ER and OR word endings often sound the exact same. The flat, unstressed sound produced is a schwa + R, and understanding how to use it will help you take further control over your speech stress.
Today we dive further into the contrast between strong and weak syllables of the American accent. Take the time to repeat these common words and phrases along with me, and feel the difference for yourself!
Check out my video course on Udemy to master your use of Syllable stress!
https://www.udemy.com/course/command-the-american-accents-rhythm-and-pronunciation/?referralCode=C96318A268600601A20F
Listen closely for these words to boost your own American Accent!
Over | Answer | Better | Paper | Color | Error | Doctor
Overtime
Doctor's office
Much better
Minor changes
Computer monitor
Repeat the following tongue twister after me!
Betty Boughter bought some butter, but she said the butter’s bitter.
“If I put it in my batter, It will make my batter bitter, but a bit of better butter will make it better than the bitter butter!”
So she bought a bit of better butter and put it in her batter and her batter was not bitter.
So Betty Boughter bought a bit of better butter and put it in her batter and her batter was not bitter.
Request to join the exclusive Accent Training Community through this link:
https://www.skool.com/american-accent-training-5858/about
Apply to train 1 on 1 with Pat through the link below:
Accent Training Application
ER and OR word endings often sound the exact same. The flat, unstressed sound produced is a schwa + R, and understanding how to use it will help you take further control over your speech stress.
Today we dive further into the contrast between strong and weak syllables of the American accent. Take the time to repeat these common words and phrases along with me, and feel the difference for yourself!
Check out my video course on Udemy to master your use of Syllable stress!
https://www.udemy.com/course/command-the-american-accents-rhythm-and-pronunciation/?referralCode=C96318A268600601A20F
Listen closely for these words to boost your own American Accent!
Over | Answer | Better | Paper | Color | Error | Doctor
Overtime
Doctor's office
Much better
Minor changes
Computer monitor
Repeat the following tongue twister after me!
Betty Boughter bought some butter, but she said the butter’s bitter.
“If I put it in my batter, It will make my batter bitter, but a bit of better butter will make it better than the bitter butter!”
So she bought a bit of better butter and put it in her batter and her batter was not bitter.
So Betty Boughter bought a bit of better butter and put it in her batter and her batter was not bitter.
Request to join the exclusive Accent Training Community through this link:
https://www.skool.com/american-accent-training-5858/about
Apply to train 1 on 1 with Pat through the link below:
Accent Training Application
Welcome to the Accent Training Podcast, a podcast where I teach you how to harness the potential of your spoken English. My name is Pat, and I'm an accent coach. I teach the American accent, and that's exactly what we're gonna be talking about today. You see, I've mentioned quite a bit in the past how our voice goes up and down, strong and weak as we're talking, and we've explored to a good extent what role the schwa has to play in this. The schwa, as you may remember, is this kind of, uh, sound. We put it in unstressed syllables, for example, problem bloom that quick and quiet bloom, not problem lamb, but problem table bowl, not table or a Tay bell, but table, uh oh, that's a oi with a dark al, but you get the point. We've also seen how schwa, which is the most commonly used sound in spoken English, appears in the most commonly used word in spoken English. The word the, the, the, the cup, the car, lock the door, the the door. Let's give that shawa a little bit more direction today, and let's talk about schwa R sounds. That's right, the combination of AOI with an R u U er. Now that er may be familiar to you, words like water over after notice. I'm not giving it an after wair ova. I'm not stretching it out like a strong R, but it's a quick, flat, quiet and fading er, what we call a schwa r. Now, there are different times when this is going to be used, but I wanna bring to your attention one consistent rule, which you will find again and again and again in spoken English. And this is er and also, or at the ending of a word. You see, we typically don't stress err er as a word ending. The sound is always flat, low in pitch. It's very quick and quiet, and we don't wanna add in extra vowel sounds. We don't want R or u just er words ending in er. And as I said, or have this Unstressed U sound. Now, there are different habits that folks have when this sound comes up. Some people will take on just the British sound and they'll just give it an U uh, water over. It's over there over. If you do that well, you're just using the schwa sound, aren't you? Uh uh. And believe me, I fully understand how that's easier. Uh uh. But that's a habit that we are going to work on changing a little bit today. Another thing I've noticed, speakers of Spanish and Portuguese, and probably Italian as well, will extend the vowel sound here and will give us an uur uur or air. Air simply because you're seeing an E beside the R. And so you may be thinking to yourself, I need to stretch that out. It's an E, I've gotta pronounce a regular e, eh, air. Again, it's a little too strong for this unstressed syllable. And so we're gonna work on replacing that E with just a quick and quiet schwa sound and make that habit consistent in your spoken English. Now, before we get into that lesson, I've just gotta tell you folks, if you haven't already, make sure that you hit subscribe. Hit subscribe to this podcast, give the episode a thumbs up, a like, or whatever you can do on the app that you're watching. Do what you can to support this show because well, more and more people find it that way. You get updated as soon as new stuff comes out. Everybody's happy. I get more listeners, you get more lessons for free. Aren't we all happy when that