Episode 43, Intermediate English: Pronounce these common English words like a native! Pronunciar estas palabras como si fueras de EEUU

[00:00:08] Welcome to Listen Smile in Oterindas. Este es un podcast para hispanohablantes que quieren mejorar su comprensión auditiva del inglés de los Estados Unidos. Somos dos hermanos estadounidenses con raíces mexicanas.

[00:00:25] Soy Gabo, Okib, aquí con mi hermano mayor, mi hermano viejo, goyo o en inglés Greg. See you, it'll be a hill Greg. Good morning everyone. Good morning. So we don't know about the weather where you live, of course, because you live everywhere.

[00:00:45] But here in the south where we live in the United States, the leaves are turning, the leaves are turning. So we both live in sort of a mountainous or semi-mountainous region. And so the leaves on the trees are turning brown and red and orange.

[00:01:06] And it's just so beautiful because you know, the scenes that you see as you go up a hill or see the side of a mountain are just beautiful. Yes, it's interesting to me that we call it fall.

[00:01:23] We call Elotonio fall in the United States, but they don't call Elotonio fall in any of the other English speaking countries apparently. They call it autumn. Almost nobody here calls it autumn. We all call it fall. What season is it? Oh, it's fall. The leaves are turning orange.

[00:01:44] So that's something that occurred to me that's interesting. The other thing that's associated with October in the United States is that we are insane over the holiday that we call Halloween. Yes, spooky, scary skeletons.

[00:02:02] Yeah, right. Everybody puts up Halloween decorations and they put up scary things with you know, Bruchasit and Fantasmas and of course then on Halloween, which is the 31st,

[00:02:15] the kids put on costumes of various types and then they go around and they knock on doors and it's traditional that we hand out candy to these kids that are dressed up in Halloween,

[00:02:29] the process. So really fun time of year, but it's just insane. Everybody in my neighborhood has huge decorations, a lot of which I'll actually light up and actually my neighbor has one that makes us make us sound at talks and I was taking my dog out in the front yard the other night and it started talking and I jumped a mile.

[00:02:53] Yeah, so my wife hates summer because of the heat. She does not enjoy the heat and it does get hot in Atlanta. So as the fall happens and football season starts and Halloween comes around the corner she just becomes a much happier person, you know,

[00:03:16] because she gets to wear sweaters and then dress up like a witch and you know, look at the kids with their costumes. She loves little children and so it's just a wonderful time of year here in the Sanchez household. What are we talking about today?

[00:03:33] Well, today I thought that we could go over some words that are pronounced differently in American English than they look when you read them in writing.

[00:03:44] Like if you tried to pronounce them exactly as they appear to be written, you will end up sounding very unnatural. So this is an episode about trying to sound more natural.

[00:03:56] That's right. If you say these words the way that they're written, you will be understood. If for example, you say family family. Nobody says family in American English much but you know, I understand you and this is called syncopy syncopy which is the dropping of a vowel sound or sounds in the middle of a word.

[00:04:22] And we want to thank two YouTube channels that we recommend to you, which are Rachel's English and Lingua Marina Rachel's English and Lingua Marina both were sources of examples for us today.

[00:04:36] And you know they do a really good job teaching so go check them out. Thank you ladies. No te rindaspodcast.us and as a click at the bottom and record your English message here. I own boton al fondo dinos de qual el episodio viene tu ejemplo.

[00:05:09] See for example. Hi Gabe N. Greg from episode 41 the word handy. My uncle is very handy go yo y goo because of his job as a car mechanic. I'll hear a record to analyze in each episode.

[00:06:03] Here's an example from Gabe. My brother and I come from a large Mexican family. When our family immigrated to New Orleans, Louisiana in the 20th century some siblings met their future spouses here and others met their loves back in Mexico during summer vacations.

[00:06:27] Eventually they started families either here or in Tabasco. Therefore we have a lot of family in both places. I want you to hear how he said family over and over again family. And of course my Spanish speaking friends like to say farm milly, farm milly.

[00:06:51] That's not how we say it. Another thing that we'd like to point out today is these words which have syncopy in them also often have shortened nickname versions of themselves.

