hey guys what's up Stefanie the English coach here from EnglishFullTime.com
in this video I'm actually going to share an audio class with you guys okay
I made this class a few weeks ago and it's about 13 words you might be saying
wrong because of silent letters in English so we talked about this a lot on
my channel okay how English is not a phonetic language and if you try to
learn pronunciation by studying the way words are written you're doing it all
wrong and you're just not gonna sound natural like a native speaker and you're
gonna make lots of mistakes okay and I want to help you guys eliminate these
mistakes okay so these are words that lots of non-native English speakers
frequently mess up okay so here's what I want you to do as you're listening to
the class I want you to identify if you're making any of these mistakes okay
and then let me know in the comments if you are okay which words were you
mispronouncing hopefully you are not mispronouncing any of them but chances
are you're probably saying some of these words wrong okay so that's it let me
know also in the comments if you guys like these types of classes okay audio
classes if you do then I can do more for you here on YouTube you guys know that I
love your feedback so thank you for always leaving me such kind and
thoughtful interesting and funny comments that's it you guys let's start
the class I chose to do an audio so that you guys could really hear what I'm
saying and focus on what I'm saying without being distracted by my face or
anything else because this is a pronunciation lesson and the thing with
improving your pronunciation is that anything you see while you're focusing
on listening can and will distract you from what you are hearing and this is a
huge problem because English already is not an easy language to learn when it
comes to pronunciation because it's not a phonetic language and normally you
learn pronunciation right by seeing a word your teacher shows you a word and
then wants you to repeat it the problem with this method is you first learn the
sounds of the letters like H makes the huh sound okay T makes the sound
so first your teacher teaches you the sounds that the letters make but then
when they try to show you a word and help you improve your pronunciation you
mess up because now you're trying to put the sounds that you learned and use them
to form the word rather than listening to how the word actually sounds when
it's pronounced okay so that's why I'm not doing a video with this class
because I really want you to hear what I'm saying and to focus on what you're
hearing and not be distracted by anything else because you can learn
pronunciation just by listening this is like a crazy crazy thing and a big
secret I guess because so many people when they teach pronunciation they teach
it by showing you how to place your lips and how to place your tongue and all of
that stuff and it seems like it should make sense because you're seeing
visually how to do it but then when you try to imitate that it's difficult right
it's difficult and you're focused so much on where your tongue should go
that you're not actually listening and in order to improve your pronunciation
the number one thing you have to do is listen closely so again I'm not doing a
video because I don't want to distract you guys but what I want to talk about
are 13 words that you might say wrong because of silent letters now we talked
about English not being a phonetic language so you cannot you cannot learn
pronunciation by reading okay you have to treat reading in English and speaking
in English you know pronunciation and reading as two completely separate
things the way English is written is not the
way English is spoken you just have to accept that and you have to listen to
what you're truly truly hearing okay so I'm gonna go through some of these words
but before I start going through them I just want to let you guys know that I
have a complete pronunciation guide to get you started with this method of
imitation and you can download it after you listen to this audio okay so go
ahead and get that as soon as you can because I explained this more in detail
and I give you a list of almost 80 words that a lot of people mispronounce
they're very simple everyday words but because they might have silent letters
and stuff like that a lot of people mispronounce them
okay so go ahead and get that guide right after you finish listening to this
okay so let's get started with the 13 words now I can pretty much guarantee
you that almost all of you mess up on at least one of these words and my goal for
you is to learn how to say these correctly and you're gonna learn just by
listening the first word is honest honest now I know you can say that I
know if you're in a quiet place right now if you know you're not around your
family or friends you can just repeat that right after me honest and I know
without a shadow of a doubt that you can say that correctly the problem is that
the way it's spelled is with an H so you see that H and you think like that okay
it's not honnest with an H that H is silent so it's honest and I want to
bring up something else because a lot of you are even reading the vowels in
English phonetically or trying to you bring the vowel sounds from your native
language and then you try to say them in English so the est a lot of you guys try
to say est est like honest honest okay and that is why you have an accent in
English right because you're bringing your vowel sounds and your language
patterns into English rather than just repeating clearly what I say okay so
listen to it one last time honest honest notice I'm not even pronouncing that e
so technically that E is silent also I'm saying nst it's like a very honest
nst nst nst okay I'm going from the N to the ST
honest okay number two receipt receipt I went to the store I bought some stuff
and the cashier gave me a receipt receipt now let's talk about why this
word is difficult this word is difficult because when you read it you see a P you
see a P and you think receipt but when you listen to me say it right now right
