Shadowing Practice: 1 Hour of English Pronunciation - Learn English Speaking with Video

Easy Dreamers, welcome to over 50 minutes of perfect English pronunciation.

Today we're going to look at tricky words to pronounce, advanced pronunciation strategies and lots of English sounds.

Now, before we get started I want to tell you about my free five day pronunciation challenge.

In this challenge you will learn the essential sounds of British English.

It's an online course that's completely free and you can enrol today by using the link in the description.

Ok, let's get started.

Welcome back to another lesson with me Tom.

Today we're looking at the 36 English words that you find impossible to pronounce.

The first one, clothes.

This was sent in by two of you guys and this one is super tricky.

I've seen it mispronounced so much over the years as an English teacher.

Clothes.

So that end sound there is a zzz sound so clothes.

Clothes.

Repeat after me, clothes.

Now if you want a little cheat because that one is quite hard to say and maybe you just can't do it, you could try clothes.

As in like close the door.

Clothes and clothes sound very similar and when you are putting them into a sentence sentence, they're going to sound exactly the same.

Ok, which one am I saying now?

Clothes, yeah.

Clothes, ok.

Clothes, clothes.

More or less the same, right?

Put it into a sentence, I bought some new clothes.

Which one did I say?

Yeah, I actually said clothes, but it could have been clothes.

Either one, when you put it into a sentence, it sounds perfectly fine.

Lena also asked for rarely.

Tricky one, huh? So rarely.

Chelsea Lovey asked for a town in England, Loughborough.

Yeah, it doesn't look like it, does it?

Okay, but you've got the fh sound in that gh.

And it's not borough, it's just Loughborough.

Next one, literature.

So let me slow that down for you.

So that's a great piece of literature.

By the way guys, thank you so much for sending these in, these are great words.

Ok, next one.

Marvellous. So not marvellous, marvellous.

We had a marvellous time.

Responsibilities.

In my new job I've got loads of responsibilities.

Salome asked for four words and I've added another one.

Ok, let's go through this one because this is often chosen as one of the hardest ones to say.

So we've got an individual, jewel, so you've got that ull sound, jewel.

Jewel, then jewellers, the place where you buy the jewels and then jewellery. So jewel, jewellers, jewellery.

This one is a good one.

Museum, so three sounds there.

I'm going to the British Museum today.

And the next one, miserable.

So it's not miserable, it's miserable.

You look a bit miserable today.

I hope you are not miserable today.

Thank you for that one Salome, fantastic suggestions, all really tricky words.

I'm not going to try and attempt to pronounce this Instagram name, I apologise.

Ok, but yeah, I see this one, this is quite tricky.

So man and men.

So man is singular, men plural.

Now I think this gets harder when it's female.

So you've got woman but you've got women for the plural.

So the w becomes with.

So woman, women.

Huh?

What does that mean?

Ok, I've got to look this one up.

This means to be unable to be excited or upset or something like that.

Ok, so you're quite calm.

Ok, I get it.

The pronunciation, imperturbable.

That word is killing me.

Imperturbable.

It's a word that you probably will never use but it's good to know.

Imperturbable.

That's really fun actually.

Inperturbable.

I am inperturbable.

Go on, you can say it.

I am inperturbable.

Any fact dags?

I don't know.

The word taught.

It's the same sound as ought or thought.

You'll notice there that I did say the t at the end, so taught.

If I was saying it in a more natural everyday speech I probably wouldn't say the t, I'd say taught.

That's because I dropped the t's, it's a kind of glottalisation of t's.

I think I taught that kid in year six six.

I think I taught that kid in year six.

So I think I taught that kid, not I taught that kid.

Alright guys, let's keep going.

Ok, Jade asked for this word.

This one I often hear mispronounced especially in Spanish speakers as focus.

But it should be focus.

That's how I pronounce it, focus.

Second one, curious.

Wow that's a nice word, curious.

Paulina asks about this word.

Yeah, it's not easy.

Girl.

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So you've got that dark L there.

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So what I'm doing there is I'm bringing my tongue in as I'm saying the word.

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Girl.

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And in fact the the front part of my tongue is kind of curling inwards.

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So it's kind of just going like this girl.

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Now this is of course in my accent guys.

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There are many different accents that would say these words differently.

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I'm teaching you in my London accent.

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As I said there are other varieties of ways to say this.

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For example in a Cockney accent you might say girl, but but I'm saying it girl because that's the way I say it.

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Ok, next one.

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Failure.

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Yeah that's a tricky one actually.

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Failure.

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I was a complete failure at school.

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Alright, this one often comes up in the ten most difficult words to say in English

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but I'm like how often do you say this word?

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How is it important to say?

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Well well, maybe it is for some people.