[00:07:04] So for example family informally can be referred to as fam. Now if you use the word fam it makes you sound like you're trying to sound young and not what would you say gave respect for or formal.

[00:07:27] It's usually used with the word the a lot of times or you know but with my so like I'm going to bring home these vegetables for the fam would mean I'm going to bring these vegetables home to the family.

[00:07:45] And people will also walk into a place where they know everybody and they'll say what's up fam you might see that movie what's up fam.

[00:07:54] I'm sure that in my house we've said what's up fam to each other at some point and we actually of course our family but it can be used outside of the actual family for people that you're close to.

[00:08:08] All right our next one is the word comfortable. It's another word that looks like it would be pronounced differently looks like it might be pronounced comfortable or comfortable but we say comfortable so that is say oh mf oh edit a b l a oingless c o m f o r t a b l e.

[00:08:32] So for an example of using the word comfortable as I grow older it becomes more important that my couch be comfortable. For me comfortable means that I can put my feet up and lean my head back how about you Greg.

[00:08:54] Well that sounds really nice but to me comfortable also means that I can reach my coffee cup and the remote control easily. I am no longer comfortable standing up and sitting down a bunch of times when I am trying to relax on the sofa.

[00:09:15] Another example of these kind of shortcut words or nicknames can occur with this word comfortable and that would be comfy comfy spelled c o m f y say oh mf a e rega. So if you say for example this couch is comfortable.

[00:09:39] You know that sounds perfectly correct and reasonable but some people will say oh this is a very comfy couch or this couch is real comfy.

[00:09:48] And again it's less formal like fam. It's less formal but we want you to be able to recognize it and if you're in the right setting of course you can try to say it yourself this couch is real comfy.

[00:10:01] The next word we'd like to talk about is vegetable vegetable. I will spell it now it's a obe e he he ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. or in English V-E-G-E-T-A-B-L-E. So just like comfortable, it has the word table in it,

[00:10:29] but it is not pronounced like table. We don't say Vegetable, and we don't say Vegetable, if we say Vegetable. Vegetable. OK, Greg, how about an example with Vegetable? Although I enjoy a good salad with lots of vegetables in it, I don't really enjoy Vegetables as a side dish.

[00:10:53] My wife, for example, likes carrots and green beans and Brussels sprouts and other vegetables like those. But unfortunately, I prefer a nice cheese and a tasty piece of bread. I only really eat Vegetables because I know that I have to eat them. What's your opinion of Vegetables, OK?

[00:11:17] I like Vegetables a lot, but I don't eat them enough. I tend to be a very meat and potatoes kind of person, which I know is not good for me. But if I do eat Vegetables, they tend to be in things that are not necessarily good for me.

[00:11:35] So my current favorite thing to eat is this casserole, which is like a dish with pasta and a cheesy sauce that has chicken and broccoli in it. So broccoli is a vegetable, but unfortunately, it's the cheesy sauce and noodles of the fideos

[00:11:56] that make it not so good for me. And much like fam and comfortable or comfy, we also have a nickname, of course, for Vegetable. And that's Veggie, Veggie. So you'll hear people say, I need to eat more veggies or tonight I'm having rice with veggies.

[00:12:17] And so you might hear veggies in what you listen to in English. What's our next word, Gabe? All right, the next one we're going to do a two for and other words we're going to do two for one. And that is the word interesting, interesting,

[00:12:35] and the related word, interest, interest. So I'll spell each of them. Interesting is E N T A E E S T E N A H and interest is E N T A E S T. So of course, in English it would be INT,

[00:12:57] E R E S T for interest. And of course, you would just add an I N G to make it interesting, interesting. So this looks like it would be pronounced in terrest, in terrest or inter-esting, inter-esting. And there are actually a few people that say it,

[00:13:20] but it is considered incorrect. So interesting, interest. Maybe we could have an example. I think it's interesting that you're savings account at the bank, doesn't pay any interest. Have you talked to the bank manager about that? I tried to get his attention,

[00:13:43] but he didn't seem interested in talking to me. I have a lot of interest in Japan. Don't you think Japan is interesting? Oh yeah, Japan interests me a great deal. I especially love the language, the way the word sound, it's very musical to me.