if you're not reading it I don't say any P sound I'm saying receipt receipt now
another thing you this is that the last part of the word I
cut it off very quickly okay I don't say receipt
slowly or anything like that I say receipt receipt receipt
there is a melody to every language and you have to learn to hear the melody in
English if you want to sound like a native English speaker okay
receipt so don't say Russy okay don't mess it up just say it exactly as I say
it receipt receipt also something you should notice is that the T I didn't
say receipt with a T with a strong T at the end okay I cut it off and I glottalized
the sound the sound stops in the back of my throat
okay the sound stops in the back of my throat receipt and that's where I cut it
off okay let's go on to the next one Island Island that's really simple isn't
it Island notice that I'm not pronouncing the s I'm not saying iSland
like Hawaii is an iSland I'm not saying that the S is silent so we say Hawaii is
an island or I don't even say AN sometimes I just say N have you
noticed that in English that we reduce the word and and the word and a lot of
the times and we just say N so if you want to sound like more like a native
speaker you could do that too so Hawaii is an island isN isN is an isN is an
becomes isN Hawaii is an island is an island is an island okay and the D at
the end a lot of the times we cut the D off in English we cut off the end sounds
of the words a lot of the time when it ends in a tea or a D sound and this is
how we form connected speech so if you've ever been wondering how to form
connected speech you guys there are people that will make this really
complicated okay they will make you learn hundreds of
rules in order to learn how to do this you do not have to learn all those rules
you just have to listen and imitate okay I've done tons of research on this and I
can tell you that if you really want to understand why for everything like oh
why is this letter silent why is this pronounced like this why is this spelled
like this you will find the answer there is an answer but I'm telling you that
you will have to learn hundreds maybe even thousands of spelling rules
pronunciation rules exceptions to the rules etc you guys it gets really really
complicated so the easiest way to improve your pronunciation without
having to even learn the phonetic alphabet or anything like that is to
listen closely and then play with the sound of your voice what do you hear
okay listen listen listen lately I've been
working on my English accent like my British English accent I love playing
around with accents so this is another thing too you have to be motivated to
practice so if you want to sound more American if you want to sound more
British you know pick the accent that you love the most and then listen to
people that speak like that and imitate them yesterday I was doing this in the
car and you guys like I suck I'm not very good at British English accent right
now but I am choosing one person and I'm watching videos from this one person and
I'm imitating them okay because everybody has a different tone to their
voice everyone has a different mannerism and speaking so if you focus on
following one person listening to one person and sounding like them you just
listen and imitate listen and imitate listen and imitate okay it is that easy
so I hope this is really good news for you guys okay let's move on to the next
one number four answer answer there is a W
when we read it it looks like it should say ansWer but the W is silent so we
just say answer answer number five debt debt it's good to avoid getting into
debt now this word is spelled D E B T and a lot of people say deBt that
is wrong I don't even know what that is like if I hear that word I'm like whoa
what are what are you saying because that sounds nothing like debt
debt so again listen to what I'm saying and
repeat it say what I say don't say what you read okay don't make up stuff just
say what I say all right so debt now here the B is
silent the T is also Glottalized so we don't even say debT okay because that
takes too much effort we're lazy when we speak we want it to be as easy as
possible so we just say debt number six would would now a lot of people see the
L in would like wouLd you pass me a napkin please
they see the L and they say wouLd wouLd so that is why your accent comes out
because you're pronouncing that L and you're not supposed to okay so it's not
wouLd and number seven is should number eight is could but you guys
pronounce this a lot and you say wouLd shouLd couLd okay
and this is why you have an accent it should be would should could alright
great number nine ache like I have a backache
all right the H is silent it looks like acHe like a backacHe right
because there's a CH there but the H is silent and here's another thing we
glottalize this one too so a lot of sounds in English as you guys should
know get cut off because of the glottal stop the glottal stop just means you're
cutting off the sound in your throat okay eight so I have a backache backache
my back hurts right now I have a really bad backache I don't but I'm just using
this as an example alright so right there
I'm literally saying a but I'm cutting off the a sound so quickly to say I have
a backache I have a back eight so you have to burst the sound out of your
mouth the a and cut it off just as quickly as it starts to say ache without
the K part because we just take that off my back hurts because
I'm backache and I need to go to the store to get some medicine for it okay
next ten you guys this is a big one and I really really want you to all stop
saying this incorrectly okay huge the word is months like it's ten months till
my birthday it isn't that's just an example or in
three months I'm gonna travel to Europe okay that's another example months now
people see the th there and they say monThs okay monThs how else do they say
this wrong I don't I don't remember but all you have to do is see it doesn't
even matter it does not matter how people say it incorrectly
what matters is saying it exactly the way I say it and the first part is MA
