Mastering Pronunciation (Vowel Sounds)

We'll probably also get sidetracked along the way and cover more things that come up organically. To get sidetracked, means to deviate from your initial goal or task. It's in the description of the episode itself, on Spotify, or wherever you are listening. Alright, let's jump in. You are listening to episode 21 of season two of English with Thing. Hit it. Okay, we have officially started the show, so let's talk pronunciation.

We're not going to talk about accents, we're going to stick to pronunciation. If you want to know my thoughts on accents, there are whole episodes dedicated to that subject, so go check those out. Pronunciation is different. It's not about the overall pattern, it's about accuracy and producing the appropriate vowel sounds, consonant sounds, the right syllable stress, etc. Let's start with vowel sounds.

I wanted to quickly point out, quería señalar, I wanted to point out that these sounds will be based roughly on my accent, which is much more American than anything else. So these vowel sounds will vary a bit depending on where the speaker is from. Just bear that in mind. So Spanish has five vowel sounds, lose, A, I, o, U, right? Nice. Standard American English has around 15 to 16 vowel sounds, depending on how finely you count. Let's say 15 and be conservative about it.

So three times the vowel sounds, that is basically three times the vowel sounds that Spanish has. If you haven't grown up in an English-speaking context, it's probable that you find it difficult, que te resulta difícil, that you find it difficult to make these sounds. You're not sure where to place your tongue in your mouth, what part of your voice to engage, if you need to open or close your throat more, or whatever. So that's what I want to change, and here's how we're going to do it.

Let's focus on three of the vowel sounds that come up the most in English that Spanish speakers tend to not quite get down. To get something down means to practice something until you've mastered it or to a place where you're comfortable with it. So we're going to look at the three vowel sounds or three of the vowel sounds that most people still haven't gotten down.

The first one I want to talk about is the you sound, lau, the u sound in words like bus, trust, cup, love, and a million other words that uh sound. If you see it written in the International Phonetic Alphabet, it looks like an upside-down V, una V al revés, like a little teepee, one of those Native American tents. So the uh uh sound. This vowel sound lives somewhere between an A and an O, entre la A y la O, which means that a lot of Spanish speakers will choose one or the other.

We change it to the Spanish A sound. We say bas. El estaba en el bus, turns into he was on the bus. He was on the bus. You can see that it happens with was too, no? Was, bas. It should be was and bus. I've noticed in like Cuban or Dominican type accents, that same uh sound turns into an O. So on the voz. I was on the voice. Nailed it. So when you do a stereotypical accent like that, that's one of the things you'd really emphasize, no? On the vos. In Spain, it would be on the vas.

So in the absence of the uh sound, which is what we want, we either get an A or an O sound instead, una A o una O. Let's change that. So here's what I want you to do. And I want you to try this wherever you are, okay? Try this. The first step is to relax. Relax your mouth, don't smile, don't pout, nothing. Fully, fully relaxed. Now drop your jaw a little bit. Tu mandibula, drop your jaw. Your tongue should be flat and relaxed in the middle of your mouth. Now the sound is going to be quick.

You don't want to drag it out. No lo alargues. Don't drag it out. Uh uh. Like a caveman, uh, uh. Exaggerate it, make it silly, hit your chest while you do it. Just get loose. Suéltate, get loose, uh, uh. It's not an ah, it's not an oh. Your lips should feel much more relaxed oh, no? Your lips are much more relaxed. And it's not oh, it's uh, uh, uh. I hope you're trying this, because if you're not, I feel like an idiot. So humor me, okay? So now let's insert this sound into the word.

So uh, uh, bus, bus, bus, no es bas, resisted. Don't open your mouth. Bus, keep it relaxed. I mentioned also that was also has this sound, no? Was, bus, was, bus. If it's sounding a bit different, it's because of the s sound. It's different in each word. When we say bus, we can make that s sound with just our mouth, right? Solo con la boca. We're just forcing air through our teeth. This is called an unvoiced consonant. Unvoiced porque no estás usando tu voz. It's just the air through your teeth.

