How To Pronounce All 50 US States and Capitals | How To Say Every State and Capital Correctly
Rachel's English2019-06-11
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💫 Short Summary
The video covers the pronunciation of all 50 US states and their capitals, emphasizing correct stress, vowel sounds, and syllable pronunciation. Examples and tips are provided for each state name to aid in accurate American English pronunciation. Viewers are encouraged to practice saying the names with the correct stress and pronunciation. The importance of proper pronunciation techniques, such as jaw drop for diphthongs and not releasing stop consonants, is highlighted throughout the video. The speaker encourages feedback for future topics and ends with a thank you message.
✨ Highlights
📊 Transcript
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Pronunciation of all 50 US states and their capitals.
00:25Detailed pronunciation tips for Alabama, including syllable stress and vowel sounds.
Stress patterns and unique pronunciation features highlighted for Alaska, Arizona, and Arkansas.
Exploration of California and its capital, Sacramento, with focus on syllable stress and vowel sounds.
Pronunciation tips and examples provided throughout the segment for correct pronunciation.
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Pronunciation of US state names and capitals.
07:16The segment focuses on the stress patterns, syllable structures, and vowel sounds of state names like Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, and Georgia.
Specific pronunciation details such as the L sound in Colorado and silent letters in Connecticut are highlighted.
Vowel changes in Florida and the debate over pronouncing the T's in Atlanta are discussed.
Viewers are encouraged to practice saying the names with correct stress and pronunciation.
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Pronunciation of State Names in American English.
14:25Detailed explanation of correct stress, vowel sounds, and syllable pronunciation for state names like Hawaii, Honolulu, Idaho, Boise, Illinois, Springfield, Indiana, Indianapolis, Iowa, and Des Moines.
Tips on pronouncing challenging consonant clusters and maintaining correct mouth movements for difficult syllables.
Examples provided for each state name to practice pronunciation effectively.
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Pronunciation of State Names and Capital Cities.
20:16Correct syllables, diphthongs, and schwa vowels are emphasized for state names like Iowa and Kentucky.
Proper pronunciation techniques such as jaw drop for diphthongs are discussed.
The importance of maintaining correct vowel sounds and stress patterns in American English pronunciation is highlighted.
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Pronunciation of US state names.
28:17Examples include Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, and Montana.
Emphasis on correct pronunciation of vowel sounds and syllable stresses.
Tips provided for improving overall pronunciation by correctly pronouncing certain vowel sounds and syllables.
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Pronunciation of State Names in the United States.
35:55The segment provides details on the stress patterns, vowel sounds, and syllable emphasis for states like Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, and others.
Correct pronunciation of the capitals of the mentioned states is emphasized.
Regional accents play a role in the differences in pronunciation, such as the varying vowel sounds in 'Nevada'.
Proper pronunciation is highlighted through examples and repetition, focusing on key linguistic elements for each state name.
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Pronunciation guides for US states and capitals.
44:28Correct vowel sounds and stress patterns are emphasized for states like North Carolina, Ohio, and Oklahoma.
Pennsylvania's pronunciation variations, Rhode Island's silent 'S,' and South Carolina's 'OW' diphthong are discussed.
Capitals of states are highlighted, such as Raleigh, Columbus, and Oklahoma City.
Correct stress on syllables is emphasized as crucial throughout the segment.
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Pronunciation of State Names and Capitals.
59:51Emphasis on correct stress and vowel sounds for states like Texas, Vermont, and Virginia.
Highlight of pronunciation exceptions such as the T sound in 'Utah' and 'Washington'.
Discussion on correctly pronouncing compound words like 'Salt Lake City' and 'West Virginia'.
Note on Washington DC being a city in a district, not a state, with emphasis on the last syllable in compound words.
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Viewer engagement and feedback requested for future pronunciation topics.
01:00:13Comments encouraged for suggestions on content to cover.
Video ends with a thank you message to viewers for using Rachel's English.
00:00What's up YouTube? Thank you for studying with me.
00:03You need to know this, this video request came through from Bertha, a student in my online school.
00:09Her native language is Spanish and she lives in Alabama.
00:12She asked me to make a video that goes over the pronunciation of all of the 50 states in the US
00:18and their capitals.
00:20Thank You, Bertha, for the question!
00:22
00:25We’ll be going through alphabetically
00:27and we'll be talking about anything interesting that happens with pronunciation, like a flap T or a silent letter.
00:33We'll talk a lot about stress.
00:36
00:39I'll be going over the standard pronunciation.
00:41Keep in mind, pronunciations can vary by region.
00:45We’ll start with Alabama. The capital of Alabama is Montgomery.
00:51Alabama, we have four letters A.
00:54Two of them are the AH vowel and two are the schwa.
00:59Al-a-bam-a.
01:02Most stress on the third syllable.
01:07Alabama.
01:08The capital is Montgomery.
01:12You may hear this as four syllables.
01:14Montgom-e-ry. Montgomery.
01:19But it's more common to pronounce it: Mont-gom-ery, just three syllables.
01:25Notice, I'm making a stop T.
01:27Montgomery. Mont– Mont– Mont– Montgomery.
01:33Say that with me. Alabama. Alabama.
01:39Montgomery. Montgomery.
01:43Alaska, and the capital Juneau.
01:47Alaska, three A's, two are a schwa, and one is the AH as in Bat vowel.
01:54That's the middle syllable. The stressed syllable, the beginning syllable, the schwa, the ending syllable,
02:01the schwa.
02:03Alaska. Alaska.
02:08The capital is Juneau.
02:11First syllable stress.
02:13Ju— Juneau, and second syllable, unstressed with the OH as in No diphthong.
02:21Juneau.
