Don’t want to miss any tips and tricks for English?

When you learn a new word, do you want to hear how a native speaker says it?

Then you should try Youglish!

Youglish is a database of videos for learning pronunciation. You type in an English word that you want to hear, and a video pops up with a fluent speaker using the word in a sentence.

This is a brilliant way to practice your pronunciation and hear how the word is used in context. You can replay the video as many times as you need to listen and repeat after the speaker.

You can also read the subtitles as well as the breakdown of the syllables in the word to make sure you pronounce each one correctly.

You can download Youglish as an English pronunciation app. It’s another cool way to learn English free online.

Pronunciation Tips

To really improve your English using Youglish, I suggest you do two things.

For pronunciation, you should pay attention to which syllable is stressed.

For example, if you type in the word “characteristic,” you’ll see the video above and then below are the phonetics: “karr” + “uhk” + “tuh” + “RIST” + “iks”. The char and rist receive stress, but rist gets the most stress, and char gets secondary stress.

If you say a word with the wrong word stress, that can be more confusing to your listener than pronouncing the letters wrong because the English ear is listening for the stress to help it recognize the word.

Vocabulary Tips

For vocabulary, you should pay attention to the other words being used with the one you searched in the subtitles. This way, you’ll also pick up collocations, words that are used frequently together, and learn whole new phrases.

For example, characteristics is often used with of, as in the “characteristics of this altered state” from the picture above.

Prepositions can be the hardest thing for English learners to master, and one way to remember when to use which one is to learn collocations with prepositions.

Another collocation from above is “chief characteristics”, meaning the most important ones. You can also substitute “primary” or “major” for “chief”, two other adjectives that collocate with our target word.

It’s not just enough to notice collocations; you should write your new phrases down or record them in a flashcard app to remember and practice them.

Make Your Own Sentences

Based on what we just reviewed, you can make various sentences of your own, practice stressing the target word correctly:

• “The major characteRISTics of Youglish are its video database and phonetical breakdown of words.”

Creating your own sentences is how you build your ability to speaking fluently, come up with the right word at the right time, and improvise in English.

Where else can you practice pronunciation and learn collocations?

In my online lessons, you can practice the many different parts of pronunciation, not just word stress, like rhythm, linking, intonation, and more. You can also learn collocations for ordinary conversations in English.

If you want to learn English with quality materials at a low price…

If you’re looking for tools to improve your listening abilities…

And if you want to learn the pronunciation tips that can make you sound more fluent in English conversation…

Choose my online English course for beginners, which you can do at your own pace!

Through my podcast lessons, you will learn the vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation necessary for spoken English.