You're not activating your vocal cords. The s sound in was is different though. Now you have to make your vocal cords vibrate. It should sound like when you imitate a mosquito, no? Zzzz. You have to actually make more of an effort for this sound, right? It's a bit more demanding. Zzzz. This is what we call the voiced consonant because to make the sound, you have to engage your voice, right? Your vocal cords. You have to use your voice.

So now add this zzz sound, the mosquito sound, to was, was, was. So it's was, not was. And see how different it is to bus? Now that you know how to make that uh sound and that you know about voiced and unvoiced consonants, let's put it all together and say, I was on the bus. I was on the bus. I was on the bus. Make sure that uh, uh sound is coming through, and then make sure that first z and s are there too. I was on the bus.

Keep practicing that until you feel comfortable and you can relax through it. This uh sound that we're talking about is everywhere in English. It's amazing. Amazing has that sound. That first a in amazing is that uh uh sound. Amazing. Once you start using it a bit more, you'll start to really see it everywhere, I promise. And now that you know the voiced and unvoiced consonant thing, you can apply that to really polish para pulir, to polish your pronunciation.

There are some consonant sounds that are always voiced, by the way. The M and N sound, for example. Man, nine, always voiced. Also that consonant sound in sing, right? That nasal sound, sing, always voiced. The so-called liquid consonant sounds like the L sound and that r sound that gives us trouble in words like rabbit, not rabit, but rabbit, both voiced. And also the glide sounds, right? They glide, the y sound in yes, and the w sound in water, always voiced.

In contrast, there are some vowel sounds that are always unvoiced, right? Like the p in pat, the k in cat, and the t in top. You can make these sounds without engaging your vocal cord. These sounds are what are called stops. And you don't have to learn the names, of course. I just think it's interesting and thought I'd tell you. So all voiced. I know it's ridiculous making these sounds into the microphone, but I want you to try to practice these. Just try to make the sounds and have fun with it.

You don't need to know all of them. It's just good to be aware that these distinctions exist. Another vowel sound that Spanish speakers often have trouble with is that i sound. In Spanish, we just have that e sound that we find in words with double e in English, like need, speed, feed, and so on. And then there's that voiced zzz sound again. Not he is here. Most Spanish speakers will go to that e sound and then add the unvoiced ss sound, so we get is.

We literally want the other two sounds, so we want i and zz. So the i sound that we're looking for, that i is really similar to the uh we started with. The only thing we need to change is the tongue placement. So relax your mouth again, and now that you know how to make that uh uh sound, just start to move your tongue up in your mouth, and you'll start to feel how that space that your tongue takes up, que ocupa, that space your tongue takes up, makes the i sound happen. So try that.

Notice what happens to your tongue if you say i como la i latina, i. You have to flex your tongue and pull your cheeks out. No sacas un poco los cachetes, you pull your cheeks out and smile a bit, right? Then go back and forth and notice the difference. Now let's put everything together. Say the bus is here, the bus is here, and really exaggerate the sounds. The bus is here, the bus is here. Now in past tense, the bus was here, the bus was here, the bus was here.

Say these two sentences over and over for the next few days. I mean, not to a crazy level, but you know what I mean. So you can keep calibrating the sounds to get comfortable with them until it feels natural. Once you feel pretty good with these sounds, next time you're watching a show, choose a line from that show. Choose a line that has some of these sounds and remember it, write it down if you want, and practice that one too.

You'll start to really get a sense of when to use these vowel sounds. This works, I promise. It's called shadowing. Well, shadowing is really when you hear someone say something, a native speaker, and repeat what they say right after, as if you were their shadow. That's ideal. If you can watch a TV show and just copy random lines different characters say, like right after, that's the best. But it's really annoying if you're watching with company.

The third sound I wanted to address is the ah sound in cat, have, and back. It's like that ah sound when you don't believe someone or when someone makes a point that you don't think makes any sense and you go, ah, it's closer to that than ah. It's ah. There's a bit of a drag to it. I don't think the difference between this vowel sound and the Spanish vowel sound is as pronounced as the first two examples. This one is slightly more subtle, masutil. It's more subtle, but the difference is there.

