Let’s put your ‘flapped T’ into use and take a shot at pronouncing a word pretty.
TRANSCRIPT
Hello, everyone. It’s Hadar, and this is the Accent’s Way, your way to finding clarity, confidence, and freedom in English. I got a request on how to pronounce the word “pretty”, “pretty”. So here we go.
The word begins with a ‘p’ sound. ‘p’ ‘p’. For this, you have to bring your lips together ‘p’ – and release air. Then you shift directly to the R – ‘pr’. So here, you want to be prepared with the R, so the tongue goes up as you pronounce the P – ‘pr’, and then you round your lips right after the P for the R sound: ‘pri-‘.
Then you shift to an ‘i’ as in “ship” vowel sound. ‘pri’ ‘pri’, for this, the jaw drops a little bit, the lips are relaxed and the tongue pushes forward: ‘pri’. It’s not ‘pree’, okay? It’s a relaxed ‘i’ sound: ‘pri’ ‘pri’. Then the T sounds like a D – it’s a flap T, ‘pridee’. It’s a very light D, right. It’s not ‘priDee’ or ‘priTee’, it’s a relaxed flap T. Pretty. Pretty. You can check out the video for the flap T. Pretty. Pretty.
The last vowel is a high E sound. So it’s different than the first ‘i’, so it’s ‘pridee’, right. It’s not ‘preetee’, it’s not the same vowel. ‘pridee’. So the tongue has to move really quickly from the relaxed ‘i’ to the flap T to the high E. For the high E the lips pull to the sides a little bit, and the tongue pushes more forward. ‘pridee’.
Pretty, pretty. Pretty good. It’s very pretty. Pretty much. Pretty.
Alright. Practice it, and I’m sure you’ll become pretty good at it. So, have fun with it. If you have any questions about how to pronounce other words, please post them below this video. In the meantime, have a good week and I’ll see you next week in the next video. Bye.
Want to know more about Flap T? Check out this episode.
Let me know what other words you find challenging!
And please share this video with your friends if you found it helpful.
6 Responses
why is the e in pretty is a long e sound but not a short e sound?
Hi Hadar! My friends keep telling me that they love my accent. ( honestly, I hate it). Anyways, I think they are making fun of me when I say the word ” ridiculous”. Can you please help me? Thank you very much
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