Cheers! Raise a glass and get the pronunciation of this word right. How to toast a special occasion in American English.
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Video Transcript:
In this American English pronunciation video, we’re going to go over:
>> Cheers [3x]
>> Cheers! Great to see you, HaQuyen.
>> Great to see you too, Rachel.
At the table, at the bar, when you’re drinking the first round, you might want to say “cheers.” Do this if it’s a special occasion, if you’re with friends you don’t see often, or just because. David and I do it at home sometimes when we sit down to dinner on just a regular day.
>> Cheers!
>> Cheers.
This is a one-syllable word, and it’s a stressed word. So it will have an up-down shape in the voice. Uh, cheers, cheers.
Start with the CH sound, ch, ch. To make the sound, the tongue goes to the roof of the mouth, and your lips will flare. Hold the air, ch, and then release, ch. In this case, release right into the EE vowel. Chee-. The tongue tip is normally down for this vowel, but since it was up, and needs to be back up for the R, you don’t need to bring it all the way down. The tongue tip doesn’t have to touch back here. Cheer. Now the R. The tongue should lift in the middle so it’s lightly touching the sides of the roof of the mouth. And the tip pulls back, it’s not touching anything. So don’t pull back the whole tongue, just the front. Flare the lips a little bit. Cheers. We end with the Z sound. But the ending voiced consonants are weak, so it shouldn’t sound like this: zzz. It’s more like this: ss, ss: actually, a really light S. Cheers, s, s, s. And don’t forget the shape. Cheers, cheers.
You might want to toast something in particular. For example, “to summer vacation” or “Here’s to Tom and Julie”.
So use the phrase ‘to’ or ‘here’s to’ – and you’ll to reduce ‘to’ in both of those cases: tuh. To summer vacation.
>> To summer vacation.
Here’s to. Here’s to Tom and Julie!
>> Here’s to Tom and Julie!
The T sound plus the schwa, really fast, to, to, to. Because it’s not the word that matters, what matters is summer vacation. To summer vacation!
>> To the road trip!
>> To the road trip!
>> Cheers!
Try this out at your next meal! What word do you use for cheers in your country? Let me know in the comments below.
Be sure to sign up for my mailing list so you can be sure to keep up with all the latest news and videos from Rachel’s English – it’s absolutely free. Click here or in the description below.
That’s it, and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.
>> To summer vacation!
>> To summer vacation. Cheers!
>> Cheers!
>> Cheers!
>> Wait, wait. Can we do one like that?
>> To summer vacation.
>> To summer vacation!
>> Cheers!
Hear the difference immediately.
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