Pronunciation coach Hadar Shemesh works with Alanis, from Honduras, on two words: 'almost' and 'eleven.' For 'almost,' Hadar identifies jaw tension making the /l/ unclear and the /oʊ/ vowel too tight. For 'eleven,' he suggests starting with a schwa sound to ease the transition.
Hi Hadar, my name is Alanis. I am from Honduras, but I've lived in the US for almost 11 years now. Hi Alanis, you are fantastic. Let's talk about two words that I noticed the pronunciation. The first one is 'almost' and the other one is '11'. I've lived in the US for almost 11 years now. So I'm hearing 'almost', 'almost', 'almost', so the L is not distinct and also the O as in 'go' is a little tense, a little tight, and in general I think even even though your sounds are so good, there is a little bit of tension here in the jaw, so all the open vowel sounds and the diphthongs are not fully pronounced, and they need to be super loose, especially the O as in 'go.' Almost, most, most, most, most. And then for 'eleven,' you can put a schwa at the beginning. Eleven, eleven, eleven years now.
Read Out Loud with me! Dare to Lead by Brené Brown | Pronunciation & Vocabulary practice