[00:14:10] And of course, sushi is very interesting. Yes, I have some interest in sushi. I'm also grateful that the vowels and Japanese are exactly like the vowels and casteyano. So that makes it pretty easy. They have A E O and O sounds like we do. I'm testicle.

[00:14:30] All right, here's one more example. Well, oh, Yentis, this is a lie. This is just an example. It's totally dishonest. Fast food, comida chataru. Fast food doesn't interest me. I ate so much of it in college. I just don't think it's interesting anymore.

[00:14:54] It's a lie that I'm going to eat chataru. I'm going to eat it. I'm going to eat it quickly. Okay, our next word is favorite. Favorite. FAA. O Uve. O E E T E. FAA Uve O E T E. Or F A V O R I T E.

[00:15:23] And of course, people want to add that O in the middle. There's the syncopy. And it's pronounced without the O sounds. So it's favorite. Favorite. How about an example? Hey, Gabe, why don't you tell us about your favorite sports team?

[00:15:40] Well, my favorite sports team is the American football team, the Tennessee Titans. But I'm very angry with them right now because they're currently playing a football game in London, England, which is really unusual. They usually play in the United States. But they're getting their butt kicked.

[00:15:59] In other words, my favorite theme is losing badly right now. I teach children. I teach Spanish to little kids, six graders. They don't say on you. I can't say about them in thing. And one thing I noticed that they want to talk about is your favorite color.

[00:16:23] They'll say, Mr. Sanchez, what's your favorite color? Or if I asked them to say one interesting fact about themselves, they'll say, my favorite color is purple or my favorite color is pink or look as if. And much like our other words, of course, favorites has a nickname

[00:16:44] or a shortened version, which is Fave. So I could say, for example, I really like the band called Queen. They're one of my faves. They're one of my faves. We have a few words that kind of go together like a fan, like a family.

[00:17:05] I don't know if it'll be your fave, but I think Gabe's going to do a good job of explaining it. And that is words that end in B. B in English. And some examples today will include thumb, comb, plumber, which comes from the word plum, pe-e-le-oo-m-e-be, and clon.

[00:17:27] So again, thumb, te-a-ch-e-oo-m-e-be, comb, which is S. And pe-ne, plumber, um, plum, eto, and clime-o-subir, tripada. So the B in these words is silent for some reason. And someone reading these words may say thumb or comb. And that's not what we say.

[00:17:56] So Gabe, I understand you had to go to the hospital with someone that you didn't know very well recently as that true. Sorry, it's one of those laugh or cry situations. My plumber was climbing a ladder when he was surprised by his cell phone ringing.

[00:18:19] And poor guy, he fell and he bumped his head and I had to take him to the hospital because he had heard himself so badly. And I knew something was wrong because at the hospital, he kept saying that he needed to comb his hair.

[00:18:37] He kept insisting that he needed his hair combed and he kept asking for a comb. But this was especially strange because like you go your elisum calvo, he's bald. So he's a bald-headed fellow. Yeah, he was badly injured if he thought that he needed a comb.

[00:19:02] Because yeah, we don't need combes. So did you get your plumbing fixed? Well, he offered to come back but he said that he was going to have to wait a little bit

[00:19:12] because he broke his thumb and he now has a cast on his thumb that doesn't let him move his hand. So he can't do the repair. I don't know if he's a human being. Okay, lastima.

[00:19:29] But I guess it all makes sense that the plumber would fall off a ladder. Plumbers don't often have to climb ladders, do they? They don't. Just as a side note, many of you know that I work in a call center where people call in for help

[00:19:46] with Kalantanotas de Agua. And we can often tell someone is not a native speaker of English because they will say, my plumber says that I need a new part. So again, we don't say plumber, we say plumber. Plumber. Yeah. Well, we have a big shout out today.

[00:20:10] We want to thank the fellows at no-eye-toss, which is at no-eye-tosspodcast.com. We were on their show recently and talking about our Mexican family heritage and they gave us an opportunity to talk about our show, our own podcast. And we just really want to thank them.