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The word squirrel.

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I mean maybe I say it a few times

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in a month because I live in a place where there are squirrels but anyone else?

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I don't know.

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Do you live near squirrels?

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Ok, but the word is squirrel.

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It's a nice word in in fairness.

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It's quite fun to say.

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Carla Fock asks for endeavour.

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So you'll actually notice there that the beginning isn't an e, it's an i sound.

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Endeavour.

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And then we end there with the schwa sound, so endeavour.

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Cho Pai Gurley Girl asks for aristocratic.

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So it's aristocratic.

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The stress is on the end syllable.

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Next one, exaggerated.

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It sounds almost like egg.

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And flying on from that, exaggerating.

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Why are you always exaggerating about how tall you are.

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Why are you always exaggerating about how tall you are?

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Ok, it had to come finally.

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The word that is always in these top ten lists.

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Crisps.

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Ok, let's break it down.

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Two sounds.

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Crisps.

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So it's crisps.

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Two sounds.

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That's all it is.

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Almost like you were trying to get someone's attention.

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Psst, hey, come here, psst, psst, come here.

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Crisps.

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We'll go get a bag of crisps.

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Yasmiska, I hope you don't need to say this word very often.

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Murderer.

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I hope it's a low frequency word.

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This is another hard one.

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World.

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So So again it's that dark L.

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World.

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So just like with girl, your tongue is coming in and down and back.

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Basically girl.

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So this one, world.

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I want to travel the world.

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Ok, this is a nice one.

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Plagiarism.

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This means to copy someone else's work, right?

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So I was accused of plagiarism.

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Ok and finally we've got two words here,

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we've got sixth, so it's sick and then I finish with my tongue touching my teeth and I'm blowing air out. And months, months.

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Now this ends with the ss sound, the ss. So months.

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So that's that blend sound of going from the th.

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So for the th sound I've got my tongue touching my top teeth and I'm blowing air out.

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Month.

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And then if I want to make that s sound I draw my tongue down a bit.

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I hope that makes sense.

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That's two very hard sounds.

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I know that a lot of students find those two very hard to do so yeah, practice with that one.

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Sixth and months.

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Are you struggling with your English pronunciation?

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Well I've got five super practical tips that I want to share with you today.

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If you haven't met me before my name is Teacher Tom

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and I help students of English learn fresh modern British English

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so that they can communicate with confidence and speak like a local.

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My first suggestion is to learn how to pronounce the 100 most common English words.

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50 % of all English is made up from 100 words.

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That's it.

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One hundred words makes up half of all spoken English.

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The good news is they are very simple words and most of them you probably already know.

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The question is do you know how to say them all correctly?

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For example the word of, well it's pronounced of right?

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Well yes and no because when it falls in the middle of a sentence

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and it's an unstressed word we pronounce pronounce it of.

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Not of, of.

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For example, the Republic of Ireland, plenty of fish, Game of Thrones.

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As you can hear they're all pronounced with that weak form of.

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So if you know that of can sound like of

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and it can also sound like of then you're much more likely to be able to understand proficient English speakers

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and sound like one.

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So just a little investment in the 100 most common English words will reap rich rewards.

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And why is that?

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Because you'll have perfected 50 % of spoken English.

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My second tip is to find an accent role model.

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Someone that you know who speaks English the way that you want to.

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It could be someone you know, like a friend or a teacher.

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It could be someone that you don't know, like a public figure, for example a politician or an actor.

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Choose someone whose accent and pronunciation you admire.

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Someone you can use as a model or a guide for your English.

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Now this doesn't mean you have to change your accent or mimic them, it just means you'll have a model of English that you can use to develop and improve.

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It's a very personal thing

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and each one of us will probably have a different idea of who we would like as an accent role model.

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One of my students used Gemma Chan, the British actor, as her accent role model.

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She chose her because she thought she spoke really clearly and she loved listening to her speak.

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Now if you aren't sure who you would like to choose, use, check out my video 20 British English accents in one video and I'm sure you'll get some good ideas from that.

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Once you've got someone in mind, we can move on to my third suggestion, which is using a technique called mirroring.

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This is when we use a very short chunk of audio.

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We listen to it, we practice repeatedly to try and recreate the sounds as accurately as possible.

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So we do this for a few reasons.

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First of all, we're looking for natural pacing.

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How do they structure their sentences?

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Do they leave space between words or phrases to help them speak more clearly and fluently?

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We're also looking for connected speech, how do they blend these sounds and these words together?

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Now we'll get to connected speech in a moment but first let's use an example from Gemma Chen.

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Ok, that was really short wasn't it?

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I suggest listening to it a number of times to get a feel for what she's saying.

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Maybe slow it down if you need to.

