Unit 11 - J, Y, G and K Sounds Hi, I'm AJ Welcome to Unit number 11 In this unit we are going to practice four sounds The j, the y, the g, and the k sound They're all a little bit similar so let's start probably with the most difficult one, the j The j A little bit complicated making this j sound If it's already in your language you're lucky, it'll be easy for you If it's not, be patient Here we go To make the j sound, first thing you have to do, let's talk about the tongue The sides of your tongue will go up Not the whole tongue, the sides of your tongue So you're kind of curling your tongue in this kind of a shape with your tongue So the sides of your tongue go up to the top of your mouth Juhh, juhh, juhh The sides and on the middle There's a little bit in the middle, just a tiny little space in the middle that doesn't touch I know it might be difficult (laugh) Do your best If this is a hard sound for you it may take you some time to get the feeling, just be patient Okay, now the next thing, the front of the tongue does not go up It's just in a normal kind of flat position, kay? So it's, it's not touching the top of my t- it can maybe j- j- jehh- It might be kinda close to the teeth but it's not curled back, it's straight, kay? So the front of your tongue is straight, you're not pulling it way back You're not jerrr, not like an r, okay? Juhh juhh juhh You're gonna create the same, kind of that pressure, you should be used to this now, you're blocking the air with your tongue a little bit and then releasing it So it's juhh, juhh, juhh, juhh, juhh, juhh So a little bit flatter tongue with the sides up, juhh juhh And the final part of the j, vibration Strong vibration, very strong vibration in your throat And you can even, your tongue a little bit Juhh, juhh Now I want you to make it super strong because the y' is similar, and we have to make them sound very different Let's practice some words Jump, jump So make that vibration strong Jump, right? Jj, jj Strong vibration Jump, jump, jump, jump Just, just, just, just Jet, flying, jet, jet, jet Let's it at the end of a word Page, page, pages of a book, page, page, page Strong vibration Page, page Change, change, change Image, image, a picture or an image Very good, that is the j sound Now, the y sound is basically the same but less vibration There's still a little vibration, but much less The y is a softer sound, feels softer So you're still having the sides of your tongue kinda going up and you're still doing everything else, you know, with, with, with kind of a little bit of a pressure, air pressure Eee But less air pressure Juhh, juhh The j sound you're blocking the air completely and releasing it Juhh, juhh With the y you're only blocking it, part of the air Yee, yee, yee See there's a little sound comes through Yee You're blocking it, but less And the y there's also a little bit less vibration So everything else is the same as the j but block the air a little bit less, vibrate a little less And I want you to really stretch the y sound Some- a lot of people make it too short, y- y- y- I want you to make it nice and long Let's practice Yes Yes Stretch it Yes Yesterday, yesterday, yesterday Ye ye ye yeh Yesterday Year, year, what year is it? Year Yummy Yummy means delicious Yummy, yummy, yummy Yee, yee Hear it? J is like this Juhh, juhh It's pretty strong and powerful, the y is softer Yuh, yuh All right, lets go next to the g sound The g Guh guh guh guh guh guh guh guh guh Guh guh guh guh guh Guh guh! G Now with the g, the back of your tongue goes up The back of your tongue touches the top of your mouth See how my, the front of my tongue is actually down? I can a g like this Guh, geh, geh The front of my tongue, I'm exaggerating, but the front of my tongue is down down down The back of my tongue is touching, the back goes up The back goes up, the back of your tongue touches the top of your mouth And it blocks the air again, so you're creating the same air pressure Block the air With the back of your tongue, not the front Guh And then release Guh, guh Now another thing the g has, uh, vibration Right? So there's uh, a strong throat vibration Guh, guh You drop your tongue suddenly, release the air, and vibrate Guh, guh guh guh Let's practice Go, go, go Good, good, good, good Great, great, great, great Working, at the end of the word, working, working Vibration Working You're also going to feel a vibration in your nose when it's at the end of a word like this Working, working Put your fingers here Working Make that strong vibration right here Working, working, working Golf, the game of golf, g, golf, golf