It's not cat, it's cat, a tongue should be flatter, masplana, should be flatter, and your mouth a little wider. Bass, for example, lubina, bass. You can say bass and bus to practice alternating between the two vowel sounds. Bass, bus, bass, bus, ah, and uh. I think the key to making this sound is to smile a bit more than what you think it should be.

I think we often play it a bit conservative when making these new sounds, when we should actually be exaggerating them and being a little silly, even to really feel and and establish what they should feel like and make it easier to recall. Exaggerate it first and then rein it in. Rein esquito R-E-I-N. To rein something in means to control or to limit something, right? Contener o controlar, to rein something in. Work on these three sounds, these three vowel sounds.

Maybe you already have them down, but you don't use them because you feel a bit unsure and you don't want to take a gamble, no te quieres arriesgar, you don't want to take a gamble and say it wrong, so then you revert to your comfort zone of Spanish sounds. If that's the case, if that's if I just described you, it's you who has to use them more than anyone. Don't be afraid to take that next step. All right, before we finish off, let's do a quick strange news segment.

Let's get some vocabulary in. I feel like we didn't really get too much vocabulary with the vowel sound stuff, so let's go through this article and see what we find. This is from something that happened just a few days ago, which I'm sure you've seen on social media by now. A guy who takes a hat from a kid while at a tennis match. Just such an asshole. If you haven't seen it, go find it. Let's read about it in the meantime.

It says Polish CEO Piotr Serek, hope I'm saying that right, definitely not, faces backlash after snatching a signed cap meant for a young fan at the US Open. The incident, caught on camera, has sparked outrage, debate over fan behavior, and put the businessman under heavy scrutiny. So this man has been put in the global limelight and not for the right reasons.

After Polish tennis player Kamil Matchrak, definitely saying that wrong, defeated ninth seed Karen Kacchanov, he walked over to the crowd to sign a cap for a young fan. But before the boy could reach out, Serek, CEO of a paving company called Drogbrook, grabbed the cap and tucked it away in his partner's bag. To face backlash, Del Jundo means to receive strong negative reaction or criticism from people, usually in the public eye.

So he's facing backlash for being an asshole and getting caught in 4K, as they say. The incident sparked outrage, to spark, as in Chispa, means to trigger something quickly, and outrage would translate to indignacion. So it sparked outrage, and now he's getting blasted online. The clip went viral, and fans blasted the act as entitled, disgusting, and a disgrace to sportsmanship. Many even called on the US Open to ban Serek from future matches. Entitled is a good word.

So people are calling this guy entitled, which fits, to be honest. The kid, by the way, ended up getting to meet the actual player who signed the cap and got a bunch of merch, and the situation obviously ended really nicely for the kid. But this CEO guy is really getting it. Apparently, the company stock has fallen pretty dramatically, which is insane. The power of virality is immense. He had to come out and issue a public apology. There's a collocation, by the way.

You issue an apology when it's like in the press and in the public eye. If it's your friend, you just apologize. I feel like the CEO that got caught having an affair at the Coldplay concert is so happy this whole thing happened. Anyway, all right, let's end it. That's it for this episode of English with Dane. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you got something from it. If you did, share it with someone who you think would enjoy it too.

Follow me on Instagram and TikTok for more content and random stuff. Put more quizzes out. Yes, I will put more quizzes out. And yeah, have a good week. And practice these sounds. Don't let this just be something that you hear me talk about and you think, oh yeah, it's true. Yeah, no, maybe he's right. Oh yeah, this is how you make the sound. And then you just don't do anything this week. I don't want to guilt trip you, but just give it a few minutes.

Give it one minute a day of trying to make these sounds and finding which words have the uh sound, the ah sound, the i sound, and just you know, practice it. No pressure, be curious about it, talk to your friends, talk to your roommates, talk to your kids, talk to your wife, talk to your husband, see if they can make the sound, make it fun. All right, okay, talking too much. Later,