Improve Your Pronounciation

well if I can help I'm really glad to do it that's about the way I feel about  it too no di I'm s of little nervous all right now I everybody  sit down make yourself comfortable that's good thing you're right girl now  just relax we're about ready to go okay good well I guess we'll be  talking about pronunciation no piggy the word is not pronunciation it's [Music] pronunciation hello I'm Ned Blandford  and With a Little Help from My Friends Peggy dick Lucy Bob I'll start the discussion  Bob give us an example of a pronunciation problem Z us is important for effective  communication what did he say pardon me I said exact usage is important for effective  communication no Bob really isn't a sound smudger but you probably know people who are  sound smudgers are fairly common so are word grunters Lucy would you please demonstrate  grunters don't make the visual sounds Curry right grunters don't make individual  sounds clearly they don't articulate sound smudgers run words together by  dropping sounds grunters and smudgers often substitute one sound for another sound  smudgers and grunters aren't born they're made people who have pronunciation  problems have them because they're nervous a lot of dog shows and people become  smudgers or grunters because they are [Music] shy and people smudging grunt words just from  carelessness one way to improve your general pronunciation is to speak with your mouth open  so then I said who is he don't talk through your teeth open your mouth so then I said who is he  a cous I'm not going to let you copy my homework practice letting your jaw work too practice  using your tongue and lips to form words of course I'm not going to let you copy my homework  GNA oops I mean going to any pronunciation problems are not as easy easily recognized  as simple smudges or grunts let's take a word Peggy how would you say it  nuclear say it again Peggy nuclear wrong not nucular nuclear I did not say  nuclear you didn't let's listen to it again nuclear well I guess I did say  nuclear saying nuclear for nuclear is a good example of transposing sounds  transposing sounds is fairly common as with this word hundred no not  hund hundred you transposed a sound right and transposing sounds can  be a fairly common pronunciation problem hydrogen I'm sorry but  you're wrong not hydrogen you transposed the r sound the  word is pronounced hydrogen hydrogen Lucy how about this one jewelry how about  jewelry I think that's wrong you transpose the l sound right jewelry is wrong jewelry is  correct why do people do that do what transpose sounds I know fella  because people never listen to themselves right listening to yourself  is important listen to what Bob just said I know fella saying fella instead of fellow  is incorrectly changing sounds within words it's like saying kin for can catch for catch Earl for  oil [ __ ] for girl how about saying picture for picture another very good example saying another  for another is a better example did I say another another very good example I  guess I did what you mean then is that most pronunciation problems happen because  people fool around with things like sound exactly it's like you're dropping  the D from around and sound what I say people fool around with things like sound come on now aren't you being a little picky  no because poor pronunciation can interfere with effective communication take a simple sentence  I beg your pardon but what did he say great we can use that as an example now drop some sounds  I beg you pardon but what do you say see people often increase pronunciation problems if someone  drops or adds sounds in one word they tend to do it in others we can see how dropping sounds  can confuse your listener and interfere with communication environment you left  out an N not environment the word is environment blong that's blong  no there's an e in there be long belong lymph what about the G length literature right I was sure he'd  say literature without the r sound but I didn't once I had trouble with it but  not anymore once I had trouble with it what happened now you added a sound not  once just playing once is correct ah once and that brings us to the last type of  common pronunciation error we're going to deal with adding sounds statistics you  added a sound not statistics but rather statistics sherbet no I'm  afraid not oh I see I added an R sherbet a crust oh no wait a minute uh a  cross and that's how it is the whole key to good pronunciation is to use the  right sounds don't transpose sounds not nuclear it's nuclear don't change  sounds not another another don't drop sounds no not length length right and  don't add sounds wait a minute not across across in other words what we need to do is  find the correct way and say it right now I suppose you're going to put in a plug for  the dictionary right again the dictionary is important because a lot of words are  not pronounced as they look for example example suit no sweet it's a French word how  about worest is it French nope English Worster is correct and wer is also correct your own  patterns of pronunciation will depend upon what is acceptable to people with whom you  talk but if you make it Habit to rely upon the dictionary you won't be wrong then besides  using the dictionary for pronunciation guides there are other things you can do to improve  your pronunciation listen to yourself listen to other people listen to new words listen  to Old words but listen what else can we do besides listen to people well you can make a  list of words that cause you trouble you mean m m mischievous words exactly mischievous can  be the beginning of my list Nick can start my list too and I can add library to my list not  library library I probably should make a list too what did I say what did I do you changed the  second B to an L it's not probably it's probably and if you added the few words we have just  talked about you would all have pretty good lists now that you have your  lists the next step is to practice pronunciation [Music]