Pronunciation Guide for 25 Common Fruits

Pronunciation Guide for 25 Common Fruits

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Know how to pronounce all 25 of the most common fruits?  Use this video to check your knowledge and correct your pronunciation where you’re making mistakes!

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We’re heading into the grocery store to go shopping for some fruits for a fruits vocabulary video.

Delicious-looking watermelon. There’s a good one.

Okay, so I didn’t get too much footage in the store but did you hear what that melon was called? It’s called watermelon. Probably my favorite melon.

Watermelon is a compound word and with compound words, we put stress on the first word. In this case, it’s the word water. That’s actually a pretty tough word and I have a whole fun video on how to pronounce that word. I’ll be sure to put a link to that video at the end of this one.

We have a Flap T in ‘water’, then the word ‘melon’. There’s secondary stress on ‘me’. So the main stress is on wa—. Watermelon. Don’t let that ON ending fool you. It’s a schwa. Un, un, un. Said very quickly. Watermelon. Watermelon. Try that with me. Watermelon.

Delicious-looking watermelon. There’s a good one.

We actually bought a bunch of fruits and took them home so let’s go back to my Kitchen. But first, let’s take a look at the word ‘fruit’. It has the FR consonant Cluster: frr, frr, then the OO vowel: froo— and the T. The ending T will be a Stop T if it’s at the end of a thought group or followed by a consonant. Fruit. Fruit. It will be a Flap T if it links into a vowel or diphthong. Fruit in— fruit in— rarara—fruit in— fruit in the salad.

Apple.

Apple. Apple. We have 2 letter Ps in this word but together, they make just one P sound. The second syllable is unstressed and it’s just the dark L. Uhl, uhl. Apple. Apple. For the stressed vowel AH, you may find you pronounce it better if you lift your upper lip just a little Bit. Ah. Back of the tongue should be lifted. Apple. Say it with me. Apple. Apple. Apple.

David ate our last banana so here’s a photo of a banana. Banana. This word is filled with 3 A’s but we don’t pronounce them all the same way because of syllable stress. The stressed syllable in this word is the second one. Naaaa. Which has the AH as in bat vowel sound. Banana.

Because the AH vowel comes before the nasal consonant N, it’s not a pure AH vowel. We’ll relax it into the vowel before N: banaaa— banaaa— banaaan— banana.

The other two syllables are unstressed and use the schwa. Ba— na— ba— nan— na— Banana. Say that with me.

Banana.

David ate our last banana. So here’s a photo of a Banana.

Blackberry, strawberry, blueberry. Not pictured, raspberry.

So here, we have three berries. Berry is a two-syllable word with stress on the first syllable.

It has the EH vowel followed by R. This sound combination is tricky because the R changes EH a little bit. We don’t have as much jaw drop as we would for a pure EH vowel. Eh— Air. Bear. Bea— Eh. You can see I’m dropping my jaw more for the pure Vowel. Berry. Berry. I mentioned four kinds of berries. Blackberry, strawberry, blueberry. Not pictured, raspberry.

Blackberry, Strawberry, Blueberry, and Raspberry. These are all four compound Words. With compound words, stress is always on the first word. Black, blue, straw, rasp. Blackberry. Blueberry. In all four of these three syllable words, the first syllable is stressed. Blackberry. 
Strawberry. Blueberry. Raspberry. Notice the P in raspberry is silent. We don’t say it at all.

Say these with me: blackberry, strawberry, Blueberry, raspberry.

Blackberry, Strawberry, blueberry. Not pictured, Raspberry. A similar word to ‘berry’ is ‘pear’. Bear. Pear. I didn’t get a video clip of a pear but this is a picture of a pear.

Sometimes we use the term pear-shaped to describe a body. Bigger through the thighs and hips and more tapered up top. Pear. Pear is just like bear except the first sound is unvoiced. Instead of voiced. Bbb— pear. Pear. Less jaw drop than we would have for a pure EH.

Pear.

Cantaloupe. We took video of in the Store, pictures of. I couldn’t find that video of the cantaloupe so here’s an Image. It has that rough skin and that sweet soft orange meat inside. Cantaloupe.

This is a word that will teach you not to trust English spelling. The first syllable is stressed. It uses the AH as in bat vowel. Just like with banana, it’s not a pure AH because it’s followed by N. Caa— ah, ah. Relax the back of the tongue, we get that AH sound. Caa— ah. Can— Cantaloupe.

