Learn English pronunciation of the most common English vocabulary words! Spoken English fluency starts at the top: you simply must learn English within the context of the most used words in the English language. Here you’ll learn foundational English vocabulary—in a perfectly fluent, easy, step-by-step manner—with pronunciation for 10 of the most common words. Plus you can link to all 100 of the most frequently used words in spoken English with my full series—once you’ve mastered the pronunciation of them all, you will have dramatically improved your spoken English vocabulary. And that’s what you’ll need to do in order to be truly fluent—to truly learn English. It’s difficult, but English fluency is possible! The key is to practice as much as possible, with as many repetitions as possible. And that’s what I’ve provided for you with this video and series. You can practice speaking English alongside me and, step-by-step, master fluent pronunciation of each word.
Learning English in a fun, easy and comprehensive manner will make your retention much better. You will grow your vocabulary and have a great time as you do it! People who are learning English with these vocabulary videos are doing it in a logical, step-by-step way. And that’s important. I’m guessing that it’s the desire to speak English fluently that got you here. You’ve likely been learning English vocabulary in the way most students do: from written sources or possibly from a teacher who is not a native speaker. Learning English that way is an excellent start! But English pronunciation practice must also be part of your routine as a student. You’ve just absolutely got to commit to it. When you spend time with this video you’ll learn how to pronounce the English words that occur most often in the English language. And learning English as spoken English is SO important. You don’t just want to be fluent in the sense of being able to read and write in English, right? No, of course not. You want to have spoken English fluency. That’s how you can interact with English speakers, travel the world confidently, and navigate so many international contexts smoothly and effortlessly. That’s my goal for as you’re learning English: to become fluent and speak with a smooth, natural-feeling accent that allows you to do anything you want to do with English. Maybe you want to travel. Or perhaps you want to improve your English for professional reasons. Whatever your reason is, once you can speak English fluently your confidence and ability to connect with other people will sky-rocket! And after all of my years of teaching I know the following to be true: if you commit to regular pronunciation practice you will reach your goal. And that’s why I made this series! I wanted you to know exactly where to start. So here it is: your pronunciation practice should start right here!!
Precise and exact English Pronunciation of the following common English words are covered in this video:
- How to pronounce this
- How to pronounce but
- How to pronounce his
- How to pronounce by
- How to pronounce from
- How to pronounce they
- How to pronounce we
- How to pronounce say
- How to pronounce her
- How to pronounce she
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Video Text:
Today you’re getting video 3 in the 100 Most Common Words in English list. We’re going over the real pronunciation, not the full pronunciation, but the one that actually gets used in spoken English. If you didn’t see video one, click here to watch it now. It is important to understand what we’re doing here studying reductions.
We start this video with ‘this’. This is number 21 in the most common words in English. It’s not usually going to be pronounced THIS. It’s usually going to be pronounced a lot more quickly than that, unstressed. This. This. “This is what I’m talking about.” This, this, this. Sometimes it’s more stressed, “Not that one, this one.” It depends on how it’s being used. But much of the time, this word will be unstressed, said very quickly: this.
22: But. This word is usually going to be unstressed. In those cases I would probably write it phonetically with a schwa. “I wanted to stop in, but I was already running late.” But, but, but, but, but I, but I. The T here links into the next word with a Flap T if the next word begins with a vowel or diphthong. If the next word begins with a consonant, then it’s a Stop T. “We wanted to stop by, but we were already running late.” But , but, but we, but we. There, it’s a stop T. Said very quickly. Unless someone is exaggerating on purpose: BUT! You won’t hear this word with a True T.
23: His. Oh, this one is fun. This one does have a reduction. It’s really common to drop the H in this word. “What’s his name?” What’s his? What’s his? HIS becomes ‘iz’. Said very quickly, reduced. This is much more natural than making it sound stressed, fully pronounced: What’s his name? What’s his name? Hmm, that doesn’t sound right. “What’s his name?” sounds much better. I have a video on dropping the H reductions, so click here or in the description to see more examples.
24: By. This word doesn’t reduce, none of the sounds change or are dropped, but it’s usually unstressed and said very quickly: “We’ll be right by the door.” By the, by the, by the. unstressed, not too clear. But we need this contrast of stressed and unstressed to sound natural when speaking English.
25: From. This is often said very quickly, and I would write the vowel phonetically as the schwa: from, from. When the schwa is followed by the M, it gets absorbed by the schwa, so what I’m saying is, you can say the word so quickly that you’re not even trying to make a vowel: frm, frm, frm. I’ll be back from work at three. From, from work. Very fast. If I said this sentence with each word being clear, no reductions, what would it sound like? I’ll be back from work at three. I’ll be back from work at three. Pretty robotic, not natural. Even though reductions might seem wrong, they might seem lazy, they’re right, because they’re part of a bigger picture. Rhythmic contrast in English.
26: They. Let’s just start out with a sample sentence. “They already left.” They already left. Unstressed. Said very quickly. They, they, they. Sounds don’t really change, it doesn’t reduce, but it’s unstressed. They, they. Man, we’re on number 26 of the most common words in English and so far, every single one either reduces or is often unstressed. When will we get to our first real content word? We’ll see.
27: We. It’s just like the pronoun ‘they’. Not usually stressed in a sentence. We, we. “We already left”. We, we, we. Said quickly. We already left. Not a reduction, we don’t change or drop a sound, but unstressed. We. We already left.
28: Say. Oh my gosh, this is a content word. This is a verb and it is usually stressed in a sentence. It took us 28 words to get here. If this doesn’t show you the importance of using reductions and speaking with a rhythmic contrast, making some words unstressed and less clear, I don’t know what will. The first 27 of the most common words in English are that way. Say. Let’s put it in a sentence. What did he say? He said he’s running late. Say, said: stressed, longer, clearer. Up-down shape of intonation: say. S consonant, AY diphthong. We need jaw drop for that. Say. There’s something interesting about ‘say’, ‘said’, and ‘says’. The diphthong changes. Check out a video I made on that change by clicking here or in the description below.
29: Her. Okay, we’re back to a word that reduces. It’s very common to pronounce this word with no H. It becomes ‘er’. What’s her name? Er, er, er. When we drop the beginning H, we take the word and attach it to the end of the word before. What’s her. What’s her name? There are several words where we drop the H, I have a video on that. Click here or in the description below to see more examples.
30: She. Unstressed. You could probably even reduce it by dropping the vowel, and just making a quick ‘sh’ sound. Let me try that in a sentence. “We don’t think she knows.” We don’t think she knows. I’d say that works. So you can put a quick ‘ee’: I don’t think she knows. Or you can drop the vowel: I don’t think she knows. And it sounds pretty much the same. She knows. She knows.
So there, our 30 most common words in English are done, and there’s only one word, ‘say’, that is reliably stressed. Amazing. Let’s keep going down this list of the 100 most common words in English to study the pronunciation, and I don’t mean the full or official pronunciation, I mean how the word is actually used in a sentence in American English. Look for the next installment in this series, coming soon.
That’s it, and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.
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