02:23Say that with me. Alaska. Alaska. Juneau. Juneau.
02:32Arizona and the capital, Phoenix.
02:36Arizona, four syllable word with stress on the third syllable that has the OH as in No diphthong,
02:43and make sure you have jaw drop and then lip rounding to get both parts of that diphthong: Ohh.
02:51Arizo— Arizona.
02:55Arizona. And we do end in the schwa. Arizona.
03:01The capital is Phoenix, two-syllable word, first-syllable stress.
03:08Phoenix. Phoenix.
03:11Arkansas and Little Rock. Arkansas, this one is crazy because it looks like R, Kansas.
03:20Kansas is also a state name, but it's not pronounced that way at all. It's Arkansas, first syllable stress: Ar-kan-sas.
03:31And then the last syllable has no S sound at the end.
03:36I think of this as the AW as in Law vowel.
03:39Arkansas.
03:40Though I have seen it written in IPA with the AH as in Father vowel, that doesn't matter so much.
03:46Just know that it is unstressed.
03:48Arkansas. Arkansas.
03:52The capital of Arkansas is Little Rock.
03:56Little has a flap T, and then the schwa L, that can be tricky. Little, little, little. Little Rock.
04:05Rock also stressed along with the first syllable, lih— Little Rock. Little Rock. Say these with me.
04:14Arkansas. Arkansas.
04:19Little Rock. Little Rock.
04:23California, Sacramento.
04:26California, a four syllable word with stress on the third syllable, secondary stress on the first syllable.
04:35Cal-i-forn-ia.
04:39You can think of this second syllable as being either the schwa, or the IH vowel.
04:45Just make sure it has a very unstressed feel.
04:47Cal-ih-ih-ih-forn-ia.
04:52Now, the stressed syllable would be written with the AW as in law vowel.
04:56When that is followed by R in the same syllable, it is definitely more closed, it's not ah but it's aw, aw, aw,
05:06for, for, fornia.
05:11California.
05:13Make sure you make this a Dark L.
05:16The L in California comes at the end of a syllable, not the beginning, so we don't want: Cal, cal,
05:25right from AH into a light L, but we want: Cal, Cal, uhl, uhl, that uhl sound is the dark sound of a Dark L.
05:37An L is a dark L when it comes after the vowel or diphthong in a syllable, like it does here.
05:44Cal, uhl, uhl, don't leave that out.
05:48Cal-- Cal-- California.
05:54The capital, Sacramento, also has four syllables, also has third syllable stress.
06:01It has the same stress pattern.
06:04Sacramento.
06:05Now, the T here can be a true T like I've just done it, to- to- or it can be dropped, Sacramento, Sacramento.
06:16Sometimes, we drop the T when it comes after an N, when it doesn't start a stressed
06:23syllable. Sacramento, or Sacramento. Say these with me. California. California. Sacramento. Sacramento.
06:40Colorado. Denver.
06:43Colorado, just like California, and Sacramento.
06:48It has four syllables with the third syllable stressed.
06:52Here, the L is a light L, it comes at the beginning of the syllable, so you don't have to worry about the dark sound.
06:59Co-lo-ra-do.
07:03Colorado. Colorado.
07:07The capital is Denver, two-syllable word with first syllable stress
07:13Denver. Denver.
07:16Say these with me. Colorado. Colorado. Denver. Denver.
07:27Connecticut, Hartford.
07:30Connecticut, four syllable word, this time, stress is on the second syllable.
07:35Co-nnec-ticut.
07:39Notice the T is a flap T, the first T,
07:44that's because the T comes between two vowel sounds, you're thinking: wait a second, it comes after the letter C.
07:50Well, that letter C is actually silent in this state name.
07:54So when we look at the sounds, the T comes between two vowel sounds, that's a flap T.
07:59Co-nnec-riririri. Connecticut.
08:04The final T will likely be a Stop T.
08:07It might be a flap T if it's linking into a word that begins with a vowel or diphthong.
08:13But in general, this will be a Stop T.
08:16Connecticut. Connecticut.
08:19The capital of Connecticut is Hartford.
08:22This is tricky, it has two R's, Hart— with a stop T, Hart— ford, ford.
08:30And don't try to put a vowel here in the second syllable, it has the schwa followed by R,
08:35those just blend together into one R sound.
08:38Fff--rrr--dd— Ford— Ford— Ford— Hartford.
08:43Hartford. Say those with me. Connecticut. Connecticut. Hartford. Hartford.
08:53Delaware. Dover.
08:57Delaware, three syllable word with first syllable stress.
09:02It has the EH as in Bed vowel, and a Dark L.
09:06Del— del— dela— Delaware.
09:13Ware—ware— ware—
09:15Unstressed syllable with the EH vowel.
09:18Ware— weh eh eh— ware— ware— Delaware.
09:23Delaware.
09:25The capital of Delaware is Dover.
09:29Two syllable word, first syllable stress.
09:32That syllable has the OH diphthong. Make sure you have jaw drop, then lip rounding.
09:38Doh— Doh— Dover.
09:43Dover. Say those with me. Delaware. Delaware. Dover. Dover.
09:52Florida.
09:53This is my home state. I was born here and I lived here for the first 18 years of my life.
09:58I pronounce this word with two syllables. Florida.
10:02That's the same pronunciation most of the people I know use, however, you will hear some native speakers
10:08put in a really light IH vowel in the middle, making it three syllables.
10:12Florida. Flor-ih-da. Or Florida.
10:17Florida.
10:19Two-syllable word with first syllable stress.
10:22Flor-da, Flor-da, just the schwa sound in the second syllable, da-da-da no bigger vowel than that.
10:33The vowel in the stressed syllable is the AW as in Law vowel, just like in Califo-oh-ornia.