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Then figure out what's she doing with the sounds.

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So for example, she's using a glottal T on got and then she's linking got to away.

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So it sounds like got away, got away.

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She's also using a rising intonation at the end of the sentence.

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The live ones got away.

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So you hear that connected speech and linking, so got away, got away and that intonation as well, right?

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Live one's got away.

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Ok, let's do another sentence.

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Ok, so let's analyse what we can hear.

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We've got a weak form on them, so it's them and then we've got linking on up in a van.

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And there's a rising intonation at the end.

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So even that yeah, it's kind of very natural isn't it?

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Alright, so mirroring techniques are just all about repetition.

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So it's all about understanding the space in the sentence, the linking, connection of all the words and of course the intonation.

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Now this is a fantastic technique to use, particularly if you want to recreate those natural stress and intonation patterns that proficient English speakers use.

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Ok, I mentioned connected speech earlier and that is my fourth suggestion.

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I want you to start incorporating into your spoken English because that's exactly what proficient English speakers do all the time.

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Connected speech is the way that speakers blend sounds and words together or omit sounds to sound more fluent.

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Now we've already looked at a few techniques in this video.

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We had weak forms and we've had linking, but there are so many others.

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If you are new to the concept of connected speech, I would suggest just starting by noticing using connected speech in proficient English speakers.

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Listen and observe.

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The mirroring technique that we looked at earlier is perfect for this.

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Take a very short clip, slow it down, analyse it and see what's going on.

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Every proficient English speaker is using connected speech all the time, perhaps without even knowing it.

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You will too, you just have to start by building the foundations first.

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This leads me to my fifth suggestion which is to find yourself expert help.

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If you want to build big muscles, you get a personal trainer.

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If you want to learn the guitar, you'd find a music teacher to show you how.

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And if you want to become a proficient English speaker, you need a good teacher.

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Find someone who knows exactly the areas that you need to improve on.

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There's so much information on YouTube and elsewhere, but a teacher's job is to help you identify the areas that you need to improve.

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Finding a teacher is a very personal thing.

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There are tons of teachers out there but it's quite hard to find the right one for you.

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Now I've been working one -to -one with students for over 15 years, helping them to become proficient English speakers and I'd love to work with you too.

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If you're coming to the UK you'll want to know how to pronounce the places that you visit.

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So today I'm going to teach you 25 of the most commonly mispronounced places in the country

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and I'll give you opportunities to practice saying them for yourself.

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And at the end I'll show you how to pronounce this Welsh town.

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Here we go with number one, Bista.

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It's a town to the west of London that's become really popular for outlet shopping.

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You can get some great bargains guys.

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Now the pronunciation Bista.

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Bista.

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That C -E is pronounced with a ss sound, so Bista.

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And we're going to see that pattern throughout this video.

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You try saying it.

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Number two, Gloucester.

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Now this is a city in the west of England that is probably most famous for its cathedral, and it's actually where they filmed some of the Harry Potter scenes.

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Nice.

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Now this pronunciation, Gloucester.

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We have that C -E again, as we did before, and it's pronounced with a ss sound, so Closter.

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Your turn.

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Another example of this CE as a ss sound is Leicester.

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This is a city in the Midlands and we pronounce it Leicester.

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Now this causes particularly Americans problems.

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I've heard Lycester or Lycester and I get it, yeah it looks like it should be that but it isn't, it's Leicester.

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Now you've probably heard this name either from the city or because in London, one of the central areas is Leicester Square.

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And that's our fourth place, Leicester Square.

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Leicester Square.

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Okay, can you say that for me?

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Okay, this one you'll want to know because it's the name of a popular sauce.

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No, not ketchup, up, you silly.

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Come on.

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Worcestershire.

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That's right, Worcestershire sauce.

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It's so good.

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Now let's work on the word.

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So Worcestershire is a county.

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A county is an administrative or geographical area, a bit like a state is in the USA or India.

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Now we've got that C -E sound again, which is a s sound as we learnt before, so Worcester.

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And then we've got the suffix of So s -h -i -r -e.

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Now when it comes at the end of a word it denotes a county.

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So we know if we see sh, it's a county.

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And that pronunciation there, you heard it, it's with a schwa sound, sh.

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So it's Worcestershire.

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Another example would be Yorkshire or Lancashire.

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You can hear that sh sound.

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Now as for Worcestershire sauce, it's great as a marinade for meat or in your Bloody Mary.

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Okay, let's continue with counties and move to the west of London and Berkshire.

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Now it looks like Berkshire, right?

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And yeah, maybe it should be, but actually we have an R sound there. So Berkshire.

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Berkshire.

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Okay, and while we're at it, let's do another county.

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Warwickshire.

