#13 Duck face Y (how to pronounce the letter Y + exercises) [pronunciation] [uttale]

Why Learn the Letter Y?

Why do we need to talk about the letter Y ? What's the fuzz about it ? In episode 11 , I taught you how to pronounce the letter U , which is pronounced like U in Norwegian , and if you haven't listened to that episode and you struggle a little bit with that sound , I suggest you go back to that episode , listen to that carefully and muster the letter U first , and then you can come back to Y , y , e , big question

Connection Between I, U, and Y

, y . So I want you to imagine the three letters I , u and Y In that order I , u and Y In that order I , u and Y , because they are connected somehow and I would say that the letter U is the connector between the two .

So when you start saying E , e the letter I , e the letter I sound E in Norwegian , e it's very difficult not to smile . You have to show your teeth and your lips are opened horizontally E . Now when you go from E to U , u , you see that your lips are going together . You're not showing your teeth anymore , your lips have a

The Duck Face Technique

round shape . And now when you want to say why and you might want to ask me why , why do you pronounce it like that you have to make a duck face Well , not really a duck face , but if you can imagine a duck or duck face , then it makes it easier to remember how to pronounce . So you're going from U go from . U start with that , you're just making a round , and then you want your lips to open vertically , upwards and downwards , so not horizontally . You do not want to smile .

It's very difficult to smile when you say e but what you do show is the two front teeth on the top and on the bottom of your tooth rows , if that makes sense at all . So basically , imagine you're showing the four teeth that you have in the middle of your tooth rows . If that is hard , another thing you can try to do is that you take a pen and you try to keep it between your upper lips and the nose . You might not be able to do it , but the sound will be right at least . So take the pen , place it on top of your upper lips and try to hold it between the lips and the nose and see what happens .

Practice with Long Y Sounds

E E .

It might seem a little bit weird in the beginning when you pronounce it , because you're not used to having your lips in that position . It might feel super awkward and of course , in the beginning when you pronounce it , it will be very exaggerated . We don't do it that much , we don't open that much . It's much more subtle . And as for you and all the sounds that are new to you , a good thing is that when you learn how to pronounce it , being able to recognize that sound will also be easier , even though the difference in between y and I in norwegian is very , very subtle " for I , and [y] for y .

I know it's super subtle , but you can hear it , norwegians can hear it , and if you do not pronounce it right , you might say funny things like [si'kle] instead of [sy'kle] . The first one means to drool and the other one means to ride a bike . Of course , everybody understands what you wanted to say , but it's still funny . So , yeah , it's important to master it because you don't want people to misunderstand what you want to say , to misunderstand what you want to say . So we're going to do all of the three vowels , going from [i] , then to [u] , then to [y] and back and forth like that to practice , and then I'm going to give you some words to pronounce , okay , so let's start with [i] , then you round your lips [I-U] , and then you open up [y] .

[I-u-y]

Let's start from the top:

Practice with Short Y Sounds

.

let's do some words now , starting with with long sound, long [y] .

[yt] *å yte

If this was hard , know that you can always go back to [i] and take it from there . What is also important to notice is that if your tongue position is changing when you go from [i] to [y] , then you're doing it wrong . The tongue should be at the same place , only your lips should change , the configuration of your lips only .

"t , eat , eat .

[yt] means yeah , how do I translate that word ? It's a word that can mean different things , but it can mean to put in some effort to do a good job . It can also mean to provide or to contribute . Yeah , that's eat , eat . So two letters , but a lot of meanings . I want to give another word , even though I know that the R might be difficult to pronounce for some . But if you master the R , let's do it [yr] . The R could also be pronounced like a French R , [yr] .

[yr]

[yr], If that's easier . Ir

Final Tips on Y Pronunciation

Ir or ir means to be eager , it can also mean to . It can also mean rain , and that's why the webpage id is called id , because it's a fun wordplay . Now let's do some examples where we don't start with [y] , but still a long [y] sound: "By . B , B , B B means to bid , or it means city or town .

[sky] This even though it's written the same way as sky , and if you pronounce it incorrectly , then you're saying ski or the English word ski . Okay , so that was with a long vowel . Let's now do some examples with the short vowel , starting with E . I'm doing my best [y] to find short words . It's not always so easy , but I'll see what Yrke means profession . I c f . yrke

[Ys'te] , yste . Very , very handy word . You already know the word for cheese , I guess "st . Now yste is the verb that we use when you make cheese . Not sure what it is in English Yste . Let's move on to words not starting with I . This is a good one Idyll , idyll . So in the beginning you have an I and in the end you have an Y , so you have both in one word idyll . Idyll is a noun . It means something that is idyllic , an idyllic scene maybe would be a good translation or an idyllic situation . There is actually a well-known song called Idyll by Post-idobygge . If you search for Idyll , a Norwegian song , you're probably going to find it . It's a very nice summer song . I like it a lot . You should listen to it , anyways . So that was Idyll . And then the last word Okay , the only one I could think of right now is [fyll] , fyll .

[Fyll]

So " , depending on the context , could mean fill to fill up something , or filling or drunkenness , so many options . Okay , I hope that went well . If it was hard , do it again , practice on your own and notice if there maybe are some words that are more difficult to say than others . If so , then it might be because E is not in the beginning , so then you might have to go back with that . Or maybe there are other sounds that you find difficult to pronounce , so that might also be something . So that might also be something .

And another thing to be aware of is that the difference between long and short vowels might not be mastered right now I will make an episode about that later but one thing to be aware of is that the shorter vowels tend to open up a little bit , meaning that you don't , basically you open your mouth more when you have an open vowel sorry , a short vowel compared to a long vowel . So this might influence how it sounds like . So this might influence how it sounds like . So , when you hear people pronouncing short and long [y] , maybe you're better at recognizing one of them than the other . Probably the longer one will be the one that is the easiest to recognize . It's much clearer than the short one , but that will of course get better with practice . So Takk for i dag ! Lykke til ! Good luck ! Vi høres !