English Pronunciation Practice: CONSONANT CLUSTERS

Do you have trouble pronouncing ‘s’ words in English? Many students find words like street, squirrel, screen, spell, snow, and others difficult to pronounce. That’s because these words have consonant clusters in them. Consonant clusters are two or more consonants next to each other in a word. In this video, we will focus on ‘s’ words that contain consonant clusters, like the “str” in “street” or the “sk” in “sky”. In English, consonant clusters are very common. There may not be any in your native language, which could make their pronunciation challenging for you. But by the end of this video, you will have a solid grasp of the concept of consonant clusters and their pronunciation. Test your understanding with the quiz at www.engvid.com/english-pronun...
TRANSCRIPT
Hello. My name is Emma, and in today's video I am going to teach you about pronunciation. Today we are going to talk about something called: "Consonant Clusters". Okay? So, you're probably thinking: "What is a 'consonant cluster' or a 'consonant blend'?" That's okay, because in this video I will talk about what these are-they're very common in English-I'm going to talk about mistakes people make when pronuncing-... Pronouncing them. Sorry. And then I'm going to teach you a great way to practice these words. Okay?
So, let's first learn about: What are "consonant clusters"? Okay, so I have here the word: "snow", "small", "sleep", and "sport". These have something in common. If you're not quite sure, but you're thinking maybe it has to do with consonant clusters, you're correct. Okay? Just like the name of this video, these four words all have consonant clusters in them. Okay? And I've underlined the part that is the consonant cluster. So, here we have: "sn", "sm", "sl", "sp".
So, to better understand consonant clusters, first we should really talk about vowels and consonants. So, vowels, in English, are sounds that contain either: "a", "e", "i", "o", "u", and sometimes "y". So these are our vowels in English. In different languages, vowels are different; in English, these are our vowels. So, we have here: "o" in "snow" is a vowel, the "a" sound in "small", the "ah" is a vowel, we have the "e" sound in "sleep" is a vowel, and the "o" sound in "sport" is a vowel. So, these are our vowels.
The opposite of a vowel is a consonant. So, consonants are not vowels; they're pretty much everything else. Okay? So, in English, we have a lot of consonants. "t" is an example of a consonant, "r", "s", "k", "c", "m", "n", "b", "v", "q", "p", "l", and there's so many more. Okay? So, pretty much every other sound that is not these are consonants. So, now we've... So, in this word, for example: "s" is a consonant, "n" is a consonant. In this word: "s" is a consonant, "m" is a consonant, and "l" is a consonant. Okay? And here we have the same; "s", "l", and "p" are consonants; "s", "p", and "r" and "t" are consonants. Okay?
Okay, so we've talked about vowels and we've talked about consonants. So now let's talk about consonant clusters. So, consonant clusters are where you have two or more consonants together in your pronunciation, and they... They make, like, one unit of sound. So, for example, we have here "s", which is a consonant, and "t" which is a consonant. So, when these two are together in the beginning or the end of a word, it's a consonant cluster. So, we pronounce this, for example: "stair". So, the "st" is a consonant cluster. Or it can come at the end of a word, like: "last". And a lot of students have trouble with consonant clusters, because they're... They're hard. You're... You're pronouncing a lot of different sounds together.
Here's another example of a consonant cluster. So, we have "f" which is a consonant, and we have "r" which is a consonant; together, they're a consonant cluster. We might find this in the word "friend", or maybe a word like "free". Here we have "s" and "q". We'll get back to "r" in a second. We have "s" and "q" together. So, if you think about this: "squirrel". So, "s" and "q" together. I'm just going to remove that. "Squirrel". We have another consonant cluster, because "s" is a consonant and so is "q"; "q" is a consonant as well.
And then, finally, another example, we have the "g" sound and we have the "r" sound. Together, for example, in the beginning of "green", these two are both consonants, so they form a consonant cluster. So, I think you're sort of getting the idea. There's a lot of consonant clusters in English, and these are hard to pronounce.
So, today we're going to focus on consonant clusters that start with the letter "s" or that are in "s" words. Okay? So let's look at what I mean by this. You might see a word with "sm" in it, so for example: "small" - that's a consonant cluster with "s". You might see "sn", like "snake"; "sw", like "sword"; "st", like... Well, I was going to say "street"; that's more, like, here: "str" is "street". […]

[@engvidEmma]

Watch my NEW English Pronunciation Practice video on "OO" and "U" sounds! th-cam.com/video/R7A0yx0cnGU/w-d-xo.html

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Hello ma'am

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For English learners , You are an angel indeed. Thanks a lot!

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The way I see, Emma has just presented one of the most important parts of English spoken. Those small details are crucial for the ones who want to speak fluently. Congrats Emma. I hope one day I can get some classes with you or Alex. I'd like to mention that I've been learning a lot from you guys from Engvid for the last six years. Thanks for sharing your methods, strategies and knowledge. Please, keep up! See ya!

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Hi Emma,really,iven I'm not good at in English speaking,I love so much when you are teaching. I hope i Will Know easly. Thank you so much May God Bless you

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Thanks Emma I love ur videos and I learned too much of them. greetings from Mexico City

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Thanks, teacher Emma. You are the best English teacher in the world. Please make a video about INVERSION and conditional structures. I love you, Emma.

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Hi emma,
I've watched all your videos and it really helpful. I like thw way you explain something. It is easy to understand.But I want you to make some videos related to TOEFL, such as listening, structure and written expression and reading section.What I mean is the strategy to answer it.thank you in advance from Indonesia.😊

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Thank you very much.
Is so cool learn the pronunciation! 😁

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Вы замечательная учительница, я многое от вас понимаю.