[00:20:34] They've been a tremendous influence on us and improved our Spanish so that we can teach you English better by what I lose or the hemp loss in a manual of basis. And now it's time for our quiz. Okay, take that into Kabeza.

[00:20:53] This is the first episode of you. What sticks in your brain? What is sticky in your brain, fam? Question number one. Greg and Gabe have a lot of blank in blank. I'll say I don't Swiss West us in in es de Friuinta.

[00:21:13] A, family in Mexico, B, vegetables in the refrigerator or choice C, comfortable chairs in the dining room. Greg and Gabe have a lot of blank in blank. Well, neither us have a lot of vegetables in the refrigerator and we don't have any comfortable

[00:21:43] chairs in the dining room. So I'm going to say the correct answer is A, family in Mexico. That is correct. When we go to Mexico, we see a lot of fam. We see a lot of family.

[00:22:00] Okay, all you need is what did Greg say was true of his wife? Was it A? She likes furniture that is uncomfortable. B, she hates their plumber or C. She enjoys eating vegetables more than Greg does.

[00:22:28] No, my wife does not say that she enjoys furniture that is uncomfortable. She likes comfortable furniture. And she thinks our plumber's great. He comes on the weekend and he has very good prices. So it has to be she enjoys eating veggies or vegetables more than I do.

[00:22:49] That is correct, very good. All right, we actually have four questions today. So here's question number three. Which country did Gabe say he had a lot of interest in which country did Gabe say that he had a lot of interest in A, China, B, Japan or C, Korea?

[00:23:23] Well, I think all three of those countries are interesting. But in the episode today, I said that I had a lot of interest in B, Japan. That's right and we both think that Japan is quite interesting. Quite interesting.

[00:23:44] All right, final question. Why couldn't Gabe's plumber finish repairing his plumbing problem? A, because he had to comb his hair, B, because he had no letter and couldn't climb up. Or C, because he fell and broke his thumb.

[00:24:08] Okay, well, he didn't need to comb his hair because he was bald, didn't have any hair. And he definitely had a letter because that's the whole way, the whole problem happening fell off the ladder. So I'm going to go with C because he fell and broke his thumb.

[00:24:26] That is why he couldn't finish repairing my plumbing problem. That is correct and may I also say that your plumber is very handsome. That's my guapo. Bald is beautiful. That's right, the bald guys, we have to stick together. We have to

[00:24:50] have to support each other. Well, we want to take a moment to thank our patrons. If you would like to become a supporter of this show, please go to www.patrion.com slash no parynebast podcast.

[00:25:07] We'll shout you out in the next episode. We'll send you a printable text of the examples given on the show so you can see all of the examples from today's show written. That would be nice.

[00:25:21] And for our conversational episodes, you receive a word for word transcript of the conversation. That can be printed, of course. If you have any doubts or suggestions about the program, please send us a email for questions about no tarynebast podcast.

[00:25:47] If you go to notarynebastpodcast.us, you can find a link there to buy us a coffee or check out our blog or watch videos or read articles at an intermediate level. And you can also suggest a topic. And don't forget, if you want to leave a recording

[00:26:11] where you use the word comfortable or veggies or family or whatever, we'll evaluate it and go over it with you on the next show. So you can hear some commentado about your pronunciation or your use of grammar or whatever we think is interesting to talk about.

[00:26:31] Thank you in advance. Gracias de an temano. Well, I know we're going to lose. I'm comfortable finishing a game even when my favorite team loses. So I guess I'll get back to that and watch us continue to crumble.

[00:26:51] Oh, Lucie and Bill. I will make this pledge to you gave. I'm going to try to eat some more vegetables today than I normally would because of our show. And, um, you know, because I want to

[00:27:05] live a long life with my family. Well, good. Good. I'd like to see you take more of an interest in vegetables and be less interested in fast food. All right, well, I love you. Have a great week. I love you, my brother, and I'll talk to you soon.

[00:27:26] All right. Bye bye. Bye.