English is packed with idioms. Get comfortable using and pronouncing “landslide” in conversational English by mastering reductions, linking words, and the phrase’s melodic shape.
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Video Transcript:
In this American English pronunciation video, we’re going to go over the idiom ‘landslide’.
This idiom is in honor of March Madness, which will start soon. March Madness is a college basketball tournament that happens every year about this time. A very exciting couple of weeks for sports fans! A landslide victory, or, to win in a landslide, is a victory by a large margin. In basketball, maybe something like 20 points. You could also use this term to describe an election. He was elected Mayor in a landslide.
Landslide. Do you notice that I’m dropping the D? When the D comes after an N and before another consonant, you can drop the D. Landslide. Another example would be ‘grandma’. No D sound there. Grandma.
This is a two-syllable word with stress on the first syllable. Landslide. It begins with the Light L, ll, tongue tip here. Ll, ll, la-. Then the AA as in BAT vowel. Make sure you drop your jaw for that. Laa, aa. Also the top lip may pull up a bit. La-, la-. Next is the nasal consonant N. And you may know that AA followed by a nasal consonant isn’t really a pure AA. We have an ‘uh’ sound in there, where the tongue relaxes in the back. La-uh-, la-uh-n. Before the front raises for the N sound. Lan, nn, nn. So it’s the front, flat part of the tongue that is touching the roof of the mouth there for the N. Lan, landsss-, then the S consonant sound. The teeth come together, ss, and the tongue then goes to the roof of the mouth for the L. For the N it was touching like this, and for the L it touches like this, with the very tip. Then the AI as in BUY diphthong. Again, drop your jaw for the first sound of the diphthong. -sli-. And finally, a light D at the end, where the flat part of the tongue will quickly touch the roof of the mouth. Landslide, landslide, landslide.
Practice your English. Make up a sentence using ‘landslide’, record it, and post it as a video response on YouTube to this video. I can’t wait to see it.
That’s it, and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.
Hear the difference immediately.
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