Very good, let's go on to the k sound K is basically the same but no vibration So just like the g the back of your tongue goes up, blocks the air Kh, kh, kh You release your tongue, you drop your tongue, the air comes out, but no vibration Don't vibrate the throat, nothing vibrates, everything's clear and open So put your fingers here, no vibration this time Kh, kh, kh, kh Can, can, k, k, can Keep, k, keep, k k k keep End of a word Break, break, break, break Carefully, carefully Beginning, carefully, carefully Key, key Right, open a door with a key K k k, key Very good Finally, one more note about y Because, a lot of words in English have what we call a hidden y It means there's a very soft y sound in the word It's usually not in the spelling If you look at the spelling usually you won't see a y And even if you listen, you have to listen very carefully to hear that hidden y sound Let me give you an example, the word future Spelled f u t u r e Not the past, the future Where's the y sound in there? It's at the beginning, it's after the f Fee yuh yuh yuh Few, few There's a little y sound between the f and the u We don't say Footure, footure, that sounds strange, it's, it's wrong Footure, that's without the y Now when we add a little y in between Few, yuh, yuh, you, you, few, future, future, future So listen, 'cuz a lot of English words have the hidden y I'll teach you some, but you gotta listen carefully so you hear it Let's practice some Beautiful, byuh yuh yuh, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful Very good Refuse It's in the second syllable You Refuse, refuse Confuse, confuse Very good Cute, right? Pretty cute Cute, cute This is a very common one: menu It's not minu Minu is wrong Menu, there's a hidden y there Menu, menu, menu I want the menu at the restaurant Menu Continue, continue, keep going, continue View, what a nice view of the mountains, view There's a hidden y there Yuh, you, you View, view Curious It's not coorious, there's a y in there Curious, curious, kyu, kyu, curious Communicate, in the middle, myu, communicate Not commoonicate Commu- you, you Communicate, communicate Familiar It's at the end Familiar, yer, familiar That's very familiar Eh, familiar Lots of these little hidden y's as you listen to the training audios, as you listen to any English, see if you can notice these hidden y sounds and pronounce them strongly, when it's necessary Okay, are you ready? Time for the training audio (Clap) Five days of training begins now See you then Unit 11- Practice Session Okay Time to practice those sounds Listen carefully for the sounds, especially the hidden Y sounds Follow the Effortless English Pronunciation, five day process My future gets clear day by day Yes, I enjoy gaining knowledge continuously Yes, I'm curious, courageous, joyful, gorgeous, beautiful, and generally great Yesterday is just a fading image, it's gone My focus is on the future, and my emerging growth as a communicator I generate a giant image of grand career success, and I imagine jetting around the globe using English I'm working, playing, studying, training, listening, and practicing with English continuously I regularly feel youthful and joyous I feel electric energy whenever I'm listening or speaking English I'm enjoying the journey of improving my speaking Now at a medium speed My future gets clear day by day Yes, I enjoy gaining knowledge continuously Yes, I'm curious, courageous, joyful, gorgeous, beautiful, and generally great Yesterday is just a fading image, it's gone My focus is on the future, and my emerging growth as a communicator I generate a giant image of grand career success, and I imagine jetting around the globe using English I'm working, playing, studying, training, listening, and practicing with English continuously I regularly feel youthful and joyous I feel electric energy whenever I'm listening to or speaking English I'm enjoying the journey of improving my speaking Finally, a little faster My future gets clear day by day Yes, I enjoy gaining knowledge continuously Yes, I'm curious, courageous, joyful, gorgeous, beautiful, and generally great Yesterday is just a fading image, it's gone My focus is on the future, and my emerging growth as a communicator I generate a giant image of grand career success, and I imagine jetting around the globe using English I'm working, playing, studying, training, listening, and practicing with English continuously I regularly feel youthful and joyous I feel electric energy, whenever I'm listening to or speaking English I'm enjoying the journey of improving my speaking CLICK HERE