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Now, Josie, what is our topic for today?
Well, we have another pronunciation topic today.
And we're looking at how to pronounce the days of the week,
Tuesday and Thursday.
Very interesting because accents come into play here.
They do, so we'll see more about that. Let's get started.
I think we should start with Tuesday.
It's logical because it comes before Thursday in the week.
So we have three different ways to pronounce Tuesday.
I say Tuesday with a chuh sound at the beginning.
And I think normally I see Tuesday with a tia sound at the beginning.
Interesting. So we have two different ways to pronounce it here.
Tuesday and Tuesday.
They're very similar.
And there is another way to pronounce this.
And this is perhaps if you are in the United States,
you're more likely to see Tuesday.
That's right. Tuesday.
Okay, so three possible options.
Tuesday, Tuesday, and in the US Tuesday.
That's right.
So this pronunciation change or difficulty comes from the first two letters of Tuesday,
which are t you.
Yeah, and these letters change their pronunciation in other words too.
It's not just Tuesday.
That's right.
So when we have the letters t you in the middle of a word,
we always pronounce them as chuh.
Just like the first sound in cheese, the food.
So for example, we could say culture.
Mm-hmm.
Or adventure.
Or what about century?
Yep. Or congratulations.
Let's go through each of these words one more time.
And listen very carefully to that sound in the middle.
So first we had culture.
Culture.
Adventure.
Adventure.
Century.
Century.
And congratulations.
Congratulations.
So, Josie, that's our only option here.
We have to use the chuh sound.
That's right.
That's the standard pronunciation.
Okay.
But when the letters t you come at the start of a word or close to the start of a word,
we have some different options of how to pronounce them.
So can we hear what these would sound like?
Yeah.
For example, the word chun, as in you play a chun, you play a melody on a musical instrument,
or the word chup, or even the word chupid.
Okay.
So that's not exactly at the beginning, but we've got an s, the start, and then we have
the t you sound.
That's right.
Chupid.
Now, earlier, I said that I normally see Tuesday.
And so I would also normally see tune and tube and even chupid.
Exactly.
And they're both completely correct, completely standard, just a little bit different.
Okay.
Now, that's in UK English.
What happens in US English?
Well, in US English or in North American English, more generally, when we have the letters
t you at the beginning of a word, they're pronounced two, like we saw with Tuesday.
So can we hear what this would sound like?
Yes.
I can give you some examples, but I'm going to have to try to put on an American accent.
Okay.
They sound a little strange in my accent.
So we would say tune, tube, and stupid.
So in US English, that t you at the beginning of the world is always two.
That's right.
Exactly.
We don't really have the option as far as I know to pronounce it another way.
So we've got Tuesday, Tuesday, and Tuesday depending on where you're speaking English.
That's right.
Of course you'll be understood everywhere regardless of which option you choose.
Of course.
So let's move on to Thursday.
Yeah.
That's a different sound.
It's still a t, but it's a t-h sound.
Absolutely.
So I think it's difficult because in English we have two sounds that we can make with t-h.
One of the sounds, for one of the sounds, we use our voice and for the other one, we don't.
Right.
It's not a little complicated, but I think you've got a tip for us to practice this.
I have.
So the sound where we don't use our voice is the sound at the beginning of the word think.
Think.
Okay.
So if you put your hand on your throat here, just on your neck, for those of you who can't
see the video, just on the top of your neck, and you say...
So the sound at the beginning of think.
So nothing happens.
I don't feel anything in my hand.
No, you can't feel any vibrations in your throat or in your neck, can you?
No.
No.
So let's take the other sound, the other t-h sound, and this is the sound at the beginning
of the word the.
The.
Okay.
So again, if you put your hand on your throat on your neck and just say that sound.
The.
The.
Okay, I can feel the vibrations this day.
Yeah.
Good.
So this sound is a voiced sound.
It means that we're using our voice.
Yeah.
So the is voiced, but think is not.
That's right.
Well, at least the t-h is voiced and the t-h of think is not.
Absolutely.
So in the word Thursday, are we using the voice or the unvoiced sound mark?
This would be the unvoiced.
That's right.
So Thursday.
Thursday.
Yeah.
Okay.
That makes sense.
So today we've been looking at Tuesday or Tuesday or Tuesday and Thursday and the pronunciation
of these two words.
What if we did some practice of this with our listeners?
Good idea.
I have three sentences which use all of these sounds that we've looked at today.
I'm going to say the sentence and then we'll leave a space for you, the listeners, to
repeat the sentence and practice your pronunciation.
That sounds good.
Okay.
The first sentence is on Tuesday, we're going on an adventure.
Maybe it would be useful for you to say this one to mark since you pronounce this sound
a little differently to me.
Okay.
So I would say on Tuesday, we're going on an adventure.
That's right.
So adventure stays the same, but I say Tuesday, just so you say.
Tuesday.
Okay.
Good.
Okay.
The second sentence is let's play a tune on Thursday.
And I would say here, let's play a tune on Thursday.
Yeah.
Okay.
And the final one, this one's a little longer.
There is nature and culture on Tuesday and Thursday.
And I would say there is nature and culture on Tuesday and Thursday.
Okay.
Let's leave it there for today.
Brue.
We really hope you enjoyed this lesson.
Now, if you'd like to see all the examples and the information written down, then we have
a blog post about this lesson.
And the link is in the description for this podcast.
And if you want a little more help with your English, you can sign up for our free email
lessons.
We send them every week and they're about a different topic each time.
Just visit coffeebreaklanguages.com slash English to sign up.
We'll be back soon with another episode of the Coffee Break English Show.
In the meantime, look out for the next mini lesson in your inbox.
See you soon.
And happy coffee breaking.
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