Phát âm – Từ điển tốt nhất – Học giỏi tiếng Anh

[thr] ‘thr’ as in ‘three’

The two TH consonant sounds. These sounds are paired together because they take the same mouth position. Th is unvoiced, meaning, only air passes through the mouth, and th is voiced, meaning you make a sound with the vocal cords. To make this sound, the very tip of the tongue comes through the teeth, th, th, thanks, th, th, this. The rest of the mouth remains relaxed. For the THR consonant cluster, the lips will begin to move into position for the R while the TH is being made. Three, three. In some cases, these sounds will be replaced with a similar sound, when the tongue does not quite come through the teeth. Instead it presses against the closed teeth. This will happen in an unstressed word only, when there isn’t enough time given to the word for teeth to part and the tongue to come through. For example, ‘What’s in the car?’ What’s in the car? The tongue isn’t coming all the way through the teeth.

Here we see the TH sound on the right compared with the mouth at rest on the left. And with parts of the mouth drawn in. The soft palate is raised for this sound. You can see the tongue through the teeth, just the tip comes through. The TH consonant sounds. Sample words: thin/this, thief/these, birthday/worthy. Sample sentence: I thought of using these Lily of the Valleys rather than those thorny roses. Now you will see this sentence up close and in slow motion, both straight on and from an angle, so you can really study how the mouth moves when making these sounds.

I, with the ‘ai’ as in ‘buy’ diphthong. Thought, tongue tip through the teeth, TH, thought. ‘Aw’ as in ‘law’, tongue up to make the T which is a D here, thought of. Using, the ‘ew’ as in ‘few’ diphthong. These, tongue tip through the teeth. Lily of the Valleys, tongue up in the L position, comes down, ‘ih’ as in ‘sit’, back up for the second L, lily, of, bottom lip up for the V sound, and again for the V sound of Valleys. Tongue up for the L, that was an L, not a TH. Rather, lips take the R consonant shape, and the tongue comes through the teeth again for the TH, one more time quickly for than. Those, ‘oh’ as in ‘no’ diphthong, and again for thorny, thorny roses, R consonant shape, ‘oh’ as in ‘no’ diphthong. Teeth together for the Z sound, then part slightly for the schwa, and together again for the final Z sound. And now from an angle. I thought, tongue tip through the teeth, tongue up to make the D sound, bottom lip up for the V. Using, with the ‘ew’ as in ‘few’ diphthong. These, tongue tip through the teeth. Teeth together for the Z sound and tongue up to make the L. Lily, up again for the second L. Lily of, bottom lip up for the V. And you don’t even seen the tongue for the TH there because it’s so quick. Of the Valley, Valleys. Rather, mouth takes the R consonant shape and the tongue tip comes through for the TH. Rather. The tongue tip comes through quickly to make than and those, than is very short there. ‘Oh’ as in ‘no’, teeth together for the Z sound. Thorny, tongue through the teeth for the TH, tongue up to make the N, roses. R consonant shape, teeth together for the Z sound, part for the schwa, and together again for the Z sound. That’s it, and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.

International Phonetic Alphabet symbols: [θ] (as in thin), [ð] (as in this)

See Wikipedia’s pages on these voiced and unvoiced sounds for technical descriptions and their occurrences in other langages.

[bl] ‘bl’ as in ‘blanket’

In this American English pronunciation video, we’re going to go over a few idioms.

Today is October 31st. That’s Halloween. A couple of years ago I made a video on how to pronounce Halloween, and showed some scenes from a Halloween party, and all of my friends in costume. In the US, Halloween is a holiday in which little kids dress up in costumes and go around, house to house, and say ‘trick or treat’, in order to get candy. Trick or treat. Are you noticing how I’m reducing the word ‘or’ there, to just the schwa-R sound? Rr, rr, rr. Trick or, trick or. Now, I’ve already made a video on how to reduce the word ‘or’, I do suggest you take a look at it. Trick or treat. Trick or treat.