happens? Of course, we are. And as I mentioned for free, now, this is in contrast to paid content, paid material, and this paid material is available to you folks. There is paid material out there that you can find that will truly help you take control of your spoken English. And this is through a Udemy course, a Udemy video course that I have made available to you and everybody else listening, Udemy is the website where I've put the course up, where I've uploaded it. But all that you've gotta do is check it out on there, check the link in the description, and get to work on this video course, which is going to truly help you take control of the sound of your spoken English. And the great thing about Udemy beyond that is there is a 30 day money back guarantee. And that goes to say, Hey, you try out the course. If you don't like it, you just get your money back. Why not? You got nothing to lose. Zero risk, but 100% rewards. So check out the video course on Udemy and take control of your spoken English. Well, getting started with today's lesson, let's learn about these oi r endings, er and or word endings. Here's how we do it. The first step to this is we need to put the tongue into the R position. Now, if you are someone who's been listening to this podcast for a while, you're probably familiar with the R position. If not, I'll give you the quick rundown on it. Now, there are two ways we can make an R sound. We either bend the tip of the tongue upwards up towards the ovular ridge, bending it up there and voicing that position. Er. We keep the teeth very close together when we do this, ensuring that there's only a teenies little slight space between the top and bottom teeth. We keep our lips neutral, and we just voice that sound lightly er, with the tip of the tongue pointing upwards. The second method, other people find a little more comfortable, and this is with the back of the tongue. We bunch up the back of the tongue and we make it tense, and we raise up the sides of the tongue to touch our top teeth. Er. The front of the tongue can just go outta the way for this one. We don't need to use it in this method. So method number one, front of the tongue, points up. Teeth are very close together. ER method number two, the back of the tongue gets tense. The middle of the tongue rises up. Again, the teeth very close together. Er flat, quick sound. Okay? So now we know what the schwa is, and we know what the R is, and we know what the schwa R is, and we know where to find these Schwa Rs, these ur endings. Er at the end of a word, gonna make an r o r at the end of a word. Also going to sound like I, here's how we want to practice this now, folks. And here's how we want to keep taking control of our syllable stress. I want you, my listener, to repeat after me. And what we're gonna do is just look at a few, two syllable words here, some quick short words with only two syllables, and we're gonna make the first syllable real strong. We're gonna exaggerate it. And then the second syllable, we're gonna have it kind of drop down. It's gonna be quick, flat, fading sort of sound. So repeat after me, over over. Strong, weak, over. Here's another one. And sir, and sir, and notice in that word, by the way, it is spelled with a w a N s w e R. The W is not pronounced, my friend. A lot of people force that W in there and get an answerer. I see where you're coming from. But as of today, we're gonna take the W out of the word. And sir, and just get those two syllables. Strong, weak. Sir, here's another for you. Paper. Paper, strong with that. Pay. Pay. And then per, per flat, quick, quiet sound. So, so far we've seen a handful of words with these er endings over Better answer paper. Now, check this out. Or endings Color. Color, C O L o R, the American spelling, c o l o r, the British or Canadian spelling, c O L o u R. But of course, this is the American Accent Podcast. I'm gonna give you tips specifically for the American stuff. C O L O R. Color, strong, weak. Here's another one for you here. Error. Error. E R R O R. Error. Strong, weak. Now, yes, I'm aware of the fact that the beginning of that is an er, but notice I'm not giving it an error. Error. Stretching that. A sound out there. A and then flat schwa. R ending her. All right, what's up next? All right, what's coming up next, doctor? Doctor, again, I'm not saying doctor, doctor, getting it strong and then flat on the ending. Doctor, I know Spanish speakers listening right now. Spanish speakers naturally would say Doc door, would they not? Because in Spanish doctor, it's the same word, but the stress is different in Spanish from English. And in English, instead of giving two strong sounds, we're gonna go strong. Weak, doctor. So let's keep up with this. Let's see a handful of phrases here. Let's put this to work and get your muscles used to this through a little repetition. Repeat after me. Overtime. Overtime. Now, what is overtime? By the way, this is a good phrase here. Overtime, if I say I'm working overtime this weekend, I've got bills to pay. I'm working overtime. That means working more than you are typically scheduled for if you're working overtime. They also call it ot. You could say, I'm working ot. If you're working overtime, you're doing a little extra. Maybe you're doing 50 hours a week instead of 40 overtime. Here's another one. Doctor's office. Doctor's office. Notice how it's going. Strong, weak, strong, weak doctor's office. And if you listen closely, you'll notice that there's a schwa in that office, office, doctor's office. Now that you're getting the hang of this, you're sounding much better, much better, better, strong, flat, better, much better. We're making some minor changes. Minor changes. You hear that again? Strong, weak, strong, weak. Minor changes. Minor changes. Now I got one more for you here. Computer or monitor? Computer monitor. Now, I wanna point something out about this one right here. Listen for the syllable stress in this word here. Computer, which is the stressed syllable, the middle, the pew, pew computer. The C Om isn't getting a calm, it's getting