10:42California.
10:43When the AW vowel is followed by R in a syllable, that is stressed, the AW vowel will change,
10:50it will be more closed.
10:51It won't be: aw, but: oh, oh.
10:56Or-- flor-- Florida, or as some people might say it with three syllables: Florida, Flor-i-da, ih-da, ih-da, Florida.
11:10The capital of Florida is Tallahassee.
11:15Four-syllable word, with stress on the third syllable.
11:19We do have a dark L in the first syllable.
11:22Tal-- tall-- uhl uhl-- Tala-- Tallahassee. Tallahassee. Say these with me. Florida. Florida. Tallahassee. Tallahassee.
11:39Georgia and the capital, Atlanta. Georgia, two syllable word with first syllable stress.
11:46Just like Florida, it has the AW vowel followed by R.
11:51It is more closed, it's not: AW it's: uhr, uhr. Georgia. So more lip rounding, tongue a little further back.
12:04Geor— Georgia, and a schwa in the second syllable.
12:11Georgia.
12:13The capital of Georgia is Atlanta.
12:16The pronunciation of this capital is interesting.
12:20It's a three syllable word with stress on the middle syllable.
12:24It has two T's, but you might hear it pronounced with no T's at all. Atlanta. Atlanta.
12:32I would pronounce it with a Stop T in the first syllable because it's followed by another consonant.
12:38At— At— Atlanta. Atlanta.
12:41The second T can be dropped because it's followed by an N. Atlanta. Or you can make it a light true T. Atlanta.
12:50Atlanta. It ends in a schwa. I will say I have friends and family who live in this city,
12:57and none of them pronounce the second T.
13:00They all leave it out. Atlanta, is how they say it.
13:05Say that with me. Georgia. Georgia. Atlanta. Or Atlanta.
13:13Hawaii. Honolulu. Hawaii.
13:16Now, I'm doing a very American English pronunciation of this.
13:20People who actually speak Hawaiian would probably be giving it a different pronunciation.
13:25But in general, the general population of America would pronounce this as Hawaii.
13:31So we have stress on the second syllable, it's a three-syllable word, a schwa in the first syllable.
13:38Huh, huh, huh. Ha-wa-ii. AI diphthong then IH vowel.
13:45Hawaii. Hawaii.
13:48The capital of Hawaii is Honolulu.
13:52Four syllable word, stress on the third syllable.
13:56Honolulu. Honolulu.
14:00We have a schwa in the second syllable, and the OO vowel, the same exact sounds in the last two syllables.
14:07First, it's stressed Lu--, then it's unstressed: Lu—.
14:12Lu— Lu— Honolulu.
14:15Say these with me. Hawaii. Hawaii. Honolulu. Honolulu.
14:25Idaho. Boise.
14:28Idaho. Three-syllable word with first syllable stress.
14:33That's the AI diphthong: I-da, then we have the schwa in the second syllable,
14:39and an unstressed OH diphthong in the third syllable.
14:43Ho— ho— I— da— ho— Idaho.
14:48The capital of Idaho is Boise, a two-syllable word with first syllable stress.
14:55Boi-se.
14:57The letter S here it does make the Z sound.
15:01Boise. Say these with me. Idaho. Idaho. Boise. Boise.
15:11Illinois. Springfield.
15:14Illinois.
15:15My mom and dad both grew up in Illinois, so I've spent a lot of time visiting the state, visiting family in this state.
15:23Illinois.
15:24Notice the S here is silent, that's just like in Arkansas.
15:28The final S was silent there.
15:30That is not common, it is very uncommon for a final S to be silent, but we've had it twice here in state names.
15:38Illinois.
15:40Three syllables with stress on the final syllable, that has the OI as in Boy diphthong.
15:47Il-li-nois. Illinois.
15:51The capital of Illinois is Springfield.
15:55Stress on the first syllable.
15:57Springfield.
15:59We do have a beginning consonant cluster there with three consonants SPR.
16:06Spr— Spr— Springfield.
16:12Because the P is so light and the release is weak, some people think of that as a B.
16:18That works only if you don't make it a strong and obvious B.
16:22It's probably better to think of it being a very light P.
16:26Spring— Springfield.
16:30Notice in the last syllable: fie-uhl-uhld—
16:35we do have a dark L. The L comes after the vowel in that syllable. That's a dark L. We don't want: field—
16:44we don't want to go right from the EE into the L consonant. We want that dark sound: field— field—
16:54So even though it's an unstressed syllable, compared to the first stressed syllable,
16:59do still make a dark sound there.
17:01Springfield. Eel, eel, eel, eel. Springfield.
17:07Say those with me. Illinois. Illinois.
Springfield. Springfield.
17:16Indiana. Indianapolis.
17:19Indiana. I went to college in Indiana. I love it there. Right in the Midwest.
17:25We used to get lots of lake effect snow from the Great Lakes.
17:31Four-syllable word, with stress on the third syllable. Indiana.
17:36Now, when the AH vowel, which is in the stressed syllable here, is followed by the N consonant,
17:41it's no longer a pure AH vowel. It's not an, annn, and it doesn't go right from AH into N.
17:50But rather, the tongue relaxes in the back and we get sort of an UH kind of sound between AH and N.
17:58Ahhnnn-- Indiaaaannn--.
18:04Don't forget that. Make sure you relax your tongue. We definitely don't want pure AH
18:08and N consonant, that does not sound American.
18:12Indiaaaannna.
18:17And finally a schwa at the end. Indiana.
18:22The capital of Indiana is Indianapolis.
18:26Here, the AH vowel in the stressed syllable is not followed by an N, so it is a pure AH.
18:32Indiana-polis.
