Daily English - Day 24

And they are both produced exactly the same way, except the F sound is unvoiced and the V sound is voiced. They are both produced by contacting your upper teeth to your lower lip. It sort of feels like you're biting down on your lower lip. Vuh, vuh, vuh, vuh, like that. Now remember, all that voicing means is that your vocal cords here in your throat are vibrating and making a sound. So the F sound is unvoiced and sounds like this. And the V sound is voiced and sounds like this. Vuh. Correctly pronouncing these sounds will make your speech much clearer and you more intelligible. Like the TH sounds from the last session, Fs and Vs are friction sounds and are not that loud. So we stretch these sounds out a little bit so they can be clearly heard. Let's start by looking at the F sound in the word foot. Now, many foreign speakers may use the right positioning by biting down on their lower lip, but they still keep the F very short and they don't create air friction. Therefore, you do not hear the F clearly and it sounds like foot. That's no good. Let me show you what you need to do. First, think of the word as having two beats. Hold the F sound for the first full beat. Like that. Do it again. Do you see how long I am holding that F? Now, I know that's a little bit exaggerated, but you get the idea. You need to hear the air friction. When practicing, try to give the F one beat. Let's work with words beginning with the letter F. Here we go. Fine. Finally. Family. Freedom, with a strong R. Family. Freedom. Laugh. Notice the G-H combination in that word. Laugh. Telephone. Notice the P-H combination in that word is also pronounced as an F. Telephone. It's the same thing in this next word. Symphony. This is a tricky one because you've got the M sound followed by an F sound. Symphony. And the last word, rough. Notice the G-H combination in that word. Rough. Rough. Let's work on this paragraph. Do you feel like a physical wreck? Are you fed up with your feeling of fatigue? Have you had enough of feeling rough? Why don't you fight fever with Pharaoh's friend? A medicine that is tough on flu. Very good. Okay, now let's talk about the V sound. First of all, like the F sound, don't make the V sound too short. Let's look at the word vote. You've got to stretch out the V, like this. Vote. Are you hearing that long V sound? That's what you should be doing. Now, depending on your native language, you may be replacing your V sounds for W sounds. Be careful not to do this. The word is not vote. It's vote. Every V that you will see in English is made with this lip-biting position. V, V, V. When you see a V, it's never W, W, W. It's never a W sound. It's always V. Vote. Like that. Let's practice some words with the V sound. Here we go. Vine. Oven. Evaluate. Let's practice some words with the V sound. Here we go. Vine. Oven. Evaluate. Voice. Travel. River. The strong R. River. Every. And now at the ends of words. Glove. Alive. And leave. Leave. This last word, leave, is very different from the word leaf, like from a tree, which has an unvoiced F. The word is leave, with a voiced V. Keep the voicing going throughout the whole word, and voiced V. Leave. Like that. If you stop the voicing at the end of the vowel E, then you would be saying leaf, with an unvoiced F. And the word we're trying to say is leave, with that voiced V. Okay. Now let's look at paired words with F and V. You will see here that just by adding voicing, you can completely change the meaning of the word. Here we go. Feel. Veal. Safe. Save. Fat. That. Fine. Vine. Face. Fan. Van. Foul. Vowel. Proof. Prove. Very good. Okay, now we're going to work on listening exercises and ear training. I am going to display some words with V sounds. However, some words I'll be saying correctly, and then some others I'll purposely say incorrectly. I want you to listen carefully to my pronunciation and to the voicing of the V sounds and see whether or not you can tell if I am saying the word correctly or incorrectly. Here we go. Here's the first word. Stove. I cooked dinner on a hot stove. Was that correct? No. I should have said stove. Stove. I cooked dinner on a hot stove. With a voiced V. Next word. Five. Three. Four. Five. Correct? Yes, I said five with a voiced V. Leaf. I'm in a hurry and I need to leaf. Is that correct? No. It's not leaf with an unvoiced F. I should have said leave with a voiced V sound. Leave. She just received her international visa. Correct? No. I said visa with an unvoiced F. I should have said visa with a voiced V. Visa. Living. I am living in a house. And the V sound is voiced. It sounds like this. Correctly pronouncing these sounds will make your speech much clearer and you more intelligible. Like the TH sounds from the last session, F's and V's are friction sounds and are not that loud. So we stretch these sounds out a little bit so they can be clearly heard. Let's start by looking at the F sound in the word foot. Now many foreign speakers may use the right positioning by biting down on their lower lip but they still keep the F very short and they don't create air friction. Therefore you do not hear the F clearly and it sounds like foot. That's no good. Let me show you what you need to do. First, think of the word as having two beats. One. Two. Hold the F sound for the first full beat. Foot. Like that. Do it again. Foot. Do you see how long I am holding that F? Now I know that's a little bit exaggerated but you get the idea. You need to hear the air friction. When practicing, try to give the F one beat. Foot. Let's work with words beginning with the letter F. Here we go. Fine. Finally. Family. Freedom. With a strong R. Family. Freedom. Laugh. Notice the GH combination in that word. Laugh. Telephone. The PH combination. Telephone. The PH combination in that word is also pronounced as an F. Telephone. It's the same thing in this next word. Symphony. This is a tricky one because you've got the M sound followed by an F sound. Symphony. And the last word. Rough. Notice the GH combination in that word. Rough. Rough. Let's work on this paragraph. Do you feel like a physical wreck? Do you feel like a physical wreck? Are you fed up with your Are you fed