okay then you have the N moN and then you have the S right after moNthS moNthS
moNthS okay I hope that was clear eleven this word is difficult a lot of people
mess this up and I even had to ask myself how can I even teach this because
when I try to say it slowly I kept messing it up myself and I need to tell
you guys something a lot of English teachers when they slow
down words to show you how to pronounce it they actually distort the word
because sometimes it's very difficult to slow down a word and maintain the
original sound that that word has because for example a word that has a
glottal stop the glottal stop happens so quickly it's difficult to show people in
slow motion and sometimes it's literally impossible so just bear that in mind the
next word is text text okay like yesterday she sent me ten texts and all
I could think about was you know I'm busy and I don't have time to reply okay
or hey I sent you some texts yesterday did you get them I sent you some texts
yesterday did you get them I sent you some text there's a T in there so it
looks like you should say texts with the T okay but that's not how we
say it we just say hey I think you some texts did you get'em I sent you some
texts did you get'em I sent you some texts did you get'em
alright and there you can even hear more fast speech
I'm not saying did you get them I'm saying did you did you and I'm not even
saying you I'm saying yeah did you get them did you did you get them alright so
here's the thing you guys when it comes to pronunciation trust me on this all
you need to do is listen and don't be afraid to listen to people speaking at a
normal rate a lot of times you think oh I don't understand or I'm struggling I
can't copy it as quickly don't worry listen to people at a normal rate and
then practice repeating chunks of what you hear so if I say for example hey I
sent you a bunch of texts yesterday did you get them
you maybe cannot repeat that at the same rate that I say it you probably
understood it but since you can't repeat it at the same rate practice the part
that you can repeat I sent you a bunch of text yesterday did you get them
maybe you can repeat the did ya did ya or did you get'em did you get'em notice
I'm not saying them I'm saying em did you get'em alright the next one is
muscle muscle muscle we go to the gym to build muscle alright the C is silent
it's not musCle it's muscle muscle and I know you can say that I know that if
you were sitting with me here right now I'm in my room I'm at my desk if you
were here with me okay and I said muscle just like that
and you closed your eyes and listen to how I said it you would be able to
repeat it and you would sound almost exactly like me because you're focusing
on imitation alright so the next one is Wednesday Wednesday I have a dentist
appointment on Wednesday Wednesday now here's how people usually mess this up
they say weDnEsday weDnEsday because there's a D in there the D is
silent okay it's day Wednesday obviously I have an
American accent so other people might say it a little bit differently but
remember you have to just focus on one accent and learn that Wednesday the
other thing is that it sounds like wins wins like win like to win something it
does not sound like weds it's not an E sound okay it's not Wed nest day or
Wednesday Wednesday nobody says WEdnesday we say Wednesday
Wednesday okay I mean maybe somebody says it somewhere
but again when I'm what I'm saying nobody says it like that I'm talking
about nobody that speaks with my accent I'm from California so if you want an
American and Californian accent then you should focus on imitating my speech or
someone else you know who's from the same region who speaks like me and who
you would like to imitate okay so here again I need to make this really clear
if you want to improve your pronunciation you need to focus on
listening clearly and imitating that is it that is it if you hear that you're
saying something incorrectly like a lot of people roll there are in English they
say Red instead of red red I have a red car they'll say I have a Red caR
okay you know we do not roll our R's in English so right there that would be one
of your problem areas and you need to listen and you need to focus on okay how
do I do that what should I do okay and it's gonna be
frustrating but do you know what I've noticed
whoever is dedicated to improving their pronunciation by listening and repeating
listening repeat listen repeat listen repeat whoever is dedicated they always
learn the correct pronunciation the people who struggle with pronunciation
for years and years and years 99% of the time it's because you simply do not
practice okay you simply do not take the time to listen and repeat and you have
settled for your pronunciation you may not like your pronunciation but you
don't dislike enough to do something about it and to
change it okay so you have to be bothered enough by your own
pronunciation or you have to want better pronunciation enough to actually do
something about it because if you don't you will not improve that's the name of
the game you guys language is like music it is musical there's rhythm there's
flow there's tone there's melody okay and a singer does not improve if they
don't sing and if they don't work on improving specific aspects of their
voice while they sing okay you have to do the same thing if
you want to improve your pronunciation but again the method is very simple and
that is what I wanted to talk to you about today showing you in illustrating
with these words that have silent letters all you have to do is listen
closely and imitate again the problem is most of you read English more than you
listen to it and a lot more than you speak it so that the way it's written
you're inserting sounds from your own language you're reading sounds
phonetically which you shouldn't be doing okay and you have two separate
written English as I said from spoken English to improve your pronunciation
please just listen to what I say and imitate it okay that's it for this
lesson if you enjoyed it please share and don't forget to download your guide