Saturday May 30th, 2009
English Pronunciation Podcast 38-
How to Pronounce the Consonant /dʒ/ : This podcast teaches you how to pronounce /dʒ/ correctly like a native speaker.

In this week's podcast, we're going to learn how to pronounce the consonant /dʒ/.

This consonant is very common in English and learning to pronounce it correctly is an important step in speaking English with an American accent.

Depending on what your first language is, you may find it difficult to pronounce this sound. More spefically, if your first language is Spanish, French, Korean, Japanese, German or Scandinavian, you may find it especially difficult to pronounce this sound.

The focus of this week's podcast is:

• Learning how to pronounce the consonant /dʒ/ accurately , like a native speaker.
• Practicing this sound in some key words and common American expressions and idioms.

How to Pronounce /dʒ/ :

So let's begin by learning how to pronounce the sound /dʒ/.

How to Pronounce /dʒ/:

Tongue:Press the tip and the blade of your tongue against the gum ridge(bump on the roof of your mouth. Press firmly. (The sides of the tongue should be touching the side teeth.)
Stop the air flow completely until the pressure builds up and then release quickly.

lips: Protruded slightly. (Forward, pushed outward)

Exercise: Practicing /dʒ/ in two steps:

Step1) Press your tongue tip and blade firmly aginst your gum ridge. Exhale but block the air flow completly with your tongue. Feel the air pressure build.

Step 2) Release quickly and vocalize while doing so.

Press.... release vocalize
press ...release vocalize.

In podcast #32 , we learned about "stop consonants" and "continuant consonants". Tongue:Press the tip and the blade of your tongue against the gum ridge(bump on the roof of your mouth. Press firmly. The sides of the tongue should be touching the side teeth.Stop the air flow completely until the pressure builds up and then release quickly. is a "stop" because the air flows is stopped by our tongue .<br> However, some experts consider /dʒ/ a combination of a stop and continuant because after we release our tongue their is a split second when the air is flowing between our tongue tip and gum ridge.

In podcast #30, we learned about "voiced" and "voiceless" consonants. /dʒ/ is a voiced consonant because our vocal folds vibrate when we say it.

Avoid this mistake:

Tip : make sure that your tongue tip is on the ridge. A common mistake students make is to press their tongue too far forward near the teeth. Press further back to get that full and warm sound Americans make.

Exercise: Listen and repeat: /dʒ/

/dʒ/ ... /dʒ/ ...

Exercise : /dʒ/ combined with some key vowels of English which we've covered in previous podcasts. Please listen and repeat. Pay careful attention to form.

/dʒi/ ... /dʒI/... /dʒɛ/ ... /dʒeI/ .../dʒæ/... /dʒə /... /dʒa /... /dʒoʊ/ ... /dʒɔ/

You may find that some of these combinations are more difficult than others. you may also fins that these combinations are not too difficult. That is because in these previous examples /d/ was falling on a stressed syllable . <br>
However, when /dʒ/ falls on an unstressed syllable as in the words budget or region , it is far more difficult. For this reason, we will learn and practice /dʒ/ in unstressed sylables in a future and separate podcast.

Exercise: Listen and repeat the following words containing /dʒ/.
Pay careful attention to your form- make sure that your tongue presses against the ridge firmly and stops the air completely before releasing.

jet ... John ... joke ... jazz ... Jew ... judge ... adjust ... jealous ... gentle ... gesture

Exercise : Listen and repeat the following American expressions and idioms containing /dʒ/:

Enjoy your meal!

I'm jonesing for a hot dog.(* slang, to want really badly, to crave, usually used for something pleasurable)

Jen and John are joined at the hip. (always together, inseperable)

That team is no joke . (serious competition)

The Right Training Tools for Better Pronunciation:

The best way to learn a new a sound is to practice it slowly.
In fact, the secret to speaking English clearly and quickly is practicing slowly and accurately. Learning to speak English with a standard American accent is a gradual process, but if you work at it regularly and practice as often as you can, you're going to improve!

It's important to have right training tools in order to improve your accent.

That's why I recommend that you check it out my English Pronunciation Course in mp3 format- Best Accent Training mp3s!

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Any questions, comments or suggestions ? Contact us at:  contact@englishpronunciationpod.com

Thank you and see you next time!

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- Domingo Ponce Rodriguez- - Marketing Manager USA (Spain)

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