How to say I HAVE A COLD

In this American English pronunciation video, we’re going to go over how to say ‘I have a cold’.I’m not in my normal recording space, as I’m sure you can see.  And that’s because I’m not feeling well.  I can’t talk for very long, I can’t record a bunch of videos.  I have a cold.  Let’s go over that phrase.  I have a, I have a, I have a cold.  ‘I’ and ‘cold’ are the most stressed syllables there.  So, the structure is DA-da-da-DA.  I have a cold.  We begin with the AI as in BUY diphthong.  You do need to drop your jaw for the first sound of that diphthong.  I, I, I have a, I have a.Are you noticing?  I’m dropping the H in ‘have’.  This is a pretty common habit.  We do this with words like ‘have’, ‘had’, ‘his’, ‘her’.  I have a [3x].  I have a cold, I have a stomach ache, I have a headache.  Dropping the H in ‘have’ in all of those phrases.

So, I am keeping the AA as in BAT vowel and the V sound, I have [3x].  I have a.  Adding on a schwa now to make the article ‘a’.  Notice that the V sound of ‘have’ is linking right into the schwa.  I have a, I have a, I have a.  There’s no break between any of those words.  And finally, ‘cold’.  Some of my students have problems with this word.  It’s hard for them to make the difference between ‘cold’ and ‘code’.  So, let’s talk about it.  First, we have the K consonant sound where the tongue tip is down and the back part of the tongue reaches up to touch the soft palate.  Kk, kk.  For the word ‘code’, we go straight into the OH as in NO diphthong.  Jaw drops, and the lips round for the second half.  Code.  That means the whole sound is up here in the front of the mouth.  Now, for the word ‘cold’, we have the Oh diphthong, but it’s a little different because of the Dark L.  I do drop my jaw for the beginning of the diphthong, co–l.  But rather than finishing the diphthong with a lot of lip rounding, I go straight to the Dark sound of the Dark L, where the back part of my tongue pulls back.  So tongue tip stays forward, col-, but the back part of the tongue stretches back.  Ll, ll.  Collllld. And to end, the front of the tongue goes up to the roof of the mouth and releases for the D.  Cold, cold.

So the difference between ‘code’ and ‘cold’ is the Dark L.  ‘Code’, the whole thing is up here.  Collll, cold, some of the sound is back here for the dark L.  Code, cold [2x].  I have a cold.

Unfortunately, you’re probably going to need to say this at least once a year, so I hope this video helps.

That’s it, and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.