Careful, some people make a W [w] sound instead of a V [v] sound in ‘university’. Learn how to practice this word by breaking it down sound by sound, knowing what’s stressed and what’s not. Then put it all together to feel confident using this word in American English conversation.
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Video Text:
In this American English pronunciation video, we’re going to go over the pronunciation of the word ‘university’.
This week’s word of the week is ‘university’. ‘University’ is a five-syllable word with secondary stress on the first syllable, and primary stress on the third syllable. U-ni-ver-si-ty. University. It begins with the ‘ju’ diphthong, uni-, uni-. Then we have the N consonant sound and the schwa in the second syllable, which is unstressed. So, the tongue tip will go to the roof of the mouth for the N, uni-, uni-. Then we have the stressed syllable -ver-. It begins with the V consonant sound, so the bottom lip will come and make contact with the bottom of the top front teeth, vv, vv. Univer-. The vowel sound is the UR as in HER vowel, -ver-, -ver-, so you don’t need much jaw drop for that. The tongue will pull back, and make contact here with the roof of the mouth, or the insides of the teeth. Univer-sity. Then we have to unstressed syllables that will be flat, lower in pitch and volume, -sity, sity. I want to point out, we have a T here between two vowel sounds. That means it’s going to be a flap, not a True T, -sity, -sity, -sity. University. University.
He teaches at New York University.
That’s it, your Word of the Week. Try it out yourself. Make up a sentence with the word, record it, and post it as a video response to this video on YouTube. I can’t wait to watch it.
That’s it, and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.