But sometimes, even adults will dress up in costume. Now, I find this a little odd. I’m not quite sure why an adult would want to dress up to look like a scary person or a dead person. I, personally, never do it. Now, my friends are having a Halloween party this year, and I told them I was not going to dress up because I just think it’s silly. And they said, Rachel, don’t be a party pooper. So let’s go over that idiom, party pooper. First, note that the T in ‘party’ is a Flap T. Now, you know that because it comes after an R consonant and before a vowel. Party, party. Pooper. This is a two-syllable word, stress is on the first syllable. It begins with the P consonant, the ‘oo’ vowel: poo-, poo-. Now, since that’s the stressed syllable, make sure it has some shape in it, poo-, poo-. The second, unstressed syllable is the P consonant, and then schwa-R sound, -per, -per, -per. Now that’s going to be flat and lower in pitch because it’s unstressed. Party pooper, party pooper. So, what is a party pooper? A party pooper is someone who spoils other people’s fun by not participating, or by saying, Oh, that’s stupid, that’s a dumb idea. So basically, that’s me, because I’m going to a costume party, and I’m not going to dress up. Because I just think dressing up is silly.

Another idiom that has a similar meaning is wet blanket. So this, again, is someone who will spoil other people’s enjoyment by not participating in general, withdrawing a little bit. For example: Mary had a great party last night, but her new roommate is sort of a wet blanket. Meaning, maybe she didn’t participate, she sat in the corner, wouldn’t talk to anybody, or maybe even just stayed in her room. So, let’s go over the pronunciation. It begins with the W consonant sound, where the lips will be in a very tight circle. Then, the EH as in BED vowel, we-, we-. The final T here is a stop consonant. Usually final T’s, are, unless the next word begins with a vowel. We don’t have that here. So, it’s going to be a stop. Wet blanket. What does that mean? That means I put my tongue up into position for the T, wet, wet, but I don’t release the sound. I just go into the next word. Here, the next word begins with the BL consonant cluster. Wet bl-. Make sure your tongue tip is up here for the L. Bl-, bl-. That’s how you know you’re making that sound correctly. Bl-, bl-, wet bl-. Now, the next sound. If you look it up in the dictionary, it will say it is the AA as in BAT vowel. But as you know, when the AA vowel is followed by the nasal consonant NG, it’s not really the AA vowel. It’s much more like the AY as in SAY diphthong. Bla-, bla-, blan-. Then the tongue comes up back here to touch for the NG sound, right where it needs to be for the K, so it just simply pulls away there to release. Blank-, blank-. And finally, the schwa-T sound in the unstressed syllable. Blanket, blanket. Notice I’m not releasing the T at the end of ‘blanket’. Again, I’m making it a stop T. Blanket. Wet blanket.

And one last idiom with a similar meaning, stick in the mud. Again, this is someone who spoils the fun by not participating. Rachel, why don’t you dress up for the Halloween party? It’s a costume party. Well. Because I’m a stick in the mud. So how do you pronounce this? It begins with the ST consonant cluster, opens into the IH as in SIT vowel. Sti-, sti-. Now, the next word begins with a vowel. So the ending consonant here in the word ‘stick’ will link into that. Stick in, stick in, stick in. That will help us to connect the words and make them very smooth. Stick in, stick in. The next word, the, has the TH sound and the schwa. Now, it’s unstressed. So, along with ‘in’, it’s going to be low in pitch and flat, in the, in the, in the. And finally, the word ‘mud’. M consonant, UH as in BUTTER, and the D sound. Stick in the mud, stick in the mud.So, even though I won’t be dressing up this Halloween, I’m still going to have fun. And I hope you will to. That’s it, and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.

[fr] ‘fr’ as in ‘free’

Today we’re going to go over the phrase ‘happy birthday.’
– Happy Birthday HaQuyen.
– Thanks, Rachel.
– Happy Birthday HaQuyen.
– Happy Birthday Rachel.
– Aw, that’s sweet. Thank you.

This phrase, though just two words, can be kind of difficult. It has the ‘ur’ as in ‘her’ vowel / R consonant sound. That can be tough. Happy begins with an H. Sometimes people’s tendency is to drop beginning H’s. And it also has the TH sound. It’s very common to replace this unvoiced TH sound with the S sound. But we’re going to learn today how not to do that. Happy. Happy birthday. So, in both of these words, it’s the first syllable that is stressed. Happy. Birthday. Let’s begin with happy. It starts with the H consonant sound: hh, hh, hh. It’s quiet, it’s subtle, but you do need to let air pass through your vocal cords to make that sound. Hh, hh, ha-, ha-. The first vowel sound is the ‘aa’ as in ‘bat’ vowel: ha-, ha-, where the lips will pull up a little bit, exposing those top teeth somewhat. Ha-, ha-. And you can see a lot of tongue here, aa, as it is more raised in the back and then coming down in the front. Ha-, ha-, happy. You then have the P consonant sound which will open into the ‘ee’ as in ‘she’ vowel: -py, -py. Happy. As this is the unstressed syllable, make sure it is lower in pitch and a little more subtle, a little quieter, than ha-. Happy, happy.

