درسنامه اصلی

Hi, this is AJ. Welcome to Unit 12. W, Q, and H are the sounds we’re practicing in this unit.

Now, most of these use kind of a relaxed mouth, especially a relaxed tongue. Let’s start with the W.

Now, the easy way to remember the W is the kissing fish, because the W sound is made with mostly your face and your lips. And you push your lips and your cheeks. These are your cheeks on the side. Push them forward, like a little fish face. Right? And then your lips just go up and down, they close and open, close and open to make the W sound. You lock the air, and release it.

Wah, Wah, Wah, Wah, Wah, Wah, Wah.

Inside your mouth, your tongue is relaxed. Just let it stay flat. Don’t move it around. Just relaxed tongue. The sound is mostly coming from what you’re doing with your face. Wah, Wah, Wah. There’s a bit of vibration happening in your throat also. Whhh, you can put your fingers here, and you’ll feel some vibration, not super strong vibration, but a little bit.

Wah, Wah, Wah, Wah, Wah, Wah, Wah.

Let’s practice some words with the W sound.

What, what, exaggerate, make that kind of kissing, fish face very strong. What, what, what.

Where, where, where.

When, when, when, when.

Why, why, why, why.

At the end of a word: How, how, how. Notice that the common question words in English have W sounds in them. How, how.

Now, now, now, now.

Know. Here’s the one that’s K-N-O-W, Know. It’s a very soft W at the end. Know, know.

Even the word go, G-O has a little bit of a hidden W, another hidden sound. Remember we had the hidden Y, well some words have hidden Ws, especially at the end. G-O, if you look at it, it sounds like it should be pronounced gah, or goh. But if you say it, a lot of people make a mistake and they say, goh, goh, goh, just a pure O sound. But that’s not really the correct accent. You need to add a little bit of a W at the end to make it sound correct. Go, wah, do you hear a little bit of a W at the end? It’s soft. It’s the hidden W. Go, go.

Show, show, show, show. It’s a soft W at the end, the hidden W.

New, new, not old, new, new.

Now when you practice, make it very strong. Some of the Ws at the end of words are soft, but when you practice them, I want you to exaggerate and make them very, very strong.

That’s the W.

Let’s go to the Q.

Now the Q is actually easy because really, there’s not a special Q sound. It’s just the K sound, plus the W. So it’s really just putting together the two sounds you now already know. It’s just K plus W. So put your mouth in a W shape like this, you know, kissing a little bit, but first say a K sound. So the back of your tongue goes up, remember, touches the top of your mouth.

K, K, K, K, K, right, that’s the K sound. K, K, make that sound, K.

Now, add the W at the end of it kwa, kwa, kwa, kwa. Just K plus W, that’s all that Q is.

So let’s do some words.

Quick, quick, quick.

Question, question, question.

Quit, quit, quit.

Quality, quality, quality.

Quite, quite, quite.

Put in the middle. Require, require, require. Put the K and the W together. Require.

Equal, it’s in the middle. Equal, equal, equal.

That’s it. The Q is very simple.

And now, finally a super, super, super relaxed sound, the H sound. The H, you’re going to open your mouth first of all with the H. Don’t close it, and then your tongue is also relaxed.

All you’re doing is blowing out air with an open mouth. So it’s actually a quiet sound.

Here’s what it sounds like.

Hhh, Hhh, Hhh.

I’m just pushing air with my stomach, with my lungs. I’m just pushing the air out suddenly but everything else is open and relaxed, just an open mouth, a relaxed tongue. Everything’s quite relaxed, the air comes out. Hhh, there’s also no vibration. No vibration with the H, so it’s a very, very soft, relaxed sound. No vibration, open mouth, tongue is relaxed.

Hhh, Hhh, Hhh, Hhh, that’s it. Because it’s such a relaxed sound, such a soft sound, you need to push that air quite hard so we can hear it. Otherwise it sounds like -appy. We say happy, if you don’t push the air strong enough, it just sounds like -appy. You won’t hear the H. So push it, get that strong Hhh. But mouth, tongue relaxed.

Happy, Hhh-appy. Make it strong. Happy, happy.

Hurry, hurry, Hhh, Hhh, hurry, hurry, hurry.

Hard, hard, not soft, hard.

Hot, hot, hot. Exaggerate it when you practice. Hot.

History, history. Hh, Hh. History.

Let’s put it in the middle.

Behind, behind, behind.

Inhale. It means to breathe in. Inhale, Hh, Hh, hale, inhale, inhale, inhale.

Very good.

Now as always, as you follow the five day process with the training audio, exaggerate the target sounds, make them extra strong, and also, don’t forget about rhythm. Don’t forget about that music, because it’s also very, very important.

See you in the training audio.