[@stallion1906]

Hi Emma, great video as usual. Could you please make a video on vowels clusters like in words: appreciate, alleviate, priority, biology, biography etc... I am an ESL teacher in China and have been teaching oral English to College students for the last 6 years. Almost 90% of my students have difficulties pronouncing the words with vowel clusters and it would be very useful for millions of Asian students who are learning English. Thank you.

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Thank U so much miss Emma ❤️
i get a lot of benefits from your lectures
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Good lesson!!! Thanks, Emma.

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Dear teacher Emma, thank you for help me, these excercises are hugely good to improve my skill pronunciation. Thanks pretty teacher.

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Tactic Movements

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i saw the formal & informal letter video you did in 2013. now i see this video. you have improved so much!
thank you very much for the formal & informal letter video you made, it helped me a lot
Best wishes,

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Thank You Emma, my students will really benefit from this video.

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Dear Emma you are so sweet. Thank you for teaching great english. I am learning well day by day watching your videos. Lots of love to this beautiful lady.

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The

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It was awesome.❤

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The video is awesome! Thanks so much Emma!!

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Thank you very much for your great video lesson on pronunciatin. I find your method of hand motion very useful and helpful.

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I knew about vowels, semi vowels and constant but I didn't know about cluster so it increased my knowledge

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Thank you Emma I'm here to learning English.

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Thank You So Much Emma I Will Learn This Word Thanks

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Thanks Emma :) best english teacher in the world

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Thank you for helping us to learn more useful lessons my greeting and appreciation to you from Iraq

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i love it

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Hi there teacher emma actually I learn this language pretty much with you in this videos it's vert important to prononce that all word that I wil learning all the time with tolking about en english with native speaker thank you so much.

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you such a greate teacher and stay bless Greetings from Smilling Coast of West Africas 🇬🇲

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Thank emma for teaching the best teacher love you ❤ from China

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Thanks so much Emma You are good teacher bueno yo ablo español pero gracias a ti mi Ingles esta mejorando mucho 😀😀 te quiero un monton

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Your channel is such an inspiration, the quality of the video is great! I found my passion for teaching English through learning a language myself. Helping my language partners via video call made me so happy that I decided to start creating weekly content to help people. I’m now TESOL qualified and hope to help as many people as possible.
Keep up the great job 😁

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Thank you Ms Emma for good taught, I appreciate you and always be successful !
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Hi Emma! I am from India I love yr way of teaching and taking examples

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absolutely valuable... Love from India.. keep supporting my respected human.

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It's very helpful and funny episode. I really enjoyed this.

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Wow this lessons are so funy and fines because i from Mexico and i understand everything she say. I don't know to write this good

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I scored 7.0 in my Ielts exam by following your tips and tricks
My credentials were the following : L 8.0, R 6.5,
W 6.0, S 8.0
Thanks for these videos!

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Emma you are the best English teacher

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Thank you Emma, you're a beautifull teacher I love you

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It was very clarifying. Ultimately you have to think: "S plus Consonant= /ss/ sound. If you consider this way, it might be easier to learn, i guess.

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Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us

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Wonderful, thanks a lot Emma

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Convincing... And I'm getting satisfied to practice to do that.....I felt have excite !

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Teacher beautiful teacher, thanks

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Thanks for your videos Emma , Emma I always wondering why I can understand your English perfectly well, but I have some problems when I hear the black people pronunciation, some times I have to ask for the repeat of certain sentences, because I feel that they speak to fast and use an Intelligible pronunciation. But thanks any way for your tips and your time with us. I going to get my Diploma for my accomplish time in English language at the ICT in Houston Texas in June 29 . I think it couldn't be possible without your help. Thank you very much Emma!

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Thanks for your pronunciation lesson, Emma . It helped me a lot o learn and use. From South Korea.

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Thank you very very much teacher.

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thanks teacher，i think the lesson is very useful，help me promote my pronunciation

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Thank you so much you are a good teacher

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It's great,I have mastered many rules.

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You are very hardworking and I respect you for that.
Thanks Mam👍

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Hi Emma, I have no problems with " consonant clusters", but it's still a useful lesson.
You know Emma, just watching you makes me feel happy.

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Great work. Thank you

[@agapon2023]

I've never thought that somebody could have a hard time to pronounce such combinations. I wonder what countries people who have trouble with it are from.

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Same here

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Thank you so much Emma

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Thank to you Emma, can speak a good English! From Haiti.

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Thank you very much T. Emma.

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Very useful video. You are the best teacher I ever have seen and I love you, Emma thank you so much.

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This lesson is so easy for me. I don't have problems with consonant clusters

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Thank you mam , I am from India

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Kerala😍

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West Bengal

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It’s funny if you imagine doing this when you are in conversation 🤣

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😄😁

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Thank you Emma! I love to learning English class with you, because I still have bad English pronunciation.

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And grammar

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Thank´s. I have learned so much with your vidoes

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Hi, Teacher you are great thanks a lot for this video.

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Please Start a series on phrasal verbs and how to write application for university.

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Thanks my teacher Emma I teach you how to speaking and reading than you very much i am somaali

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It's like a pie thanks a lot .
From Iraq 😍

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Very clear lesson!!so very thankyou so much

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You are the best! Tanti Grazia!

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Hello teacher Emma, to long time not see you😘.a million thank yo you. Your lesson so helpful

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Hi Ira!
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I am from India

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my daughter really really liked it thank you!

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Thanks teacher
I loved it

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thank you teacher !

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Thank you, Emma 💗✨️