Birthday begins with the B consonant sound where the lips are together, bb, bb, and the vocal cords are making some sound, bb, bb, bir-. It opens into the ‘ur’ as in ‘her’ vowel sound followed by the R consonant sound. These two sounds will blend together into just one sound, rr, rr. Bir-, bir-. For that sound, the corner of the lips will come in, bir-, bir-, so the lips will come away from the face a little bit. Bir-. The tongue position, rr, rr: it’s pulled up and back a little bit, pressing against the insides of the top teeth here in the middle. The front part of the tongue then hangs down, pulled back just enough so it’s not touching anything within the mouth. Rr-th. The unvoiced TH. For this sound, the tongue tip must come through the teeth. So, rr, th, the tongue tip has to come forward. And it will just lightly touch between the teeth there, th, as you let air pass through for the unvoiced sound. Birth-, birthday. To make the D sound, the tongue tip must come back in and reach up to the roof of the mouth, just behind the front teeth. Birthday. It will then stop the sound in that position and come down, -day, into the ‘ay’ as in ‘say’ diphthong. Birthday, birthday. Happy birthday. Happy birthday.

Happy birthday day to you. Happy Birthday dear Rachel, happy birthday to you.
– Thanks guys!
– I think I’m going to have some ‘Birthday Cake’.
– While you’re getting that, I’ll get this, and then we can swap.

Did you hear the word ‘swap’? Swap means to switch or to exchange. And then we can swap. Rachel, who was getting one kind of yogurt, wanted to swap with Kara afterwards so she could also get the other kind of yogurt. Swap begins with the S-W consonant cluster. So it will begin with the teeth together and the lips parted for the S sound, ss, ss. Then the lips will come in to make the W sound, sw-, sw-, and the teeth will part. From this tight circle for the W, the mouth will open into the ‘ah’ as in ‘father’ sound, swa-. And finally, the P consonant sound, where the lips come together. Swap, swap. Listen again.

While you’re getting that I’ll get this, and then we can swap. And then we can swap.

In New York at the moment, there are several chains of these frozen yogurt stores, where you pick your frozen yogurt. You can get more than one kind. And then there is a sea of toppings to choose from. One of my friends who was at this birthday party chose some toppings that the rest of us thought were a little bit weird. In the following exchange about that, you’ll hear two idioms that we’ll go over.

Spill the beans. Now, I’ve already done a video on this idiom, so I won’t go into detail its pronunciation. It means to tell someone’s secret to someone, or to reveal something about someone that they wouldn’t have wanted you to reveal. When I said it, the final S in the word ‘beans’, which should be voiced as a Z, sounded like an S because I’d started laughing.

The second idiom, It is a free country, or, It’s a free country. Basically this means, I can do what I want, even if it’s not a popular thing to do. It is a free country. So here, the word ‘is’ and ‘a’ both start with vowel sounds, and the words before end with consonant sounds. So we really want to link those up with the consonants that came before. It-is-a. It is a, it is a. The T here is pronounced as a D because it comes between two vowel sounds. It is a, it is a. Now, if you were to say It’s a, It’s a, make sure you get a good strong TS sound there, it’s a, where there’s a stop between the vowel and the S, designating the stop T. It’s a, it’s a. ‘Free’ begins with the F-R consonant cluster. So the bottom lip must move up to the top teeth, ff, to make that F sound. Then the lips come into a tight circle for the R, fr, free, before opening into the ‘ee’ as in ‘she’ vowel, where the corners of the lips will pull wide. Free country. The K consonant sound followed by the ‘uh’ as in ‘butter’, the N consonant sound, coun-, coun-. And the second syllable, unstressed, will be lower in pitch, with the T-R sound, -tr-, -tr-. Now, this can sound like a CHR sound, chr, chr. And finally, the ‘ee’ as in ‘she’ vowel sound. Country, country. It’s a free country. Let’s see the whole exchange one more time.
That’s it, and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.
– Happy Birthday Rach!
– Thank you! This is a great birthday.

[sw] ‘sw’ as in ‘swap’