18:35This is a six-syllable word, that's long.
18:39Use the stressed syllable as your anchor, and practice it broken up.
18:43First, just the unstressed syllables at the beginning, then the stressed syllable, then the other unstressed syllables,
18:50like this: India-- India-- India-- na-- polis-- India-na-polis.
19:02With the unstressed syllables, simplify your mouth movements as much as possible.
19:08Indianapolis. Indianapolis. Say those with me. Indiana. Indiana. Indianapolis. Indianapolis.
19:21Iowa. Des Moines.
19:24Iowa.
19:25This can sound like three syllables.
19:27I-oh-wah.
19:30With a schwa and then W schwa, or it can sound just like two syllables without the middle one: I--wah.
19:39Either way, it's the first syllable that stressed.
19:42That's the AI diphthong.
19:44Make sure you have jaw drop for that beginning of that diphthong. I-- I-- Iowa. Or more commonly,
19:53dropping that middle syllable, Iowa, Iowa.
19:58The capital of Iowa is Des Moines.
20:01In American English it's pronounced with no s's.
20:05De-- De-- Des Moines.
20:08First syllable is unstressed, it has the schwa, second syllable stressed has the OY as in Boy diphthong.
20:16Des Moines. Des Moines. Say those with me. Iowa. Iowa. Des Moines. Des Moines.
20:28Kansas. Topeka.
20:31Now, we're at Kansas. Kansas is a two-syllable word with stress on the first syllable.
20:37Now, here we have the AH vowel followed by N.
20:41So just like in Indiana, we don't have a pure AH, AH, followed by N is not pure.
20:49We have an UH sound between or the back of the tongue relaxes.
20:54Kah-- Kah-- Kan-- and the unstressed syllable, sas-- Notice the first S here, it makes a Z sound.
21:05Kansas. Kan-zzzas. Kansas. The capital of Kansas is Topeka. Topeka.
21:15Three-syllable word with second syllable stress. Both unstressed syllables have the schwa as the vowel.
21:22To-pek-a. Topeka. Say those with me. Kansas. Kansas. Topeka. Topeka.
21:37Kentucky. Frankfort.
21:40Kentucky. Three syllable word, middle syllable stress. Ken-tucky. Kentucky.
21:48So we do have a schwa in the first syllable there. When the schwa is followed by N,
21:53we don't really think of making a schwa. The N takes over that sound,
21:57so you can just think of making the K sound and then the N consonant. Ken-- Ken-- Kentucky.
22:04The capital of Kentucky is Frankfort.
22:08Frankfort. The first syllable is stressed and here, we have the AH vowel. Now it's followed by the NG consonant.
22:16The rule is a little different here. It's still not a pure AH.
22:21But instead of being AH followed by UH, it's more like the AY diphthong, it's not AH, Fra-- Fran-- Frankfort.
22:33But rather, it's Frankfort. Fra-ay-ay-ay-- Fran-- Frankfort. So you can think of that as being the AY diphthong.
22:45This is just like the word "thanks" which would be written with the AH vowel plus NG consonant. It's not thanks,
22:53but: thanks, thanks, AY, AY, with the sound that's more like the AY diphthong. Frank-- Frank-- Frankfurt.
23:03Frankfurt.
23:05In the word, I would probably not release the K. Frankfurt. Frankfurt. Frankfurt.
23:13It's a stop consonant. I lift the back of my tongue for the K but I don't release it,
23:18because the next sound is a consonant. Frankfurt. Frankfurt. I'm also making a stop T at the end.
23:26Frankfurt. Say these with me. Kentucky. Kentucky. Frankfort. Frankfort.
23:36Louisiana. Baton Rouge.
23:40Louisiana.
23:41A five-syllable word with stress on the fourth syllable. Louisiana.
23:48You could also put some secondary stress on the second syllable. Loui- Louisiana.
23:58Here again, we have the AH vowel followed by the N consonant. Not a pure AH. Ah-- ah-- Louisia-- Louisiana.
24:10Louisiana. Schwa in the final syllable. Louisiana. The capital of Louisiana is Baton Rouge. Baton Rouge.
24:22We stress the first level of Bat-- and also Rouge. Baton Rouge. Rouge is a little bit more stressed
24:30than the stressed syllable of Bat--. Now, we have T schwa N, Baton-- nnn--
24:37We'll make that a stop T that goes right into the schwa N sound. Baton-- Baton-- You don't release the T.
24:46Baton-- Baton-- Baton Rouge. Baton Rouge. There aren't too many words in American English that end with the DZ
24:57consonant, but Rouge is one of them.
25:01Baton Rouge. Say those with me. Louisiana. Louisiana. Baton Rouge. Baton Rouge.
25:11Maine. Augusta. Maine. How simple, a one-syllable word.
25:18This is the first one syllable state name that we've had.
25:22Maine. M consonant, AY diphthong, N consonant. Maine. The capital of Maine is Augusta. Augusta.
25:34Three syllable word with middle syllable stress, and the two unstressed syllables have the schwa vowel.
25:42Uh-- Augus-ta. Augusta. Augusta. Say those with me. Maine. Maine. Augusta. Augusta.
25:59Maryland. Annapolis. Maryland. A three-syllable state name with stress on the first syllable.
26:08Maryland.
26:12The two unstressed syllables both have the schwa. Now, the second half of this word looks like it's the word 'land'
26:20but that's not how we pronounce it, we pronounce it: lund, lund, with the schwa.
26:25Mary-uh-lund. Maryland. Maryland. The capital of Maryland is Annapolis.
26:35Annapolis a four-syllable word with stress on the second syllable.
26:40We have two schwas and an IH vowel in the unstressed syllables. Uh-na-polis. Annapolis. Annapolis.
