Learn how to pronounce some of the most common names for men in the US: James, John, Robert, Michael, William, David, Richard, Charles, Joseph, Thomas.
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Video Transcript:
These are the 10 most common male names in the United States. Number one, James. James starts with the ‘jj’ as in ‘jar’ [ʤ] sound, it is voiced. It then has the ‘ay’ as in ‘say’ diphthong [eɪ]. James. It’s one syllable, so you go straight from the mm, mm, M sound into the zz, zz, voiced Z sound. James. A nickname for this is Jim, or Jimmy, spelled with an I and the ‘ih’ as in ‘sit’ [ɪ] vowel. Number two, John, also begins with the ‘jj’ as in ‘jar’ sound. It is also one syllable, with the ‘ah’ as in ‘father’ [α] sound and the nn nn, N sound to end. John.
Number three, Robert. Robert beings with the R consonant sound [ɹ], rr, rr and opens up into the ‘ah’ as in ‘father’ vowel sound. Robert. The second and unaccented syllable has the ‘ur’ as in ‘her’ vowel sound [ɜ]. Ro-bert. Robert. Common nicknames would be Rob or Bob, or Robby or Bobby. Number 4, Michael, and number 5, William, have already been explained in the top baby names of 2007. David. The vowel sound in the first and accented syllable is the ‘ay’ as in ‘say’. It then has the v v, v v, voiced V sound, which can be difficult, make sure you make sound with your vocal cords, v v, before it goes into the unaccented syllable, which has the ‘ih’ as in ‘sit’ vowel. David.
Number 7, Richard. Just like in Robert, it begins with the rr, rr, rr, consonant sound. The first vowel sound is the ‘ih’ as in ‘sit’, and it then has the ‘ch’ as in ‘char’ [ʧ]. Rich-, Richard. The second and unaccented syllable has the ‘ur’ as in ‘her’ vowel sound before the dd, D ending. Common nicknames for this would be Rich, or, more commonly, Dick. Number 8, Charles. Charles begins with the ch sound, which is the unvoiced version of jj, which begins John and James. Charles. The first vowel sound is the ‘ah’ as in ‘father’ which moves very quickly into the R consonant sound. Char-, Char-, Charles. The second syllable is the dark L sound, uul, uul, followed by the voiced zz sound, Charles, Charles. A common nickname would be Charlie, ending in the ‘ee’ as in ‘she’ [i] vowel sound.
Joseph starts with the jj voiced sound, followed by the ‘oh’ as in ‘no’ [oʊ] diphthong, Joseph. The S here, ss, is unvoiced. The unaccented syllable has the ‘ih’ as in ‘sit’: iif, iif. Joseph, Joseph. A common nickname for this would be Joe or Joey. Number 10, Thomas, with the TH pronounced as the tt sound [t]. The first vowel sound is the ‘ah’ as in ‘father’: Ta, ta, Thomas. The second and unaccented syllable, mus, mus, has the schwa sound [ə] between the mm M and the ss unvoiced S. Thomas. A common nickname would be Tom or Tommy.
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