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Warwickshire.

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Now this This one looks tricky, but actually it's quite simple because that work.

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in the middle.

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We're going to just take it out.

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We don't need it. So Warwickshire.

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Warwickshire.

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So three syllables really.

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Warwickshire.

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Now there's a city called Warwick which is famous for its cathedral and for its university.

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You say it like that.

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Warwick.

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Warwick.

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Let's hear you say that.

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Okay number eight we're moving into Scotland and the capital Edinburgh.

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Edinburgh.

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Now I've heard this one said Edinburgh, Edinburgh.

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Yeah, those could all be legitimate but it's actually pronounced Edinburgh.

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Edinburgh, that bruh sound on the suffix of b -u -r -g -h and that g -h is silent.

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We don't pronounce it.

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Now there are other suffixes that we have just like that one in other places in the UK.

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For example Middlesbrough, Middlesbrough.

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So it looks like borough but it's pronounced bruh, bruh, Middlesbrough.

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And then in Yorkshire there's a beautiful town called Knaresbrough, Knaresbrough.

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Now if you're ever in York or Harrogate there's a train line

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that goes between them and Knaresbrough is in the middle and it's absolutely stunning.

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Definitely pay it a visit.

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Okay, things are starting to get spicy because we're moving to Wales, where there are consonants everywhere.

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It's mad.

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And to be honest, I think I'm going to butcher it with my London accent.

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And that's something to be aware of, guys, is that all of these place names are said in different ways.

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I'm just showing you how I say it in my London accent, but of course, there are variations in every place.

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For example, I say Newcastle, but in Newcastle, they would say Newcastle.

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right?

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Newcastle.

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The stress is different to how I would say it.

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So bear that in mind.

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This is just one variation.

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There are plenty of others.

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Alright, so this is a Welsh seaside town and it begins with the Swedish pop group Abba.

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Okay, so we start with Abba and then Aberyswyth.

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Aberyswyth.

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That's how I say it.

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Maybe the locals will say it slightly differently.

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Aberyswyth.

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And whilst we're in Wales, let's tackle a great little town that's become really popular because of their football team and the Hollywood investors, Wrexham.

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Now this is interesting because the W is silent and also that suffix at the end,

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ham, this is one that we will find in lots of places in the UK.

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And we will say it, um, right?

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Um.

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So we're using that schwa sound again.

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So, Wrexham, Wrexham.

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Let's find other examples of that suffix ham.

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It's in the second biggest city, Birmingham, Birmingham.

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So it's not Birmingham, as I think the Americans would say about the city in Alabama, Birmingham.

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In Britain, in the UK, it's Birmingham, Birmingham.

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We've also got Nottingham, Nottingham.

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And there's a beautiful university city in the north called Durham.

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Durham, again that um sound.

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Now I've heard this one pronounced as Durham.

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Well we're after Durham.

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It looks like it, it probably should be.

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I'm sorry it isn't, it's Durham.

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Okay, our next one is not just difficult for visitors coming to the UK, it's difficult for us as well.

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There are debates about how you should say it properly.

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I say it shrews - no, I say it shrewsbury, shrewsbury, but others would say shrewsbury.

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So even we don't know.

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I'm sure there are some locals watching.

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Let me know in the comments.

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What do you say?

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Is it shrewsbury or shrewsbury?

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It's a big argument.

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I'm not getting in the middle of But what I'm interested in is that suffix of B -U -R -Y, Bury.

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Now there is a town called Bury, but that's not how it's pronounced here, it's Shrewsbury.

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So that translates into other place names, for example, Canterbury, it's a cathedral city in Kent, Canterbury.

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And another example is the biggest music festival in the UK,

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Glastonbury, okay try saying those OK,

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our next few take us to the seaside because when we have the suffix of mouth, it indicates a port or a harbour of some kind.

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So probably the most famous one would be Bournemouth.

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Bournemouth.

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And you can hear that, it's not mouth as a suffix, it's muth. So Bournemouth.

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Plymouth, Falmouth.

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Bournemouth, Plymouth, Falmouth.

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OK, this one is one that Americans generally get wrong.

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They would say Norwich.

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Norwich.

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And yes, it should be Norwich.

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But here's a little trick.

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Just think about porridge and add an N.

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So it's Norwich.

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Norwich.

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And it's a city in East Anglia.

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Another one that stumps Americans particularly is the East Midland city, Derby.

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Yeah, because I think in America they say Derby.

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Derby.

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But, and yeah, it's an E so probably should be Derby.

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But we say Derby because we're really annoying like that, aren't we?

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Okay, Okay, so have a go at saying that.

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Okay guys, we're here.

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This is the big one.

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There it is.

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Now how do you say this town?

