A short American English pronunciation lesson by Hadar Shemesh explaining how to pronounce "million" and "billion." The video focuses on the relaxed first syllable and reduced vowel (schwa with a y-glide) in "million," notes primary stress on the first syllable, contrasts the initial /b/ closure in "billion," and encourages repeated practice.
Chapters
Hey, what's up? I'm Hadar, and this is your how to pronounce accent Sway video. Today, we're going to talk about the two words million and billion. Very important words, right? Especially if we're planning to make a lot of millions and billions. So million. First of all, both of them sound kind of the same, so we're going to concentrate on the word million. The first syllable is a relaxed sound, mill. So it's not mil, but mill. So your jaw is kind of dropped and there is space between your teeth, and you're kind of lazy when you're saying it. Mill, mill. Then you have a reduced vowel. It begins with a J sound, a schwa, although it's spelled with an O. Okay. There is no o. It's not miljon, but mil, ye, and then an n at the end. Million. Million. The primary stress falls on the first syllable, so it's higher in pitch. Million. Million. $1,000,000. On the other hand, you have billion, right? So you kind of like, close your lips for the b. B. $1 billion. All. Million and billion. So you don't have to say it a million times in order to get it, but you do want to practice it quite a few times until you get used to the new pronunciation. So go for it. Good luck, and I'll see you next week in the next video. Bye.
