a healthy. So you don't really hear it exact. Exactly. The T is held so you don't hear it. It's just exactly. But that's kind of like old school pronunciation or really well maintained pronunciation. Most people in American English pronounce it as exactly. Exactly. T is not pronounced exactly. Exactly. Sackly. Sometimes not even the exact, but sackly exactly. Okay, so exactly. Exactly. This is how I learned to pronounce it in my speech classes when I was in acting school. God forbid I would drop the T here. This is not how people usually pronounce it. Exactly. Exactly. That was a fun one to end with. Okay, you guys, thank you so much for joining my live class about tricky transitions. I hope this was helpful. If you joined us at the end, then you can just watch the replay, it's going to be on my YouTube channel in a few. In an hour or so when it gets uploaded. But also remember that if you're watching this live or around the end of April, beginning of May, I'm going to have four live master classes. One on Wednesday, April 30, then on Saturday, whatever date that is, the beginning of May, May 3rd, May 2nd, and then Monday, the following, May 3rd. You're going to see it on the page. Okay, now I challenge you to go to the page. I'm really bad with dates. Just know tomorrow, because tomorrow is the day after today, and I know today is the 29th. Okay, so I have these four live classes. They're absolutely free. I'm going to teach you my method for making your pronunciation simple and clear. It's going to be a lot of fun, a lot of examples. But we're not just going to talk about pronunciation, but also mindset. How to make your speech effortless, how to understand why you get stuck, how pronunciation connects to fluency. So all of that good stuff. And if you join live, you will get my 100 conversational phrases, a list of them, and a recording so you can practice connected speech and intonation and pronunciation. So it's really, really useful. And only those who join live will get it. So you need to sign up for the live class, and then you'll be able to download it when you join Live. But don't just come for the. For the gift. Come for the class. It's going to be really, really good. And at the end, I'll tell you a little bit more about how you can work with me if you'd like. So that is also exciting if you stay until the end. Okay, my friends, have a beautiful rest of the day. Take care and I'll see you soon.