Shadowing Practice: ENGLISH VOCABULARY - Family Vocabulary! This Vocabulary Builder teaches you all about family - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
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Time to learn some vocabulary.
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Time to learn some vocabulary.
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Family relationships in American English.
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We'll also go over a couple of idioms related to family relationships.
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On a recent family vacation,
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I pulled my family aside and made them go on camera for you.
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So you're going to get to see not only my family,
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but you're going to learn the words we use when describing our relationships.
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And we're really going to focus on pronunciation.
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For example, you should not be pronouncing every sound in this word.
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And this word has two pronunciations.
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I'll put the phonetics up with each word,
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and I really encourage you to practice out loud with this one.
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Listen to how it's pronounced in real life,
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and then practice it with me.
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Let's get started.
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This is my son, Nick.
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This is my dad, Steve.
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Son and dad.
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When you have a child,
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it is a son or daughter.
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Sun is pronounced with the very relaxed UH as in butter vowel.
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Suh, sun, and it sounds just like this word sun as in the sun in the sky.
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There's absolutely no difference in pronunciation.
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Sun.
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Sun.
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Say that with me.
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Sun.
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Let's watch that again.
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This is my son, Nick.
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This is my dad, Steve.
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Dad.
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This is casual but the most common way to say father.
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There's been only a few times in my whole life
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that I've heard someone use the word father outside of something official like filling out a form.
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Dad is just what we use.
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Dad has the AA vowel.
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Jaw drop, tongue lifted in the back, da-ah.
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Dad.
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Say that with me.
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Dad.
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Dad.
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A quick note about father.
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We can also use this idiomatically.
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In this case, it doesn't mean the actual biological father of someone,
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but we can use it to mean a man who has innovated or founded something.
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For example, in philosophy, Petrarch is considered to be the father of humanism.
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His writing and his ideas form the foundation of humanism.
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Henry Ford was the father of the American auto industry.
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Okay, let's keep going.
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This is our mom.
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We're sisters.
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These are my daughters.
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Mom.
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Just like dad, it's more casual but also more common than mother.
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The letter O here makes the ah as in father sound.
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Mom.
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Say that with me.
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Mom.
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Mom.
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This is our mom.
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We're sisters.
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These are my daughters.
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Sisters.
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What a wonderful thing to have a sister.
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I don't have one, but I hear they're great.
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Two syllables stress on the first syllable.
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The R can sometimes mess people up, keep it simple.
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It's unstressed.
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Er, er, er.
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Sister.
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Say that with me.
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Sister.
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Sister.
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Sisters.
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Sisters.
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We're sisters.
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These are my daughters.
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Daughter.
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A-U-G-H.
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Four letters making just one sound.
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The AW as in LAW sound, DAW.
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Daughter.
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The T is a flap T.
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We make a T a flap T when it comes between two vowels.
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H is a consonant, but remember,
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these rules don't apply to letters, just sounds.
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So it does come between two vowel sounds.
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For the flap, the tongue just bounces once against the roof of the mouth, rararar.
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So there's no real tt-t sound in it.
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Daughter.
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Daughter.
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In fact, most Americans would probably describe this flap as a D sound.
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Daughter.
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Just like sister, it ends in the schwa R sound, simple and fast.
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Frr, frr, frr.
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Daughter.
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Daughters.
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These are my daughters.
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We're husband and wife.
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This is my husband, Steve.
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So we have husband and wife.
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They're married.
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Husband.
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Two syllables stress on the first syllable.
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The second syllable has this letter A,
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but really it's almost like there's no vowel in it.
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Bint, bint, bint.
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Husband.
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Notice the S here should be pronounced as a Z sound.
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Hus, hus, husband.
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We're husband and wife.
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This is my husband, Steve.
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Wife.
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One syllable.
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Wife.
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Lips go in to form a really rounded shape,
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ww-w-w-y, then jaw drop, they relax, w-w-w-w-f.
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Then the bottom lip comes up and touches the bottom of the top front teeth.
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Wife.
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Wife.
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We're husband and wife.
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They're married.
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Mary.
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This can sound just like this word,
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marry, or this word, marry.
