Lesson summary
Video transcript
What’s up guys? My name is Shane and this is part five of the pronunciation practice series.
If you haven’t seen the other parts of this series, you can watch them in this playlist right here.
In the past four videos we looked at the basic sounds of the English alphabet and how to pronounce those sounds.
In today’s video we look at the basics of sounding out words in English. Sounding out words means pronouncing each sound in a word so you know how to pronounce the whole word.
For example, look at this word. We would sound out this word by saying C A T. Cat.
This is a very important skill to have in English because a lot of the time you will see words that you don’t know how to pronounce. But if you know how to sound out words, then you may get the pronunciation right.
Native English speakers learn this when they are children. So if you want to understand English like a native speaker, then you should learn this, too.
Okay, are you ready for today’s lesson? Let’s go!
Revision of the sounds of the alphabet
The first thing we need to do today is a quick recap of the sounds that we have learned. A ‘recap’ means to revise, to look at something again.
I will say the name of a letter and then I will say the sound that the letter makes. And I want you to repeat after me. Are you ready? Here we go!
A. a. B. b. C. c. D. d. E. e. F. f. G. g. H. h. I. i. J. j. K. k. L. l. M. m. N. n. O. o. P. p. Q. q. R. r. S. s. T. t. U. u. V. v. W. w.
X. Now X can make two sounds. The first is a ‘ks’ sound as in ‘x-ray’. And the second is a ‘z’ sound as in the word ‘xylophone’.
Y. y. Z. z.
We also looked at some extra sounds. The first one we looked at was TH. TH normally has two sounds it can make. The first is a ‘th’ sound.
And when you make this sound, you have to make sure you voice is on. Your throat is vibrating.
And the second sound TH can make is a ‘th’ sound. When we make a ‘th’ sound, your voice is not on. Your throat is not vibrating.
We also looked at CH which makes a ‘ch’ sound.
SH. sh. NG. ng. And WH. w.
Sounding out basic three letter words
Okay let’s have a look at how to sound out some very basic three letter words in English. Remember in the intro, we looked at this word here: ‘cat’.
To sound out words in English, we make the sound of each letter and then put those sounds together. So with this word, we would say C A T. And then we put those sounds together and we say ‘cat’. Cat.
Okay now let’s have a look at some other three letter words.
The first word. B E T. Bet.
The second word. T I P. Tip.
The third word. N U T. Nut.
And the fourth word. R O T. Rot.
Now we are going to look at some more words. These words aren’t actually words in English but you should be able to sound them out.
Number one. P A B. Pab.
Number two. L E N. Len.
Number three. G I P. Gip.
Number four. R O P. Rop.
Number five. M U N. Mun.
New sounds
Okay we’ve learned to sound out some three letter words. Before we look at sounding out some four letter words in English, we need to learn some new sounds.
A lot of the time in English, you will see two vowels next to each other. When we have two vowels next to each other, they normally make just one sound. But sometimes it’s hard to know what sound these vowels make.
So let’s look at some common examples now.
The first one is AI. AI. When you have AI, it normally makes an ‘air’ sound. Air. For example, hair. Fair. Chair.
AI can also make an ‘aye’ sound. For example, bait. Gait. Main.
The second common example is OA. OA. When you have OA together, it normally makes an ‘oh’ sound. For example, boat. Coat. Goat.
The third common example is EE. When you have two Es next to each other. This sound normally makes a long E sound. Eee. Eee. For example, deep. Need. Teen.
The fourth common example is OO, when you have two Os next to each other. Normally, when you have two Os next to each other, it makes an ‘oo’ sound. For example, book. Good. Foot.
It also makes a long ‘oo’ sound. For example, boot. Food. Mood.
Now please remember that these are just the main examples and the basic rules. There are always exceptions to the rules in English and these vowels may make other sounds.
Sounding out basic four letter words
Alright, now let’s look at how to sound out some basic four letter words in English with just one vowel.
The first one. CH A T. Chat. SH O P. Shop. TH I N. Thin. F I SH. Fish. H A N D. Hand. C O L T. Colt. H I L T. Hilt.
Okay now let’s look at some four letter words with the two vowel letters that we talked about before.
S OO T. Soot. L AI R. Lair. M OA T. Moat. R OA M. Roam. P AI L. Pail. L OA N. Loan. R EE D. Reed. R OO T. Root.
Conclusion
Okay that is the end of the video today. Now you know how to sound out basic words in English.
But please remember, what was in this video is just the very basics and there are always exceptions to the rule. If you’re interested in learning more English, you can check out this beginner playlist right here.
Make sure you subscribe to the channel because next week’s video is all about different ways to say ‘You’re welcome.’
For more English, go to our website at englishunderstood.com where we have English lessons and eBooks. If you’re not following us on Instagram, follow us right now because we have daily quizzes, weekly posts, lesons, pictures, updates and much much more. And we will see you in the next video.
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