You probably noticed I’m not pronouncing the T. Like in the words ‘interview’ and ‘intermission’, the T is often dropped after N. You just pronounce the N. Cantaloupe. Cantaloupe. You can make the True T: cantaloupe, cantaloupe, but listen to how I said it in the kitchen when I wasn’t thinking about pronunciation. Cantaloupe. We took video of in the store, pictures of.

Cantaloupe. I dropped the T. The spelling of the last syllable can also cause confusion. This is the OH as in No diphthong and the final E is silent. Lope. Lope. Cantaloupe. Try that with me.

Cantaloupe. Cantaloupe. We took video of in the store, pictures of. Cherries. Not to be confused with a cherry tomato. Cherries. Cherry this is just like berry except it starts with the CH consonant, ch— cherry. Two syllables with stress on the first syllable. Cher— The first syllable sounds just like a chair you sit in.

Cher— cher— cherry.

Say that with me.

Cherry.

Cherries. Not to be confused with a cherry tomato. Cherries. I talked about a cherry tomato. That’s a kind of tomato that’s small like a cherry. We’ll go over the pronunciation of ‘tomato’ later when we study vegetable vocabulary in another video. You know, I didn’t get a good video of grapes.

We have green grapes, and red grapes, and also concord grapes. Grapes can have seeds or not. Grapes has the GR cluster. Lip position doesn’t matter for the G, so your lips will already be rounding for the R. Grr, grr, gra— AI diphthong, PS cluster. Grapes. Grapes. Red, green, both of these begin with the R or an R cluster so again, lip rounding. Red, green, grapes.

Red grapes. Green grapes. Concord grapes make great juice, great jams, and I even have a great pie recipe for concord grapes.

Stress is on the first syllable. K consonant, AW vowel, then the NG sound. Concord. The letter N is usually pronounced as NG when it’s followed by G or K.

So the back of the tongue lifts to touch the soft palate to make the NG sound. Concord. Then a quick unstressed syllable, K sound, schwa R. Cord, cord, cord. Concord. Concord grape. Red grapes. Green grapes. Concord grapes. Say these with me. Red grapes. Green grapes. Concord grapes.

I have an orange and a grapefruit. Let’s slice them open. Not pictured, tangerine. There are actually lots of different citrus fruits, aren’t there? Oops. Too many to put in one video about fruits.

Okay, so here you can really see the Difference. First of all size, but the grapefruit is that beautiful pink color inside and then orange is more orange.

Orange, grapefruit, tangerine, citrus.

Orange. This word is known for having nothing that rhymes with it. It’s pronounced with the AW as in law vowel. And when that’s followed by R, it’s not pure. We round the lips more, we pull the tongue back more. Or, orrrr. The second syllable is unstressed and said quickly.

Orrr, ange, ange, ange, ange, ange, ange.

Super fast IH vowel, N, and then a J sound. Orrrr, ihnj. Orange. Say that with me. Orange. I have an orange and a grapefruit. Grapefruit. A compound word of two words we’ve already studied. Grape and fruit.

Do you remember what we said about stress in compound words? It’s the first word that’s stressed. So, grape. Grapefruit. P is a stop consonant and we usually don’t release stop consonants when followed by another consonant. Grapefruit. Notice my

Lips came together for the P but I didn’t ppp— release the air before going to the F.

Grapefruit. Grapefruit. Say that with me. Grapefruit. I have an orange and a grapefruit. Let’s slice them open. Not Pictured, tangerine.

Tangerine. A three syllable word with stress on the last Syllable. Tangerine. So the first two syllables are said a little more simply. Tanger. Tanger. Tanger. Tangerine. Tanger. When the a vowel is followed by N like in this first syllable, remember it’s not pure, taah, taah, taaan, tanger, tanger, tanger, tangerine.

Tangerine. Tanger— ine. Tangerine. Say that with me.

Tangerine.

Tangerine. Let’s slice them open. Not Pictured, tangerine. There are actually lots of different citrus fruits.

Citrus. The S sound is in there twice, at the beginning, and the end. Once it’s made with the letter C, and once with a letter S. In the middle, we have the TR cluster. It’s pretty common to turn the T into a CH in the TR cluster. Do you hear a CH?

Citrus. Ch—

Citch— citch—

Citrus. Citrus.  First syllable stress. Say that with me. Citrus.

I have an orange and a grapefruit let’s slice them open. Not Pictured, tangerine. There are actually lots of different citrus fruits. Aren’t There? Oops. Too many to put in one video about fruits.

Another word that I didn’t get video for is Kiwi. Unlike many words in English, this word is pronounced just like it looks like it should be pronounced. EE vowel in both syllables. First syllable is stressed. Kiwi. Kiwi. Say that with me. Kiwi.