26:52Say these with me. Maryland. Maryland. Annapolis. Annapolis.
27:02Massachusetts. Boston. Massachusetts. A very long word as far as letters go, but it's only four syllables.
27:11Ma-ssa-chu-setts. Primary stress on the third syllable. Let's break it up. Massa— Massa— chu— setts— setts—
27:24Massachusetts. The capital of Massachusetts is Boston. Now, the letters here can be confusing.
27:34I used to live in Boston and I know a lot of non-native English speakers when they see the letter O,
27:40they do something like: oh, but it's: ah. The first O is the AH as in father vowel: Bo— Boston. Boston.
27:51The second syllable is the schwa.
27:53And remember, the N takes over the schwa, so you don't even need to try to make a vowel,
27:58just go right from T to N. Ton-- ton-- ton-- Try not to make a vowel at all. Boston. Boston.
28:07Say these with me. Massachusetts. Massachusetts. Boston. Boston.
28:17Michigan. Lansing. Michigan. My family vacations in Michigan every year and I absolutely love it.
28:27Michigan, a three-syllable word with first syllable stress.
28:31We have the IH vowel in the first two syllables, and the schwa in the last syllable. Mich-ih-gan. Michigan.
28:41The CH here makes the SH sound: Mish— Michigan. The capital of Michigan is Lansing.
28:52Now, the first syllable here is stressed, and we have the AH vowel followed by the N consonant.
28:59It's not: ahh-nn, aahn, but rather it's: La-- uh, uh-- it's that
29:07impure AH vowel because it's followed by a nasal consonant. Lan— Lan— Lansing. Lansing.
29:19Say these with me. Michigan. Michigan. Lansing. Lansing.
29:28Minnesota. St. Paul. Minnesota. A four-syllable word with stress on the third syllable.
29:36Mi-nne-so-ta. We have a flap T because it comes between two vowel sounds,
29:43and it does not start a stressed syllable. Minne-so-ta. Minnesota. The stressed syllable has the OH diphthong,
29:54don't forget to round your lips. Mi-nne-so- Minnesota.
30:01The capital of Minnesota is St. Paul. In the words, St. Paul, it's the second word, Paul, that's the most stressed.
30:12We do make a stop T in the ‘Saint’ so it's not: Saint— with that release, but it's: Saint— Saint— St. Paul.
30:21A little lift, a little break between the two words, that symbolizes the Stop T. St. Paul. St. Paul.
30:30Notice I'm not really making llll-- an L sound at the end, that's a dark L. St. Paul. Uhl— Uhl— Uhl—
30:40A dark L was made with the back of the tongue pressing down and back a little bit,
30:44the front of the tongue does not lift for the dark sound of the dark L.
30:48And in many cases, we never lift the front of the tongue with a Dark L.
30:52I might do it if I was linking into a word that begins with a vowel. St. Paul is the most beautiful city on Earth.
30:59St. Paul is— llizz— Then I might lift my tongue tip to make the full dark L,
31:07but in many cases, we just make the dark sound, St. Paul, and we never lift the tongue tip.
31:13Try that: St. Paul— Make the dark sound with just the back of your tongue.
31:19Challenge yourself not to lift your tongue tip even though you see that letter L. Paul. Paul. St. Paul. St. Paul.
31:32Say those with me. Minnesota. Minnesota. St. Paul. St. Paul.
31:41Mississippi. Jackson. Mississippi. A four-syllable word with stress on the third syllable.
31:49I remember when I learned how to spell this word, that there were sort of a song but went with it:
31:54M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I. So many repeated
letters there. Mississippi.
32:06And the first three syllables all have the same vowel. The IH as in Sit vowel. Mississi— Mississi—
32:16Make sure you're not making that EE, a tighter EE vowel with more tongue lift.
32:21It's a little bit more relaxed than that. Ih-- Mih-- Mih-- ssi-- ssi-- Mississippi. Mississippi.
32:31The capital of Mississippi is Jackson. Two-syllable word with first syllable stress.
32:37Jack-son. Jackson. Now, remember we have the schwa N in the second and unstressed syllable.
32:45Don't try to make a vowel there. Just go right from S into N. Son— son— on— Jackson.
32:52Say those with me. Mississippi. Mississippi. Jackson. Jackson.
33:01Missouri. Jefferson City. Missouri. Now, just like with Mississippi, this starts with Miss—
33:11but actually, the sounds are different. We have the M consonant, the IH vowel, but here, the SS is the Z sound.
33:18Missouri. It's a three syllable word with stress on the middle syllable. Missouri.
33:27The vowel in the stressed syllable is the push vowel UH, but it's followed by R. Missouri.
33:37And I find that I make it more of just an R consonant sound. Missour— Missouri. Missouri.
33:45So you could go right from the Z into the R sound without trying so hard to make a separate vowel.
33:51Missouri. Missouri. The capital of Missouri is Jefferson City. This is a two-word capital, just like St. Paul,
34:02and I would again say it's the last word that has the most stress. So Jefferson,
34:09we have some stress there on the stressed syllable of Jefferson. But most of the stress is on the stressed
34:16syllable of city, which is the first syllable Jefferson City. Jefferson City. Notice that the T in city is a flap T,
34:28that's because it comes between two vowels, and does not start a stressed syllable. City. City.
34:35Jefferson. Jefferson.
34:37Notice that the middle syllable is just the schwa R sound. You don't need to try to make a separate vowel.
34:43The R takes over the schwa. Jeff-errrr— just a quick little R sound. Jeff-er-son. Jefferson. Jefferson.
34:56See if you can make that word with only a vowel in the stressed syllable, EH. Jefferson. Jefferson.
