Practice pronouncing -Y- in English

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How to make this sound

Sound

spelt with -y-

  1. young yacht
  2. yellow yard
  3. yesterday year
  4. your paying

Connecting sounds

  1. due (Not uS)
  2. billiards
  3. fire
  4. higher
  5. wire
  6. tire

is a voiced consonant made by pulling your tongue back while voicing the sound. Start with the tip of the tongue touching gently the bottom teeth. At the same time, raise the middle part of your tongue and make the sides at the middle part of your tongue touch the inside of your bottom teeth. As you switch on the voice you drop the raised middle part of your tongue a little towards the floor of your mouth. Another way to make this sound is to make a short /ee/ sound and move on quickly to the /u/ (as in up) sound. You must move from one sound to the next very quickly and not make the /ee/ as long as usual for this to work. Note: For u.S. English speakers the words wire, fire and tire should not be included in your practise.