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Married.
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Married.
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Now don't forget grandparents.
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This is my grandma.
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Grandma.
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The most common pronunciation of this has two dropped sounds.
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You can drop the N and the D.
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Grandma.
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Grandma.
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So the vowel here is a little tricky.
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The AA vowel followed by M.
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Gra-uh.
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You want to relax it.
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Eh, uh.
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Get an uh in there.
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Grandma.
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Gra-uh.
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Gra-uh.
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Grandma.
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Grandma.
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This is my grandma.
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This is my father-in-law, Glenn,
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and he's my son Stoney's grandpa,
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and he happens to be an awesome grandpa because this is what an awesome grandpa looks like.
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Now there I said, grandpa.
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Just like grandma, drop the D.
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But you do need to keep the N sound,
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Or some people definitely do change that into an M.
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Grrampah or Grrampah.
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The M is probably the more common pronunciation.
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Gram, Grandpa.
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So the tongue doesn't go to the roof of the mouth like it does for the N.
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The lips just close in anticipation for the P.
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Grrampah, Grandpa.
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And again, just like grandma,
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get an uh in there.
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Gra-a-a-a-a-am.
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Grandpa.
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Grandpa.
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Say that with me.
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Grandpa.
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This is my father-in-law, Glenn,
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and he's my son Stoney's grandpa,
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and he happens to be an awesome grandpa,
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because this is what an awesome grandpa looks like.
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Glenn is my father-in-law, but first,
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your grandma and grandpa together are grandparents.
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Grandparents.
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You can drop the D and make either an N or an M.
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Grandparents.
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Grandparents.
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Say that with me.
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Grandparents.
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This is my father-in-law, Glenn.
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Father-in-law.
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The in-law.
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Part happens when you get married.
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He's not my dad, he's my husband's dad.
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So he's my father-in-law.
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Remember how I said we almost never use the word father in conversational English?
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That's true.
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But with the in-law, we always use it.
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We don't say dad-in-law.
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So in an in-law phrase,
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it's never the in-law that's stressed.
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That's always unstressed.
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It's the other word that's stressed.
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Father-in-law, fa, father-in-law, mother-in-law, sister-in-law, brother-in-law.
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The one exception is if you just say in-laws.
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You don't put father, mother,
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sister, or brother in front.
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When you say in-laws, you stress the first word in.
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And in this case, it means your spouse's parents.
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In-laws.
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My in-laws are coming next weekend.
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Say that with me.
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In-laws.
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Father-in-law.
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Mother-in-law.
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Sister-in-law.
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Brother-in-law.
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Now just a bit ago,
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I mentioned the word spouse.
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One syllable word, this is the person that you're married to.
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Practice that with me.
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Spouse.
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Spouse.
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This is my mother-in-law, Annabelle.
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Mother-in-law.
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Stress on muh.
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Mother-in-law.
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This is my mother-in-law, Annabelle.
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This is my oldest sister, Audrey.
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Now here, David said oldest sister.
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He has three sisters.
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They're all older than him,
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and Audrey is the oldest.
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He could have also just said older sister.
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Older, oldest, younger, youngest.
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A couple of things to note about these pronunciations.
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Oldest sister.
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Oldest sister.
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David dropped the T in oldest.
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He just pronounced it oldest sister,
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connecting with an S sound.
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Listen again.
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My oldest sister, my oldest sister, my oldest sister.
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We often drop the T between two other consonants.
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The same would also be true for oldest brother.
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We could just drop the T there because it's between two consonants.
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Oldest brother.
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These are very natural and common pronunciations of these phrases.
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The same would be true in youngest sister and youngest brother.
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You can drop the T there.
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Youngest sister, youngest brother.
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One thing I think is interesting about the word young.
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The word on its own is pronounced with an NG ending.
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Young, mmm, no G sound.
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But when you add ER or EST,
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younger, youngest, gg, gg, We do say the G.
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Younger.
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G-g-g.
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Youngest.
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Youngest.
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G-g-g.
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What about brother?
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This is my brother Ian.
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Two syllables stress on the first syllable.
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Brother.
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Brother.