35:05Jefferson City. Say those with me. Missouri. Missouri. Jefferson City. Jefferson City.
35:17Montana. Helena. Montana. Three-syllable word with middle syllable stress, and again, we have an AH vowel
35:27followed by a nasal consonant N. So it's not ahh-nn, ann— but we pronounce it: an—. Montan— Montana.
35:39And a schwa in the final unstressed syllable. The capital of Montana is Helena. First syllable stress,
35:48the EH as in bed vowel, and then two schwas, Hel— le— na— Helena.
35:55Say these with me. Montana. Montana. Helena. Helena.
36:02Nebraska. Lincoln. Nebraska. Three-syllable word with middle syllable stress.
36:10We have schwas in the two unstressed syllables. Ne-bras-ka. Nebraska. The capital of Nebraska is Lincoln.
36:21You'll notice the second L is silent. Lincoln. We have first syllable stress,
36:28and the N here is the NG sound because it's followed by K. Lin—
36:35So it's the back of the tongue that lifts to make contact with the roof of the mouth. In this case, the soft palate.
36:41Lin-coln. Coln— Lincoln. We have the letter O, but it's just the schwa in that unstressed second syllable,
36:50said very quickly. Coln— Lincoln. Say these with me. Nebraska. Nebraska. Lincoln. Lincoln.
37:04Nevada, or Nevada. Carson City. Nevada. Nevada. Now, this state name is interesting.
37:14If you look it up in the dictionary, some dictionaries say it's the AH as in father vowel,
37:19some say AA as in bat, some say both.
37:22I went to Youglish.com and listened to lots of people pronouncing this and most people say Nevada
37:28with the AH vowel. That's what I say, but I did a little reading, and I learned that people who live there say
37:34AA with the AA as in bat vowel. Nevada. So if you're visiting there, or if you live there,
37:41I have a feeling you're going to want to use the native pronunciation. Nevada.
37:47In both pronunciations, the unstressed syllables are the same. They have the schwas: Ne-- Nevada. Nevada.
37:56The capital is Carson City. A two-word capital name. We have stress on the first syllable of Carson,
38:04and the first syllable of City. City has a Flap T,
38:08and the primary stress will be on the stressed syllable of the last word. In this case, Ci— Carson City.
38:16Aaahhh— Carson City. Say those with me. Nevada. Nevada. Carson City. Carson City.
38:28New Hampshire. Concord. New Hampshire.
38:32Two-word state name, three syllables, and stress is on the middle syllable, the stressed syllable of Hampshire.
38:39Now you can definitely make this with a light P, but you don't have to. You can just say: Hampshire, Hampshire.
38:46New Hampshire. No one is probably going to notice that and call you out on it.
38:51So to simplify, think about dropping that P. The capital of New Hampshire is Concord. First syllable stress.
38:59Now, I’ve written it here with the schwa and the unstressed syllable,
39:03and I have noticed most people pronounce it that way. Concord.
39:08However, I have noticed a few people will put the AW as in Law vowel, followed by R,
39:13still make it unstressed though, that
would sound like: Concord,
39:17but I would say stick with: Concord. It’s more common.
39:21Say those with me. New Hampshire. New Hampshire. Concord. Concord.
39:30New Jersey. Trenton. New Jersey. We're getting into the new states. We have four: New Jersey, New Hampshire,
39:41New Mexico, and New York. So in all of these cases, it's the second word that has primary stress,
39:47and it's the stressed syllable of that word. So in this case, it's Jer—. That is our stressed syllable here.
39:54New Jersey. So it's a three-syllable state name with middle syllable stress. New Jersey.
40:01The capital of New Jersey is Trenton. Trenton. This is a little bit tricky. We have a TR consonant cluster
40:09that can be pronounced CHR, that's a common way to pronounce that cluster. Chr-- Chr-- Trenton.
40:16The second T is in the sequence T schwa N, and in this sequence, most native speakers make this a Stop T.
40:26Trent-nn. Trent-nn. There, I'm really exaggerating the stop, the break. Trenton. Trenton.
40:36There, I'm doing it at a more regular pace. It's not released. Trenton. Trenton.
40:41You'll hear that but very rarely. And it's also not dropped. That would be: Trenon. Trenon.
40:48But it's Trenton. Trent— stop the air in your nose: Trent— nn— Trenton.
40:56Say those with me. New Jersey. New Jersey. Trenton. Trenton.
41:04New Mexico. Santa Fe. New Mexico. Four syllables with second syllable stress. New Mexico.
41:15The capital of New Mexico is Santa Fe. Now, here we have a T after an N. That can either be a light true T:
41:23Santa. Santa. Or if you'll notice the way I pronounced it just there, it can be totally dropped. Santa. Santa Fe.
41:32Santa Fe. The first syllable of Santa is stressed, but as always, it's the second word
41:40in a compound word that's the most stressed. So Fe— will be the most stressed there. Santa Fe.
41:47Say those with me. New Mexico. New Mexico. Santa Fe. Santa Fe.
41:56New York. Albany. New York. Two syllable word, second syllable stress. We have the AW as in Law vowel
42:06followed by the R consonant. That is not a pure AW vowel, it closes down more,
42:12and by that I mean the jaw doesn't drop as much and the tongue pulls back a little bit more.
42:17So it's not ah, it's aw, aw, York. New York. The capital of New York is Albany. First syllable stress.
42:30AW as in Law, followed by the dark L. Al— Al— Albany. Say these with me. New York. New York. Albany. Albany.
42:45North Carolina. Raleigh. North Carolina.
42:50The most stressed syllable is the stressed syllable of Carolina, which is the third syllable of that.
42:56The fourth syllable of this state name, North Carolina. This can be tricky.