just a comm. There's a schwa in there. Instead of a regular oh com, just a pewter. And then a schwa R ending. How about monitor? Monitor? Now in here, we're seeing three levels of syllable, stress stressed ma, and then the n i, we're giving a N with a oi man. And then we're using some secondary stress on the on the flap T with the R monitor. Now the levels of syllable stress, we'll talk about those more in the future. There's three levels of it. There's stressed, secondarily, stressed, like kind of a middle sound. And then there's unstressed. Those are those flat, weak ones where we'll often find schwas. Today, we're not gonna worry about all that kind of stuff that I don't want to overcomplicate things, but that is something worth noting mentally, just keeping in mind to have further and further control over your syllable stress, computer monitor, minor changes, much better doctor's office over time, that contrast in the stress is just what we're looking for. And you're gonna see some outstanding results in the long run if you keep that up. Now, there are more times when we'll see schwa Rs in spoken English. In fact, any vowel with an R can be a schwa R. Sometimes it's just or and er are the most consistent. So like I said, those are the two that we're talking about today. But I mean, hey, do a little extra research on your own if you like, and you will find that this gets way more confusing. And so today's topic is just about skimming the surface. Now, instead of idiomatic expressions today, I've got another exercise that I'd like to practice together here. And this exercise is a tongue twister. It's a tongue twister that I may have read in the past, and I do bring it up in my regular classes, especially when we talk about flap tees. This tongue twister is about Betty Boder. Betty Boder. Now, here's what I'm gonna do, my friends, I'm going to read this tongue twister out for you. I'll read it out loud so that you can follow along with me. And I'm going to exaggerate the syllable stress. I'm gonna make it sound extra stressed in the stress syllables and extra quiet in the quiet syllables. I know this isn't how we normally speak, but most people probably are at the point yet to do this quickly. However, we are going to take the time to just open your ears to this and let your muscles adjust by taking it slowly and just one word at a time. So listen closely to myself reading this, and then check the description down below and repeat after me. Betty butter bought some butter, but she said, the butter's bitter. If I put it in my batter, it will make my batter bitter butter bit better. Butter will make it better than the bitter butter. So she bought a bit of bitter butter and put it in her batter, and her batter was not bitter. So Betty butter bought a bit of bitter butter and put it in her batter, and her batter was not bitter. Fantastic little reading there. And that is something that you most certainly wanna repeat to yourself. Notice that nice long tongue twister is full of the letter T. However, those ts aren't coming out like regular Ts, right? They're coming out like Flap Ts better butter. Put it in her batter. We're getting it strong, weak, strong, weak. And the flap tees are helping us control that transition from the strong syllable to the weak one. Now, that's a habit that you folks can develop on your own. All that you gotta do is repeat after me in this reading right now. Pause it, rewind it, listen to it again and again and again, and repeat what I say, shadow my own pronunciation and my own reading of this. Honest, it's gonna show you some results. And your ability to recognize the strong and weak syllable. Stress will go through the roof. This'll become just a natural thing to you. It's gonna start very slow like this. We're just waking up your brain to this concept. But if you start now, in the long run, this'll be just as natural as any other sounds from your own native language, which I mean, hey, that's just as natural as breathing. Is it not? I mean, for most people I know some people may struggle more, but speaking for is typically just as natural as breathing. And we're just taking a new angle on our speech, building new habits. So the Betty Butter tongue twister, practice that yourself, and you'll see some serious results. Well, we're going to, uh, call it a day for today, folks. I do gotta get going. I've got a couple more classes coming up and I've gotta get this thing edited. So thank you very much for your time today. Thank you for listening on in. It's been a real pleasure to chat, and I am looking forward to teaching you many more things in the days to come. Now, if you don't wanna wait for those days to come, and you want more material right now, and you're the kind of person who wants some serious hard-hitting material to dive into this concept of syllable stress and take further control of your use of flak, strong and weak sounds, and your ability to connect your speech, check out the link in the description. Take a look at the video course, and my friend, I will be more than happy to hold your hand and step by step show you how you can develop the sounds of the American accent from the comfort of your own home. Check out the video course and let's start taking this accent business seriously. All right, have a wonderful day. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you for your attention. And thank yourself. I mean, of course I know that you're thinking to yourself. No, no. Thank you, pat. Thank you for your time and attention. Well, hey, thank yourself that you took the time to listen to this podcast episode and let you listen to it the full way through. That's how this is done. You know, these things, these sounds don't really develop the same if you only commit 50% of your effort to it, and you listen to 50% of the episode and you don't, and you don't get all the practice material in. So thank you very much for your time. Thank you for listening. Thank yourself for listening as well, and I'm looking forward to working with you more in the days to come. Have a good one, folks.