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Same ending as sister.
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Mother.
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Father.
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All of these THE are endings.
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These are tricky.
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This one has a voiced TH right in the middle,
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and I know that can be a challenging sound.
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It's just the very tip that comes through.
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Th-th-th- Light.
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Don't hold the air anywhere.
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Th-th-th- Brother-ther Mother-ther Brother.
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Mother.
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This is my brother Ian.
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I'm Stoney's uncle because I'm married to David's sister.
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Okay, maybe it would be useful now to look at a family tree.
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Leon is Stoney's uncle because Leon married Audrey,
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who is the daughter of Glenn and Annabelle,
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and David is the son of Glenn and Annabelle,
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and Stoney is the son of David.
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Therefore, Leon is Stoney's uncle.
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Uncle.
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We have the letter N,
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but it's actually the NG sound because it's followed by K.
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Unnnnnnnnnn.
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Uncle.
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NG sound.
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Uncle.
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A quick dark L at the end.
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Uncle.
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Oh, oh, oh.
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You don't need to lift your tongue tip,
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just make the sound with the back of the tongue.
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Oh, oh, oh.
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Very short.
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Uncle.
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Uncle.
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The word uncle can be used idiomatically to mean I give up.
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For example, if I was wrestling you and I had you pinned to the ground,
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you might say uncle, which is I give up,
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you won, get off of me.
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Uncle.
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I'm Stoney's uncle as well.
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And what's your relationship to each other?
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We're brother-in-laws.
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Steve is Stoney's uncle, because Steve married Lisa,
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who is the daughter of Glenn and Annabelle,
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and David is also a child of Glenn and Annabelle.
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Steve is Stoney's uncle.
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Steve and Leon are brothers-in-law.
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They're in the same line here,
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but they are not biological siblings.
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And what's your relationship to each other?
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We're brother-in-laws.
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This is our aunt.
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Don't I have a great family?
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Aw, that was a bunch of kids from this level.
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Anyone from this level referring to a female on this level is going to call that person an aunt,
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unless, of course, it's the mother.
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So I'm over here, and those kids were all from here.
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So I'm their aunt.
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You may have noticed they used the pronunciation ant and I used the pronunciation aunt.
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Aunt is more common and it's pronounced just like this word,
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aunt, even though the spelling is different.
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Aunt or aunt.
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Practice these with me.
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Aunt.
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Aunt.
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This is our aunt!
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Don't I have a great family?
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We are cousins.
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Cousins.
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So anyone who is the child of your aunt or uncle is a cousin.
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So everyone in this level relates to each other as cousins.
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Not up and down, but side to side.
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Up and down is called siblings,
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and we'll get to that in a minute.
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Cousins.
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Just like husband, the letter S is the Z sound here.
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Cous-s-s.
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Cousin.
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Practice that with me.
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Cousin.
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Cousin.
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We are cousins!
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This is my nephew, Jacob.
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He's my husband's sister's son.
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Nephew.
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Two syllables stressed on the first syllable.
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PH makes the F sound just like in the word phone or pharmacy.
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Say it with me.
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Nephew.
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Nephew.
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This is my nephew Jacob.
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He's my husband's sister's son.
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These are my nieces.
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Is.
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Niece.
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One syllable, E vowel, ending S sound.
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In the plural, nieces.
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The S adds not just a sound, but a second syllable.
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Nieces.
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Is, is, is, is.
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Words that end in the S sound get an extra syllable in plural.
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To see all of the plural noun rules, check out this video.
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And I'll put a link to it in the description as well.
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Practice these with me.
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Niece.
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Nieces.
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These are my nieces.
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We are siblings.
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People who have the same parents or even one same parent are siblings.
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Audrey, Lisa, Christina, and David all have the same parents.
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They are siblings.
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This set would also be siblings.
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This set would be siblings,
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and this set would be siblings.
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Poor Stoney has no siblings.
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Sibling.
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This is a two-syllable word with stress on the first syllable.
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Sibling.
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The B releases right into the L.
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Bl, bl, bl.
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Sib-l, sibl, sibling.
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Sibling.
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We are siblings.
