Order is a difficult word with two R sounds. Learn how to practice this word by breaking it down sound by sound, knowing what’s stressed and what’s not.
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In this American English pronunciation video, we’re going to go over the pronunciation of the word ‘order’.
This week’s Word of the Week is ‘order’. Thanks so much to the user who suggested it!
It begins with the AW as in LAW vowel, but because the next sound is an R, which can affect the vowel before, it’s not really a pure AW vowel, the lips will round more than they would if the R wasn’t there. Or-, or-. Then my tongue will pull back and up from the middle, kind of like this, orr-, rr-. The front part isn’t touching anything; it can be pointing up a little bit or pointing down a little bit. I have a contact point here, or-, where the middle of the tongue is touching the roof of the mouth lightly, or it might be touching the bottom or insides of the teeth. Or-der. Now we have the D, schwa/R sound. So the tongue is going to make a quick motion for the D, then come right back to where it is for the ending. It’s pulled like this, or-der, the tongue tip comes forward and bounces against the roof of the mouth, order, and comes right back into position for the R. You don’t need to worry about bringing the tongue down to make a schwa sound, the ending R takes it over. So just one quick movement for the D. Keep in mind the second syllable should be as fast as you can make it, since it’s unstressed, -der, -der, -der. Order, order.
What are you going to order?
Here it is in slow motion.
If there’s a word you find difficult to pronounce, suggest it in the comments. That’s it, and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.