English B-words pronunciation
This lesson is very useful for all learners of English, especially Spanish speakers. Ronnie goes through the pronunciation of bird, beard, beer, bear, and bare, all of which are difficult to master. You can do a quiz based on this lesson at the engVid website.
Native English pronunciation may be difficult for listening and speaking. There’re some words starting with b, which spell and sound identical but mean differently.
Bird [be:d]
Bird – brrrrr
It’s an animal flying around. It’s easy to say bird if you pretend you were in cold Canada with -130 outside. Freezing people express their trembling by saying brrrrr… Just add d to [be:].
In Toronto they have a famous baseball team called the Toronto Blue Jays. A blue jay is a kind of bird.
Beard [biәd]
Beard – Beer + d
It’s facial hair for men. Try remembering the saying Bearded men like to drink beer.
Beer [biә]
[biәd] sounds like [biә] in beer, a popular Canadian drink.
Bear [beә]
Another kind of animal. Bears are quite common in Canada though some can see them only in zoos. Canadian bears may be polar (white) or grizzly (brown).
Bare [beә]
Bear – Bare
Bear sounds the same as bare (naked).
Such b-words with different spelling but common pronunciation are called homophones. Watch Ronnie visualizing these b-words in a list to associate them in your mind whenever hearing/saying them.