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This is my grandson, Jacob, and my granddaughter, Emily.
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Grandson and granddaughter.
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For grandson, drop that D.
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Gran, grandson, grandson.
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Try that with me.
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Grandson.
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For granddaughter, well, we need it because it's part of the word daughter.
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Granddaughter.
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Granddaughter.
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Stress is on the first syllable.
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Try that with me.
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Granddaughter.
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Grandson.
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Granddaughter.
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This is my grandson, Jacob, and my granddaughter, Emily.
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This is my boyfriend.
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This is my girlfriend.
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How cute are they?
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When you're dating someone, you can call them your boyfriend or girlfriend.
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Both two-syllable words with stress on the first syllable.
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Try them with me.
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Boyfriend.
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Girlfriend.
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Boyfriend.
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Girlfriend.
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This is my boyfriend.
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This is my girlfriend.
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A couple more terms.
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If someone's sperm or egg makes a baby,
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that is their biological child.
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Biological.
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Someone can also adopt a child that's not biologically theirs.
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If someone has children alone or with one partner,
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and then gets married to someone else later,
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that person's children are now the stepchildren of the new partner.
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And that new partner is a stepmom or stepdad.
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Notice in these compound words,
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the word step is stressed.
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Notice also we do not release the P.
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Stepmom.
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Stepmom.
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The lips close for the P,
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but then just keep going with the next sound.
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Step-mom.
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Step-mom.
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Step-dad.
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Step-daughter.
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Step-son.
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Step-brother.
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Step-sister.
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A companion podcast will be released tomorrow that goes over more about family relationships and some more family idioms.
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This is the Learn English podcast with me.
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Click here to get it,
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or go to iTunes or Stitcher and search Rachel's English.
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Link's also in the description below.
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Check it out, I think you're going to love it.
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If you want to see my absolute latest video, click here.
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If you're new, click here for a Where to Start playlist.
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Click here to subscribe.
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I make new videos on American English every Tuesday.
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To be sure we can keep in touch,
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click here to sign up for my newsletter.
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You'll get free English lessons sent to your inbox every week.
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Context & Background
In the video titled "ENGLISH VOCABULARY - Family Vocabulary", the speaker introduces viewers to essential family-related vocabulary in American English, emphasizing pronunciation and context. By involving his family in a relatable setting, the speaker illustrates the words and phrases used in everyday life when talking about family relationships. This immersive approach not only provides vocabulary but also enriches the viewer's understanding of how these words fit into real-life contexts. As you learn English with YouTube, engaging with authentic dialogues like this one can significantly enhance your language skills.
Top 5 Phrases for Daily Communication
- Son - Pronounced /sʌn/, this term refers to a male child. Remember, it sounds like the sun in the sky.
- Dad - Pronounced /dæd/, this casual term is the most commonly used word for father.
- Mom - This casual term denotes a mother, used frequently in everyday conversations.
- Daughter - Referring to a female child, pronounced /ˈdɔːtər/.
- Father - Although less common in casual speech, this term can also refer to a founding figure in a specific field, like "the father of humanism."
Step-by-step Shadowing Guide
Improving English pronunciation through shadowing can be effectively done using engaging content like the family vocabulary video. Here’s a structured approach to tackle this specific video’s difficulty:
- First Viewing: Watch the video without pausing. Focus on understanding the context and relationships being described.
- Listen for Pronunciation: Pay attention to how words are pronounced. Note the phonetic symbols if provided for clarification.
- Shadowing Practice: Use a shadowing app to repeat after the speaker. Mimic the intonation and rhythm. For instance, say "Dad" and "Son" out loud to practice the correct sounds.
- Break it Down: Focus on one family term at a time. For example, practice "son" until you can say it naturally, then move on to "dad".
- Revisit the Context: After practicing individual words, rewatch the segment to hear how those words fit into sentences. This contextual learning enhances retention and understanding.
By following these steps and consistently practicing, you can greatly improve English pronunciation and fluency. Remember to fully utilize resources like a shadowing app or tools like Shadowspeak for consistent practice. Engaging with real-life content helps create a richer learning experience.
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.
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