Accent's Way Magazine

#47

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How to say ‘Focus’

‘Focus’ is one of those words you never think there’s something wrong with how you say them, until…

TRANSCRIPT

Hey guys, it’s Hadar. And this is the Accent’s Way, your way to finding clarity, confidence, and freedom in English. This video is for Francisco, who asked me how to pronounce the word ‘focus’. Focus. I often hear this word pronounced as ‘fowcuws’ or ‘focuws’. So, let’s break it down and listen to the subtle nuances in the word.

It begins with ‘fow’. So it’s an F sound, the bottom lip touches the top teeth. And then it’s a long ‘ow’ as in ‘go’ – ‘fow’. So it’s not a new pure O sound, it’s a long ‘ow’ vowel. So basically, you open your mouth for the O and then you close it towards a W sound ‘fow’. So you really want to visualize this word spelled with W – ‘fowcus’.

Then you shift to a K sound, a schwa, and an S – k’s. All right? So again, although the letter U is there, it is not pronounced. It’s a schwa, it’s reduced. k’s. ‘fow-k’s’. And since the first syllable is the primary stress, it’s a little higher in pitch – ‘FOW-k’s’. ‘Let’s focus, guys’. ‘It’s a great focus group’. ‘You have to focus’.

All right, that’s it. Thank you for watching. Please share this video with your friends if you liked it. And do not forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel. Also, come on over to my website to check it out and get more great content every single week.

Thank you for watching. And I will see you next week in the next video. Bye.


The InFluency Podcast
The InFluency Podcast
223. How to pronounce Focus
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