Learn how to use and pronounce ‘Ripped Off’ comfortably in conversational English: what words or syllables to reduce, how to link everything together, and the melodic shape of the phrase.
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Video Transcript:
In this American English pronunciation video, we’re going to go over the idiom ‘ripped off’.
To be ripped off means to be swindled or cheated. For example: they overcharged me by 10 bucks, I was ripped off.
Ripped off begins with the R sound. Since it’s a beginning R, your lips will come in and round quite a bit, rr, your tongue needs to be pulled this way, rrr, and you should be able to hold out that sound. R-ih. Then we have the IH as in SIT vowel. So the jaw drops a little bit, the tongue tip is down behind the bottom front teeth, and the front part of the tongue lifts a bit towards the roof of the mouth. Ri-, ri-. Then we have the P-T cluster. The ED is pronounced as a T because the sound before is unvoiced, pt, pt. So the lips come together for the P, when they open the tongue goes to the roof of the mouth for the T, p-t, p-t, ripped, ripped. The next word begins with a vowel, so we want to make sure to link it the to word before. So, it might feel like the T sound begins the word ‘off’ — toff, toff, ripped off, ripped off. ‘Off’ with the AW as in LAW sound, ripped aw– give yourself a little jaw drop. And finally, the F consonant sound, where the bottom lip comes up, ff, and the inside of it makes contact with the bottom of the top front teeth. Ripped off, ripped off. DA-DA, these are both stressed words. So it’s not da-DA, or DA-da. It’s DA-DA. Ripped off. I was ripped off.
Have you ever been ripped off? Make up a sentence using this idiom and record yourself — post it on YouTube as a video response to this video. I can’t wait to watch.
That’s it, and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.
Hear the difference immediately.
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