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This is the longest town name in the whole of the UK and you can see why, right?

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I don't know how to speak Welsh.

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A couple of tricks I do know.

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Now when you see a double L in a place name in Wales, the sound is .

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It's a sound that we don't have in England, but yes we do have it in Wales.

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So for example there is a place called Llandudno and Llanethli.

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Now I am probably saying that terribly, but it's near enough, you can kind of get what I'm saying.

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So Llanethli and Llandudno.

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So this word is definitely at the beginning of the beginning.

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Also at the end I know it goes go, go, go, go.

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The rest of it I've no idea.

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So let's get a pro to show us how to do it.

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OK, pretty impressive right?

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Your homework is to practise that.

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Have a go and in the comments below tell me how you did.

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OK but what does that place name actually mean?

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It must mean something right?

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Well it does.

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Let me read it to you.

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So it's Welsh and it means St Mary's Church

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in the hollow of the white hazel near to the fierce whirlpool of St Silio of the Red Cave.

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Sounds like something out of Game of Thrones.

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Alright guys, how did you do?

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I hope that was really useful.

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Now remember these aren't maybe the most difficult

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but they are maybe the most difficult ones

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that are also the most common

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because we could have looked at tiny villages is in far away places in the UK but you would never go there.

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These ones at least I think most of you if you're coming to the UK will see on a map, you might read it, you might hear it, you might even need to say it and that's why I wanted to do this video today.

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Today we're going to learn about a common pronunciation feature in English

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that will not only improve your pronunciation

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but it will help your listening skills too and I promise we'll have some fun along the way.

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So if you're ready let's do this.

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Alright guys, let's get straight into it.

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Now here's a scene from a very well -known British TV show called Speaky Blinders

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and I want you guys to focus on the detective alright

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and I want you to focus particularly on the stress he places on certain words.

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Can you do that for me?

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Ok, run the tape.

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you've been accused of impersonating people using terrible accents i'm going

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to ask you some questions what is your name stanley where

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do you live birmingham what do you do i'm a youtuber Don't be silly with me boy.

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No really, I'm a YouTuber.

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I'll ask you that again.

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What do you do?

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Sorry, can we just take a moment?

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Why are you reading the lines in that way?

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Doesn't, yeah.

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No, doesn't it feel natural?

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No. Yeah, yeah, I know what you mean.

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It sounds kind of unnatural to me too, yeah.

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You know, are you feeling okay?

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Are you a bit ill?

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Yeah, I know.

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But like, it's what the director asked me to do.

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Yeah, I'm not really vibing with it.

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Well look mate, you know, the director doesn't know you.

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You've got to show us you.

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Yeah I know, yeah.

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You've got this buddy.

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Yeah, okay, you've got it.

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I'm going to ask you some questions.

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What's your name?

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Stanley.

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Where do you live?

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Birmingham.

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What do you do?

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I'm a YouTuber.

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Don't be daft with me lad.

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What do you do?

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Okay, now let's take the first time the detective asks the question what is your name

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and then the second time and compare the two.

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and see how they're different.

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What is your name?

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Alright, can you tell the difference?

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In the first way he says it, what is your name?

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All the words are equally stressed.

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In the second time he says it, we have a difference in stress pattern don't we?

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The first word is stressed, the second two words are not stressed and the last word is stressed.

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Now this is a really common pattern that we have.

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If we look at the pattern, all those questions questions.

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They started with a wh word so what, where, when.

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Then we had an auxiliary so do or is or are.

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Then you had a pronoun so he, she, it and lastly you had a main verb.

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Now usually with questions like that we would stress the main words, the most important words and that would be what and name.

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Those are the two most important words.

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If I said to you what name you'd probably understand what I said.

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So we put stress on the most important words in a sentence.

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That's a rule that goes across British English pronunciation.

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So he put the stress on what and name.

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Now what did he do in between?

502

Well in the first time he put equal stress on everything

503

but in the second time that he said it those two words were unstressed.

504

The auxiliary of is and the pronoun you're was unstressed.

505

And And the pattern we often find is that auxiliaries often are unstressed.

506

Not always but often.

507

So if I said where do you live?

508

Well I'm stressing all of them there but actually how would I really say it?

509

I say where do you live?

510

So where takes the stress, do you kind of disappears and live also takes the stress.

511

But I want to go a bit deeper into this.

512

Now there's an English language writer called Richard Caldwell and he did a book called Phonology for listening.

513

And what he talks about here is that actually there are three ways

514

that we might say a certain phrase or a certain sentence.

515

There's the greenhouse, the garden and the jungle.

516

Now let me explain that to you.

517

So in the greenhouse, this is when we are very careful,

518

this is when we are saying each word individually with the same stress and pronunciation.