Lemon. We also have Limes. Lemon and lime. Lemon. A two-syllable word with stress on the first syllable. The L is a light L because it begins the word. Then we have the EH as in bed vowel. Le— lemon. The last syllable uses the schwa though you don’t really need to think about it, you can just move from M into N. Mnn, mnn, mnn, mnn. The schwa will happen automatically.

Lemon. Lemon. Say that with me.

Lemon.

Lemon. We also have limes.

Lemon and lime.

Lime. One syllable using the AI as in buy diphthong. This is another light L because L is at the beginning of the word. Lai, lai, then the M consonant. Lime. Lips come together. Lime. Try that with me. Lime.

Lemon. We also have Limes. Lemon and lime. Mango. Let’s cut this one open. Mangoes are really hard to cut because they have that huge pit in the middle. They’re really sweet. This one’s organic.

Mango. Pit. Organic. When we learned the word ‘banana’, I said how the AH vowel is not pure before an N sound. Naaan. The AH vowel is also not pure before an NG consonant. A pure vowel would sound like this: ah, mah, mango, mango. But we say: mango, mango. So before NG, the AH vowel changes to a sound that’s more like the AY diphthong.

Mango. Maay— maay, aay. Mango. So we have the NG sound then a hard G. Maaango. Mango. Stress is on the first syllable. Mango. Try that with me. Mango.

Mango. Let’s cut this one open. Mangoes are really hard to cut because they have that huge pit in the middle. I said pit here and earlier I said seed when I was talking about grapes. Pit and seed. With pit, we have the P consonant, IH as in sit vowel, and the T. Ending T’s are Stop T’s if they’re at the end of a thought group or followed by a consonant.

Pit.

Seed. S consonant, EE vowel, and the D Consonant. Seed sounds longer than pit, doesn’t it? That’s because of the voiced ending versus unvoiced ending. The unvoiced sound, T, makes the word a little Shorter. Pit. The voiced ending D makes the vowel a little longer. Seed. Pit. Seed. Say those with me. Pit. Seed.

Mangoes are really hard to cut because they have that huge pit in the middle. They’re really sweet. This one’s organic.

Organic. Not using artificial chemicals when growing the fruit. A three-syllable word with middle syllable stress, just like with orange. The first syllable has a modified AW vowel where the lips round more than Normal: or, or, organic. The stressed syllable is just like banana, nan, where the AH vowel is more like: aayyaa— aayyaa— Organic. Because it’s followed by an N. Organic. Try that with me. Organic.

They’re really sweet. This one’s organic.

Peach. It’s like a nectarine but it’s fuzzy. Peach. Peach and nectarine. Peach is one syllable with the EE as in She vowel, P peach, the final consonant is the CH sound. Peach. Say that with me. Peach. Nectarine. Just like tangerine, it’s a three syllable word with stress on the last Syllable. Nectarine. Notice the middle syllable is really short, there’s really no vowel sound there. Nectar, rr, rr, rr, rr. The schwa gets absorbed by the R. Nectar, rr, nectarine. Say that with me. Nectarine.

Peach. It’s like a nectarine but it’s fuzzy. Peach. I didn’t get a video clip of a ‘Pineapple’ but that’s another compound word.

We’re getting lots of compound words with the fruits. Stress on the first word here, pine, pineapple. Pine using the AI as in Buy diphthong. Some students have trouble pronouncing this diphthong before the N consonant, make sure you finish the movement of the diphthong before lifting the front of the tongue for the N. Paiii, nn. Pine, pine. Then the word ‘Apple’ unstressed. Pineapple. Pineapple. Say that with me. Pineapple.

Plum. Here, I have four plums. Plum.

Plum. One-syllable word with the UH as in butter vowel. PL cluster: plum, plum, a light escape affair with the lips while the tongue tip is at the roof of the mouth for the L. Pll, plh, plum. This word is a homophone with a different word ‘plum’ spelled with a B, but pronounced exactly the same way. The B is silent.

Plum. Say that with me. Plum.

Plum. Here, I have four plums. Plum. Earlier in the video, I promised you a link to my video on how to pronounce ‘water’. Please click here to see that video or you can find the link in the video description.

Did I miss your favorite fruit? That was a lot but I know I certainly couldn’t do all fruits, there are just so many of them! If I missed your favorite fruit, put it in the comments below.

If you liked this vocabulary video, please check out this playlist with other vocabulary videos. I have one on cars, one on clothing and laundry, one on objects in the kitchen.

And of course, be sure to share this video if you liked it. What other vocabulary video would you like to see? Put it in the comments below. Thanks so much for studying with me.

That’s it and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.

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