43:03We have AW as in Law, plus R for North. So remember, it's a little bit more closed than a pure AW. Aw, aw, awrt.
43:12North. Unvoiced TH at the end of that. The tongue tip must come through the teeth quickly,
43:19lightly before coming back into the mouth for the K sound. North Carolina. North Carolina.
43:30The capital of North Carolina is Raleigh, with the AW as in Law vowel. Ra— leigh— Raleigh.
43:40Say those with me. North Carolina. North Carolina. Raleigh. Raleigh.
43:50North Dakota. Bismarck. North Dakota. Ko— is the most stressed syllable there, and notice we have a flap T
44:00because the T comes between two vowels. North Dakota. North Dakota.
44:07The capital of North Dakota is Bismarck. Stress on the first syllable and the letter S there is pronounced as a Z.
44:17Bismarck. Say these with me. North Dakota. North Dakota. Bismarck. Bismarck.
44:28Ohio. Columbus. Ohio. The state name has just four letters,
44:35but it's made up of three syllables and they all have a diphthong in it. So the IPA
44:41of this state name is really long.
44:44Oh— hi— oh— OH diphthong, AI diphthong, OH diphthong and of course, the H. Middle syllable is stressed. Ohio.
44:55The capital of Ohio is Columbus. Three syllable word with middle syllable stress. Co-lum-bus. Columbus.
45:05Say these with me. Ohio. Ohio. Columbus. Columbus.
45:15Oklahoma. Oklahoma City. Oklahoma. Secondary stress on the first syllable and
45:23primary stress on the third syllable. O-kla-ho-ma.
45:29Two OH diphthongs in our stressed syllables. Oklahoma. The other two syllables have the schwa.
45:36And the capital of Oklahoma is Oklahoma City. City is the most stressed word because it's the second word,
45:43the last word of this compound city name, so Cit— should be your most stressed syllable here.
45:51Oklahoma City. Oklahoma City. Flap T in City. Say these with me. Oklahoma. Oklahoma.
46:04Oklahoma City. Oklahoma City.
46:08Oregon. Salem. Oregon. Three syllable word with first syllable stress. It's the AW as in Law, plus R.
46:18So it's: aw, aw, aw, or— Oregon. Oregon. There is a letter O in the unstressed syllable, but it's certainly not Oregon.
46:30It's gn, gn, gn with the schwa. Oregon. The capital of Oregon is Salem.
46:38Two-syllable word with first syllable stress. Salem. Say these with me. Oregon. Oregon. Salem. Salem.
46:51Pennsylvania. Harrisburg. Pennsylvania. Secondary stress on the first syllable and primary on the third.
47:01Penn-syl-va-nia. Pennsylvania. AY diphthong in the stressed syllable.
47:10If you look the word Pennsylvania up in a dictionary, you might see a different pronunciation.
47:16Pennsylvania. That has the ending EE-YA instead of YA. I live in Pennsylvania and I've always pronounced it YA
47:27at the end, not two syllables, EE-YA. But you might hear that, you might see that.
47:35Pennsylvania, or more commonly, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania. The capital of Pennsylvania is Harrisburg.
47:46Stress on the first syllable. When the AH vowel is followed by R in the same syllable, it's not a pure AH.
47:54That would be AH, Ha— Harr—, Harr—, but the R changes this vowel. It instead sounds like the EH as in bed vowel.
48:05Harr— Harrisburg. Harrisburg. Say these with me. Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania. Harrisburg. Harrisburg.
48:21Rhode Island. Providence. Rhode Island. Compound word, a two-word state name,
48:29stress is always on the stressed syllable of the last word. That would be the syllable, Is— Island.
48:37Rhode Island. Notice the S in Island is silent.
48:41The two words linked together, the D links right into the AI diphthong, dai— dai— Rhode Is— Rhode Island.
48:50We have l-a-n-d, land, but it's not pronounced that way. It does have the schwa. Rhode Island.
48:59Land— Land— Rhode Island.
49:02The capital of Rhode Island is Providence. Three syllable word with first syllable stress. Pro-vi-dence. Providence.
49:13Providence. Say these with me. Rhode Island. Rhode Island. Providence. Providence.
49:23South Carolina. Columbia. We had two North states. Now, we have two South States.
49:31Again, tricky because we have that unvoiced TH where the tongue tip must come through the teeth.
49:38South Carolina. OW diphthong plus the unvoiced TH,
49:43and then the tongue tip goes back into the mouth, and the back of the tongue lifts for the K. South Kk—.
49:50South Kk—. South Carolina. Stress is on Li— South Carolina. The capital of South Carolina is Columbia.
50:03Very similar to Columbus, the capital of Ohio, but here, Columbia, four syllables, second syllable stress.
50:11Make sure it's a schwa in that first syllable. Co— Co— Columbia. Say these with me.
50:18South Carolina. South Carolina. Columbia. Columbia.
50:26South Dakota. Pierre. And now, South Dakota. Dakota with a Flap T because it comes between two vowels.
50:35Stress on the middle syllable there. Da-ko-ta. Dakota. South Dakota. The capital of South Dakota is Pierre.
50:46A two-syllable word with second syllable stress. Pierre. Pierre. Say these with me.
50:54South Dakota. South Dakota. Pierre. Pierre.
51:00Tennessee. Nashville. Tennessee. Secondary stress on the first syllable and primary stress on the last syllable.
51:10A schwa in the middle. Tennessee. Tennessee. The capital of Tennessee is Nashville.
51:19Two-syllable word with first syllable stress. It has the AA as in bat vowel. Na— Nash— Nashville.
51:28Say these with me. Tennessee. Tennessee. Nashville. Nashville.