519

So everything is given equal importance.

520

So what does that sound like?

521

What is your name?

522

Then we move into the garden and the garden is a little bit more connected.

523

So it's not each individual word but we are using connected speech.

524

So we are using features like weak forms or linking, that kind of thing.

525

And this is often taught in English classes.

526

So it sounds like what's your name?

527

So we are contracting what is, So what's your name or what's your name?

528

Maybe year, maybe it's a weak form.

529

What's your name?

530

Now that's fine.

531

Okay, that's common and people do use that in speech.

532

And then there's a third type of pronunciation which Richard Caldwell describes as the jungle.

533

And this is the kind of pronunciation that we find in spontaneous speech.

534

It's the one where the speaker just isn't thinking.

535

They just speak spontaneously and they say things and they make mistakes but but they don't think about clarity, they just think about efficiency of communication.

536

So they say something as quickly and as succinctly as they can.

537

They are not necessarily focusing on making every single sound perfect.

538

So what does it sound like?

539

Well it would be something like what's your name?

540

Ok, so that sound, those words now have completely blended right? right?

541

What's your name?

542

Now when we are saying it like that, what's your name?

543

It sounds completely different to what is your name.

544

And this is the kind of pronunciation that in real life situations when you are speaking to very fluent speakers of English, this is the kind of sounds that you are going to have to deal with.

545

And he calls it the jungle because it's wild, it's untamed, it's not always perfect and ordered, it's a bit chaotic.

546

So that's why he describes it as being the jungle

547

and I think it's something

548

that as an English language learner you need to really think

549

about is to not worry too much about the greenhouse because the greenhouse that's not real English.

550

The garden, yeah, people speak with connected speech and what's your name?

551

Yeah, possibly.

552

But the jungle, what's your name?

553

That's the kind of pronunciation that we're going to hear

554

and the kind of listening skills that we're going to need to develop.

555

Let's give you another example.

556

Ok so that second question where do you live?

557

Ok so that's the greenhouse example, very clear.

558

Where do you live?

559

Then we go to the garden and be where do you live?

560

So we've got a kind of shortened version of do and again the weak form of you.

561

So where do you live?

562

Where do you live? And yeah.

563

might say that as possible.

564

But when it comes to the jungle, where do you live?

565

So the do and the you blend together, they come together.

566

So where do you live?

567

So that's that kind of wild, untamed version of the same sentence.

568

We've gone from where do you live to where do you live?

569

So where do you live?

570

Ok, so let's go with another example.

571

What did he say?

572

Ok, let's move to the garden.

573

What did he say?

574

And then let's move to the jungle people.

575

What do you say?

576

Ok, what do you say?

577

Alright, the sounds have completely changed.

578

What do you say?

579

Oh really?

580

What do you say?

581

Right, so you can hear it there.

582

The sounds have completely changed.

583

As I say this is something we really need to focus on in listening skills is focusing in on these blended sounds,

584

these auxiliaries that become unstressed and and they change.

585

They become weak forms, we have contractions, words blend together, that's what we need to focus on.

586

So we're going to do a little practice right now.

587

I've got five questions for you.

588

I'm going to say them first of all in the jungle form, so the hardest form.

589

I'm going to say it twice.

590

Then, and I want you to catch what have I said.

591

Then I'm going to say it in the garden form, so with some connected speech.

592

And then finally we'll look at the greenhouse form and you can see what it was.

593

Alright so five sentences, let's start with number one.

594

What do you want?

595

What do you want?

596

What do you want?

597

What does he do?

598

What does he do? do?

599

What does he do? Where does she live? Where did she live? Where have you been? Where have you been?

600

Alright how was that for you?

601

Did you understand the jungle form or did you have to wait for the garden form to understand all the words?

602

Or maybe you had to wait for the greenhouse.

603

Now what I recommend is that you expose yourself to these sounds

604

and the best way to do that is I think through interviews and dialogues in TV series.

605

So go onto YouTube, find an interview with your favourite singer

606

or actor or whoever or maybe you go and watch Peaky Blinders for example or something like that, a TV show and just start to get a feel for these blended sounds,

607

this sound mush if you will.

608

And if you would like more videos on pronunciation then let me know in the comments below ok?

609

Today I'm going to show you how to pronounce 20 British brands perfectly.

610

Now I have done this video before.

611

Yeah, you can see why I want to redo it, right?

612

Alright, let's do this.

613

Number one British fashion brand Barber.

614

Now this is a pronunciation lesson guys so say it with me ok?

615

Barber.

616

I just got a barber coat for Christmas.

617

Quintessentially British Rolls Royce.

618

Now let's look at the pronunciation there.

619

So you've got that little z sound in the middle there.

