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R Consonant? TH? ‘Birthday’ is a pretty tricky word for non-native speakers. Let’s break it down in this Accent training video!
Video Text:
It’s my son’s birthday!
Happy Birthday Sawyer!
Birthday can be a really hard word for my students, let’s break it down. B consonant, that’s pretty easy but the /ɜɹ/ vowel, that can be tricky. Bir, just make the r sound. Don’t try to make a vowel. B-ir, Bir,
Brrrr!
Bir, birth.
And we have the unvoiced th, your tongue tip has to peek just through but don’t hold it, don’t clench. Let the air flow freely.
th-, birth, birth.
Birthday.
And day is not the problem part of that word. Birth-day.
Birthday.
Happy Birthday.
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