51:39Texas. Austin. Texas. Two syllable word with first syllable stress. The letter X here makes the KS cluster.
51:50Texas. Texas. The capital of Texas is Austin. AW as in law vowel in the first stressed syllable. Austin.
52:03Say these with me. Texas. Texas. Austin. Austin.
52:13Utah. Salt Lake City. Utah. JU as in few diphthong, True T, AH as in father vowel. Utah.
52:24The T here is an exception to the rule. Usually, a T is a flap T
52:28when it comes between two vowel or diphthong sounds, and doesn't start a stressed syllable.
52:34But this T comes between two vowel diphthong sounds, and it doesn't start a stressed syllable,
52:39yet it's still a true T. Don't make this one a Flap T. Utah. Utah. Now, we have a three word state capital.
52:51Salt Lake City. Just like with all compound words, the main stress is on the stressed syllable of the last word.
52:59Cit— City. Salt Lake City. Salt Lake City. Notice I'm making a Stop T in Salt and a Stop K in Lake.
53:10I go right into the next word without releasing. It's not Salt Lake City, but Salt Lake City.
53:17Salt Lake City. And city with a Flap T. Say those with me. Utah. Utah. Salt Lake City. Salt Lake City.
53:30Vermont. Montpelier. Vermont. Two-syllable word with second syllable stress. Vermont.
53:39And I am making that a Stop T sound. You might also hear it lightly released as a True T. Vermont.
53:48The capital of Vermont is Montpelier. Mont-pel-ier. Stress on the second syllable
53:56and I'm making that T a Stop T. It's followed by a consonant. Montpelier. Say these with me.
54:04Vermont. Vermont. Montpelier. Montpelier.
54:11Virginia. Richmond. Virginia. Three syllable word with middle syllable stress.
54:19Vir-gin-ia. You know, this is the first name of one of my best friends from growing up.
54:25She went by the name Ginny. The capital of Virginia is Richmond. Two syllable word with first syllable stress.
54:35There's a letter O in that second syllable, but it's just the schwa. Try not to even make a vowel: mond— mond—
54:42Richmond. Richmond. Say these with me. Virginia. Virginia. Richmond. Richmond.
54:55Washington. Olympia. Washington. First syllable stress. Wa-shing-ton. And there is a True T there
55:07in the final syllable. Washington.
55:11The final syllable is T schwa N. Usually in the sequence, T schwa N, that T is a Stop T, but this is an exception.
55:19In the word Washington, it is a true T.
55:22Make sure you don't try to make a full vowel in that last and unstressed syllable.
55:27It's just the schwa which gets absorbed by the N. Ton-- Washington. Washington.
55:35The capital of the state of Washington is Olympia. Four syllable word with second syllable stress.
55:44O-lym-pi-a. Olympia. Say these with me. Washington. Washington. Olympia. Olympia.
55:58West Virginia. Charleston. West Virginia. We had North States, we had South States, we have one West state.
56:10But we don't have any states that start with East. West Virginia. Now, it's common to drop the T
56:16when it comes between two other consonant sounds and we do that here. I would not say that T. West Virginia.
56:25Take the S and link it directly into the V sound. West Vir— West Vir— West Virginia.
56:33The capital of West Virginia is Charleston. This name can be tricky. It's two syllables with first syllable stress,
56:41and we have an R consonant followed by the dark L.
56:45I know from my students said this is one of the trickiest combinations, like in girl, world, curl, Charl.
56:56I think it helps to think of there being almost an extra syllable. Charl— uhl— uhl— with the dark L.
57:05So make sure you're making a dark sound. Charl— Charl— Charleston. Charleston. Say these with me.
57:19West Virginia. West Virginia. Charleston. Charleston.
57:27Wisconsin. Madison. Wisconsin. A three syllable word with middle syllable stress.
57:35The two unstressed syllables have the IH as in Sit vowel. Wisconsin. Wisconsin. Wisconsin.
57:46The capital of Wisconsin is Madison. A three syllable word with first syllable stress.
57:52The stressed syllable has the AA as in Bat vowel. Ma— Madison. Madison.
58:00Two schwas and the two unstressed syllables. Dison— Dison— Madison.
58:07Say these with me. Wisconsin. Wisconsin. Madison. Madison.
58:16Wyoming. Cheyenne. Wyoming. A three syllable word with middle syllable stress. That's the OH diphthong.
58:24Jaw drop, then lip rounding: OH. Wyo— Wyo— Wyoming. Wyoming. The capital of Wyoming is Cheyenne.
58:39The CH makes the SH sound. Shy— there's the AI diphthong in the first unstressed syllable,
58:47Cheyenne, and then the EH as in bed vowel, N consonant. Cheyenne.
58:54Say these with me. Wyoming. Wyoming. Cheyenne. Cheyenne.
59:02And we can't forget about the capital of the US, Washington DC. This is a city but it's not in a state.
59:09It's in something called a district, the District of Columbia.
59:14And finally, the capital of the United States Washington DC, it's a compound word,
59:21we have the word Washington and then DC, standing for District of Columbia.
59:28With a compound word, stress is always on the last word.
59:31And when we talk about a letter instead of a word like D and C, it's the last letter. So Washington DC.
59:41Primary stress is on the last syllable, C. Washington DC. And remember it, just like with the state of Washington,
59:51we do have a True T here. It doesn't follow the rules. Washington DC. Washington DC.
01:00:01Or as it's often called in the united states, simply DC. DC, with stress on the second syllable.
01:00:09Goodness gracious! The US certainly has a lot of states.
01:00:13We did it! What other topics do you need
to learn in pronunciation?
01:00:17Let me know in the comments below. That's it and thanks so much for using Rachel's English
01:00:24
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