620

Rolls Royce.

621

So Rolls Royce make engines for planes.

622

Number three, Marks and Spencer.

623

This is a very popular shop and particularly a supermarket in Britain.

624

Marks and Spencer.

625

Now this is shortened down to M &S.

626

M &S.

627

So if Marks and Spencer is too long for you, you can just say M &S.

628

So I'm just going to pop to M &S to get some food.

629

Number four, Hackett.

630

Now you have the T at the end there.

631

You can pronounce that T so Hackett or as I did there I dropped that T at the end so Hackett.

632

I really want to get a Hackett suit.

633

Number five, Burberry.

634

The stress there on that first syllable, Burberry.

635

So it's three sounds.

636

I love your Burberry coat.

637

Another fashion brand.

638

Paul Smith.

639

You have that dark L sound there, Paul Smith and that th sound on the th, Paul Smith.

640

There's a Paul Smith shop near Borough Market.

641

Number seven, Fortnum and Mason.

642

A really iconic shop in central London, Fortnum and Mason.

643

Let's get them a Fortnum and Mason hamper for their wedding.

644

Number eight, Kath, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, Right, so the cath,

645

again that th sound, that th with the air coming out of your mouth. And then kidston.

646

Now you could say kidston or kidson, it's kind of that t can get lost.

647

So cath kidston or cath kidson, it's up to you.

648

I love the patterns in cath kidson.

649

Number Number nine, Doctor Martins.

650

Now this can be pronounced as Doc Martins.

651

I'm going to buy a pair of Doc Martins when I visit London.

652

Number ten, the tea brand, Twinings.

653

Not Twinings as I've heard it pronounced, Twinings.

654

I'm going to get some Twinings tea for my grandma.

655

Number eleven, Dyson.

656

They do incredible hand dryers and vacuum cleaners.

657

I just bought a Dyson vacuum cleaner.

658

Number twelve, Harvey Nichols.

659

This is a department store, luxurious department store, Harvey Nichols.

660

There's a Harvey Nichols in Hong Kong.

661

Thirteen, Joe Malone.

662

Joe Malone do fragrances and things like that.

663

I bought my partner some Joe Malone perfume.

664

Number fourteen, mulberry.

665

A bit like burberry had that same sound mulberry.

666

So you have the three sounds mulberry, mulberry.

667

I love your mulberry bag.

668

Number fifteen, Dunhill.

669

The stress there on that first syllable, Dunhill.

670

I'd love to get a Dunhill wallet it.

671

Sixteen, whisky, Glenfiddich.

672

Obviously this is of Scottish origin, Glenfiddich.

673

My favourite whisky is Glenfiddich.

674

Number seventeen, commonly mispronounced, Tesco.

675

A lot of people say Tesco's, in fact I've said that many times but it's actually Tesco.

676

I'm just going to Tesco to buy some cheese.

677

Young fashion brand, Jack Wills.

678

There's a sale on at Jack Wills.

679

There's a sale on at Jack Wills.

680

19 Cadbury, just the name makes me hungry.

681

Ok, this is all about chocolate.

682

Cadbury is a famous chocolate brand.

683

Let's say it again, Cadbury.

684

My favourite chocolate is from Cadbury.

685

And finally number 20 British Airways.

686

Now the thing about this one is that this is also shortened down.

687

Just like Marks and Spencer was M &S, British Airways is shortened down to BA.

688

So who are you flying with?

689

I'm flying with BA, I'm flying with British Airways.

690

Ok, those were twenty British brands.

691

Now obviously I have left many brands out

692

so please let me know in the comments below

693

which ones have I forgotten and maybe I can do a part two to this video.

694

Today we are looking at the difference between the light L and the dark L.

695

Alright, it's not the evil L, it's just the dark L.

696

Honestly.

697

Welcome back to another lesson.

698

If you haven't met me before my name is Tom

699

and I teach fresh modern British English so

700

that you can take your English to the next level and achieve your life goals.

701

Today we are looking at L and how it can be pronounced in two different ways.

702

Let's start with the light L.

703

Now we find the light L before a vowel sound and also usually found at the beginning of words.

704

For example look.

705

Now how do we make this sound?

706

Well the tongue is the most important thing.

707

So place the tip of your tongue on the alveolar ridge.

708

That is the top of your mouth.

709

Now I place mine just behind my top teeth.

710

There.

711

Ok?

712

So I place the tip of my tongue just behind my top teeth and I blow air out.

713

Like that.

714

Now it's a voiced sound so you should feel a vibration in your throat.

715

and then to release the sound you release your tongue. So look.

716

Look.

717

Listen.

718

Examples of words with the light L?

719

Long.

720

Lemon.

721

Learn.