up feeling with your feeling of fatigue? Have you had enough? Have you had enough of feeling rough? of feeling rough? Why don't you fight fear? Why don't you fight fever with Pharaoh's friend? A medicine that is A medicine that is tough on flu. Tough on flu. Very good. Okay, now let's talk about the V sound. First of all, like the F sound, don't make the V sound too short. Let's look at the word vote. You've got to stretch out the V like this. Vote. Are you hearing that long V sound? That's what you should be doing. Now, depending on your native language, you may be replacing your V sounds for W sounds. Be careful not to do this. The word is not vote. It's vote. Every V that you will see in English is made with this lip-biting position. V, V, V. When you see a V, it's never W, W, W. It's never a W sound. It's always V. Vote. Like that. Let's practice some words with the V sound. Here we go. Vine. Oven. Evaluate. Practice some words with the V sound. Here we go. Vine. Oven. Evaluate. Voice. Travel. River. The strong R. River. Every. And now at the ends of words. Glove. Alive. And leave. Leave. This last word, leave, is very different from the word leaf, like from a tree, which has an unvoiced F. The word is leave with a voiced V. Keep the voicing going throughout the whole word and voiced V. Leave. Like that. If you stop the voicing at the end of the vowel E, then you would be saying leaf with an unvoiced F. And the word we're trying to say is leave with that voiced V. Okay. Now let's look at paired words with F and V. You will see here that just by adding voicing, you can completely change the meaning of the word. Here we go. Feel. Veal. Safe. Save. Fat. That. Fine. Vine. Face. Fan. Van. Foul. Vowel. Proof. Prove. Very good. Okay. Now we're going to work on listening exercises and ear training. I am going to display some words with V sounds. However, some words I'll be saying correctly and then some others I'll purposely say incorrectly. I want you to listen carefully to my pronunciation and to the voicing of the V sounds and see whether or not you can tell if I am saying the word correctly or incorrectly. Here we go. Here's the first word. Stove. I cooked dinner on a hot stove. Was that correct? No. I should have said stove. Stove. I cooked dinner on a hot stove. With a voiced V. Next word. Five. Three. Four. Five. Correct? Yes. I said five with a voiced V. Leaf. I'm in a hurry and I need to leaf. Is that correct? No. It's not leaf with an unvoiced F. I should have said leave with a voiced V sound. Leave. Visa. She just received her international visa. Correct? No. I said visa with an unvoiced F. I should have said visa with a voiced V. Living. I am living in a house. And. Finish. Very good. Okay. Let's do some sentences now. The fishing trip. The fishing The fishing trip was planned. And we left to go to the ocean. Very good. Okay. Let's do some sentences now. And we left to go to the ocean. The fishing trip was planned. And we left to go to the ocean. Was the chef ashamed to use the precious sugar? Left to go to the ocean. Was the chef ashamed to use the precious sugar? Sharon gave a special show. A special performance. He will be stationed in Washington, D.C., the nation's capital. He will be stationed in Washington, D.C., the nation's capital. She went to a fashion show after taking a shower. Shower. She sells seashells She sells seashells by the seashore. The social club was praised for their cooperation. Cooperation. Seashore. The social club was praised for their cooperation. Now try this. Joe's weather machine shows a sharp drop in air pressure. In air pressure. Now try this. Joe's weather machine shows a sharp drop in air pressure. Especially offshore. Especially offshore. Ships in motion on the ocean should be sure to use caution. Very good. Now let's work on the voiced S-H sound. Very good. Now let's work on the voiced S-H sound. To produce this sound, first make a S-H sound, and then you add voicing. Like that. Now for some people this may take a little bit of practice. You should feel the vibrations right here in your throat. Believe it or not, this is a very important sound in American English. Many non-native English speakers mispronounce words with this sound. Especially the words usual and unusual. Which are very, very common. If you are someone that pronounces the word usual as you-ual, I'm telling you, you are not being understood. Let me show you how to pronounce the word usual correctly. Break it up into three syllables. You ju-al. That second syllable ju-al, the one with the underline, needs to be voiced. Put your hand on your throat and feel for the vibration in the second syllable. You-ju-al. Now put it together. You-ju-al. You-ju-al. Like that. Now try unusual. Un-you-ju-al. Like that. Very good. Now let's practice some more words. It may help if you keep your hand right here on your throat to feel the vibrations. Here we go. Vision. Visual. Conclusion. Asia. Version. Division. Casual. Zzz. Casual. Television. Very good. Now, there are only a few words that have the voice zzz sound at the end. A few of these words are the color beige, the word massage, and the word prestige. Prestige. Okay, now that you are great at this, let's go over some sentences. It's not unusual. It's not unusual for people to study. For people to study division. Division. In Asia. I usually. Use a measuring cup to measure erosion. I usually use a measuring cup to measure erosion. Enrosion. The beige walls. Were the usual color. Were the usual. Color in the treasury. In the treasury. Building. Very good. you'll find in your manual that there is a worksheet where you can list things that you would consider usual and things that you would consider to be unusual. For practice, fill this in and then read your answers out loud in full sentences like this. It's usually hot in the summer and it's unread your answers out loud in full sentences like this. It's usually hot in the summer and it's unusual for me to be late for an appointment. Great. Well now it's time to go and practice. You may want to wait a day or two and then watch this training session again. You'll find that seeing this video again will probably be very helpful.