How to Say English Letters: American English Alphabet Pronunciation

hi guys and welcome to the clear English corner I'm Keenan your personal American English pronunciation coach let me ask you have you ever been in a situation where you're sharing information like your name or maybe the street that you live on or perhaps you're having a conversation and there's a certain word that's unclear between you and your listener and you might be asked to spell something out this can be helpful sometimes or it can make things more tricky depending on how you're pronouncing the letters of the English alphabet the tendency for a lot of non-native speakers is to pronounce the letter names in a more short and choppy fashion this can make some of the letter names hard to distinguish and others really difficult to understand this problem can be solved by learning to give more emphasis to the vowel sounds that are at the core of the letter names so in this lesson we're going to talk about pronouncing the letter names of all the letters in the English alphabet this is going to really help you in those instances where you're asked to spell something out and be sure to stay tuned to the end of the lesson where I'll give you a bonus tip on using stress emphasis and pausing when spelling to make sure that these interactions are clear and successful so let's dive in so you can see what I mean by emphasizing these vowel sounds alright starting first with the letter A a the name of this vowel sound is the same as what I call the letter name a vowel sound same as in the word gray same or complain for this vowel sound and then name of this letter you want to drop your jaw and bring it back up eh eh there's two parts to this sound and you can get them both by dropping the jaw and bringing it back up you need more movement to emphasise this sound a a B and our next four letters have the same vowel sound e e the sides of the lips retract just a bit for this sound and you want to give it more stretch more duration and a little more energy e our lips come together for the sound and go into the vowel e b b see again that e vowel sound following the consonant see C D D again the e vowel sound if you just hold that sound a little longer give it a little stretch and start first with the tongue up behind the teeth to the alveolar Ridge for the done sound d d e e the name of this letter is the same as what I call again the letter name vowel sound e that we just worked on with our previous few letters e e F F we start first with the vowel sound and as in red or bed a and you're gonna drop your jaw just a bit for this sound and then roll into the consonant by letting your teeth and bottom lip come together F and G there's that e vowel sound again gee starting first with the Jazz in joke consonant going into the e vowel sound g g h h there's that a vowel sound again where we're dropping the jaw and bringing it back up then moving into the Jazz in chips consonant sound h h next 1i i again the name of this letter is the vowel sound that i call the letter name i as in white or bike again you need more movement for this sound the jaw is going to drop down and come back up i i j j r a vowel sound with that jaw dropping down and coming back up egg with the consonant jo as in joke right before that j j ke ke again the a vowel sound with the jaw dropping and coming back up coming after the consonant sound where the back of the tongue is rising up towards the palate ke ke now the consonant is an air puff sound meaning it's made with a tiny puff of air and you want to make sure that k gets the puff of air or else it may sound more like gay ke ke now our next three letters all start with the vowel sound ah as in red l with the f owl sound rolling into the dark L where the back of the tongue is coming back and down L L or you can pronounce an L by bringing the tip of the tongue behind the top front teeth to the alveolar Ridge you just want to hold your tongue there l just want to make sure you give a little more emphasis to that a vowel sound L M again we start with that a vowel sound dropping the jaw just a bit and bringing the lips together for the M consonant with Eric flowing out through the nose and um next comes N and again our a vowel sound rolling into the continent where the tip of the tongue comes up to the alveolar Ridge behind the top front teeth and the air is flowing out the nose and and then we have oh oh another letter name that is a vowel sound on its own the Oh as in gold or no for this sound you want to make sure those lips are really rounding out and stretch the sound give it a little more duration oh oh you don't want it to be oh oh you want oh oh then we have P P again our e vowel sound coming after the consonant where the lips come together P P again the is another of those air puff sounds meaning it's made with a tiny puff of air being released P you want to make sure you have that air puff or else it might sound more like B P p q q our vowel sound in this letter name is the you you want to make sure that your lips are rounding out for this sound so we're going from the continent where the back of the tongue rises up to the palate and then the lips are moving forward q q then we have our R we have the AA vowel sound moving into the herb are you want to really drop your jaw for that aa vowel sound our R and s s again this letter name starts out with that a vowel sound where you're dropping the jaw just a bit and moving into the consonant s s then T T again the e vowel sound coming after the consonant that with the tip of the tongue coming behind the teeth to the alveolar Ridge and this is another era you want to make sure that there's a tiny puff of air releasing with that in T T or else it might sound more like the D try it with me t T then we have you you again the name of this letter is the vowel sound u as in the word cute or the word you for this vowel sound we're gliding from the yeah - boom you you you want to make sure that those lips are really rounding out for this sound you you moving on to V V again that e vowel sound coming after the consonant where the top teeth are connecting with the bottom lip move our vocal cords are engaging for the voiced v v then w w the first part of this letter name the word double-double as in taking something x 2 we're doubling double u there's that you sound again with our lips around out gliding from the yuck rounding out to you w w then moving on to X X the vowel sound starts this one dropping the jaw just a bit for ad then moving into a consonant blend the sound and the consonant X X then Y why we have the I vowel sound where that jaw is dropping down and coming back up I I coming after the what consonant why you want to really round your lips for that what what sound thin the jaw dropping down and up for the I why why and last but certainly not least Z Z again our e vowel sound coming after the consonant is made just like the consonant sound except you're adding your voice this is a voiced sound Z Z all right so let's run through all these letter names together from the top are you ready say I'm with me a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z nice job so definitely adding a little more emphasis and energy to the vowel sounds that are at the core of all these letter names will definitely make them more clear when you're spelling another thing that you want to keep in mind an extra bonus tip to being clear when you're spelling something you want to deliver your letters in chunks of two to four letters and your emphasis is going to fall on the last letter in your chunk then you can pause for just a second before moving on to the next chunk of letters so for example if I'm spelling my name I'm going to break it down into two chunks of three letters K e e and Y and my emphasis is falling on the and the N at the end of these chunks of letters ke e pause in Y n if I'm spelling my street name M a plus-2 faces falling on the P and E letter names still clear and distinct with the other letters but giving final emphasis and a bit of a pause after the P and E M a PL e and if I'm spelling a tough word like this one squ I are ar e l2 here how I'm emphasizing those letters at the end of chunks squ I are ar e l squirrel squirrel such a tough word the SK blend moving to a W squirrel squirrel with that tongue curling up a bit sides of the tongue on the back top molars for the squirrel all dark L squirrel squirrel all right so there you have it hopefully next time you find yourself in a situation where you need to spell something out you can use these tips to alleviate some potential frustration I hope you found the lesson helpful if you did please be sure to share with friends that you think will also benefit from hearing these tips as always thanks so much for tuning in and I'll see you next time

Channel: Clear English Corner with Keenyn Rhodes

Views: 1,053,567

Keywords: keenyn rhodes, clear english corner, keenyn rhodes english alphabet, keenyn rhodes how to speak english, clear english corner how to speak english, english alphabet, learn english alphabet, how to spell in english, learning english, practice english alphabet, keenan rhodes, practice english

Id: MvNdsUJDphU

Length: 16min 41sec (1001 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 30 2018