722

Language.

723

Unless.

724

The dark L is usually found at the end of words, certainly before a consonant or as the final sound of a word.

725

For example help.

726

Now to make this sound our tongue is really important again.

727

Now what we do here is not touching anything

728

and I bring it back so to To create the sound I withdraw the tongue into my mouth like this. So for example, help.

729

Ok, it sounds strange when I slow it down.

730

So my tongue is coming towards the back of my mouth and that's creating the sound.

731

So the movement of my tongue there is really important.

732

It's coming backwards and then finishing kind of pointing upwards.

733

It's not touching anything ok, that's really important.

734

It's not touching the alveolar edge or my teeth, it's just in my mouth, moves backwards and then upwards to finish the sound.

735

So back and up. So fall.

736

It's important to note that not all British accents use the dark L.

737

Most notably a cockney accent doesn't really use the dark L.

738

There are various other sounds that might be used instead of it.

739

So for example instead of saying school it will be school or full will be full.

740

So it kind of disappears.

741

I always think of it as having the same mouth shape as a w school.

742

I end my mouth in the same shape as a w sound but I'm not saying what I'm just making that shape.

743

So school, pool, full.

744

So the dark L will change and adapt depending on what vowel sounds there are in a cockney accent.

745

But anyway let's get back to looking at a dark L and a light L and comparing the two sounds together.

746

Now what's important to notice is the change of the L sound.

747

So for example we'll take a word like tall.

748

I'm using the dark L sound there, tall, because it's at the end of the word word.

749

But if I make it superlative, tallest, suddenly I've added est,

750

e is a vowel so the l sound of tall has now gone from a dark l to a light l.

751

So it's not tallest, it's tallest.

752

So I'm now using the light l sound.

753

So be aware that even if it's the same word, tall to tallest, more or less the same word, there is a change of sound depending on what's around the main word.

754

So we're using the vowel sound there of est so it becomes tallest.

755

It's also important to look at words together.

756

So for example email address.

757

Email we said was a dark L sound but

758

if the next word begins with a vowel sound that L turns from a dark L to a light L.

759

So it's now email address.

760

So it's not email address, it's email address.

761

So I'm using the light L to blend those two words together.

762

So yes, it's not just about looking at the word individually, you have to look at the other words around it to help you to understand whether it's a dark L

763

or a light L.

764

Another example might be fall over.

765

I fell over yesterday.

766

So we have fell with the dark L but now we've got over which begins with a vowel,

767

it's now fell over.

768

So I'm using the light L to blend those two words together.

769

Alright let's do a little practice sentence to use both the light L and the dark L.

770

Listen to me first and then repeat afterwards.

771

Ok, here we go.

772

So I love language lessons said the tall girl at school.

773

Alright so let's have a look at what l's we are using there.

774

So I love the light l, Language, light l again.

775

Lessons, again the light l.

776

Said the tall, dark l.

777

Girl, dark l.

778

At school, school, dark l again.

779

So you've got three light l's, three dark l's.

780

I love language lessons' said the tall girl at school.

781

Ok, your turn to practice.

782

Ok, alright let's do it one more time together.

783

I love language lessons said the tall girl at school.

784

Practice guys, that's the only way you're going to improve is if you practice.

785

Do it in a voice recorder, do it into the mirror, do it wherever you need to but practice, practice, practice.

786

Can you pass the O -U -G -H pronunciation challenge?

787

I'll give you the word with O -U -G -H, you tell Tell me how to pronounce it correctly.

788

Rough, though, bought, through, plough,

789

cough, thorough, tough, dough, ought,

790

drought, trough, borough, enough, although,

791

thought, slough, this is a town to the west of London.

792

Furlough.

793

Nought.

794

Brought.

795

So as you can see there are a variety of ways that we pronounce the O -U -G -H.

796

We have the uff of rough and tough.

797

We have o like like though and dough.

798

We have or like thought and bought.

799

We have oo like through.

800

We have ow like plough and slough.

801

We have off so cough and trough.

802

And we have the schwa uh thorough, borough.

803

There's no rule here, you just have to learn them individually.

804

So For example cough, you know it's that oh sound, oh, cough, cough.

805

Whereas tough, you have to learn that it's an ah sound, so tough.

806

And over time you'll get used to pronouncing these words correctly.

807

There aren't that many, don't worry too much, but the few that there are, try to get them right.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing Practice: 1 Hour of English Pronunciation - Learn English Speaking with Video

Why This Video Is Perfect for Practicing English Pronunciation

Breaking Down Tricky Words: What Makes Them Sound Natural

A Simple Practice Routine Using the Shadowing Technique

Final Tip: Embrace the "Cheats"

What is the Shadowing Technique?