Three strategies to pronounce words 'Girl' and 'World'

Hello! I'm Clever Apple! I'm studying TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) at Wollongong university in Australia. Today, I will introduce three strategies to pronounce 2 words 'Girl' and 'World'.

■Outline■

・This article is about how to pronounce 2 words 'Girl' and 'World' that many L2 English learners struggle to pronounce.

・This article is for English learners who can pronounce L and R, but not words including the combination of the 2 sounds.

 

 

 

 0. 2 difficult words to pronounce 'Girl' and 'World'

It is difficult to pronounce L and R sounds for many English learners who don't have the sounds in their native languages in particular.

In addition, words such as 'Girl' and 'World' are more difficult to pronounce because of the combination of the difficult sounds.

Although I personally had difficulty pronouncing such words, I became able to pronounce once I learned the ropes!!

Using my 3 strategies for pronouncing 'Girl' and 'World', some of my friends also became able to utter the words!!

Let's get started!

 1. Learn how to pronounce L and R

To utter 'Girl' and 'World', you have to be able to pronounce L and R sounds.

 

If you can't pronounce L and R sounds well, please check this article before seeing the next section!

 

 

■Please also see this!■

 

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 If you can pronounce L and R, let's move on to the next step!!

 

 

 

 2. Let's pronounce 'Hurt'!

Once you can pronounce L and R sounds, the next step is to pronounce a word 'Hurt'.

 

Maybe you think 'I want to pronounce 'Girl' and 'World'!!!!! Are you out of your mind!???'

 

Please stay calm.

 

 

In fact, the sounds of 'Girl' is very similar to that of 'Hurt'.

While the phonetic symbol of 'Hurt' is /həːrt/, that of 'Girl' is /gəːrl/.

 

This means, if you can say 'Hurt', you can almost utter 'Girl'!!

 

 

So, let's learn how to pronounce 'Hurt' at first!

 

 

 

First of all, you should understand the difference of word sounds, 'Heart' and 'Hurt'.

 

To pronounce 'Heart', shape your mouth to say 'ha'. Then, roll your tongue up gradually and make /t/ sound at the end.

 

On the other hand, make your mouth round and say 'ha' from the beginning, and make /t/ sound at the end.

 

 

Can you pronounce them well????

 

If it is difficult for you, you can pronounce while checking the sounds of a model speaker and check the shape of your mouth and tongue by seeing a mirror.

 

 

The final step is to pronounce 'Girl' and 'World'!!

 

 

 

 3. Try to pronounce 'Girl' and 'World'!

The final step is to change the sound of /h/ to /g/ and /t/ to /l/ in 'Girl'.

A tip for pronouncing 'Girl' is to stretch your tongue and put your tongue closer to your upper teeth. The sound of /l/ is similar to /u/.

For 'World', change /h/ to /w/ and /t/ to /l/ and add /d/ at the end.

Did it go well???

 

You can use speech recognition system such as Siri to check your pronunciation. 

 

 

You might not be able to pronounce them at first, but you can do it soon!!!!

 

 

 4. Summary

・ In this article, the way to pronounce 'Girl' and 'World' is explained.

・The 3 steps are ①Master how to pronounce L and R  ②Learn how to pronounce 'Hurt'  ③Apply the sounds of 'Hurt' to 'Girl' and 'World'.

Enjoy your pronunciation practice :)