Learn how to pronounce the words bridge and breach with this American English Pronunciation Lesson.
Definitions:
BRIDGE: a structure to cover an obstacle or a captain’s platform
BREACH: to break the law, relations or a barrier
Pronunciation:
Bridge: /brɪʤ/
Breach: /briʧ/
Transcript:
Hello everyone it is Jennifer from Tarle speech with your question of the week.
I have two words for you today:
bridge which is a structure to cover an obstacle or a captain’s platform and
breach to break the law relations or a barrier
So let’s take a look at our words today. We have bridge and breach. So let’s get this br out of the way because that’s the same for both of these words. So to say the b your lips are together and air just puffs out. For the r you’re going to think about having square tense lips, the tip of your tongue can either be pointed down, or flipped back. You just want to make sure that your tongue is stable in the same place and it’s not moving at all for that r. So you’re going to get your lips ready, your tongue is going to be in the spot where you make your r sound. Okay and then you’re going to say the b and then the r will be super smooth with no sound in between because your tongue is already prepared in your mouth. Okay so get your tongue set for the r and then we’re going to put the lips together start with the b and then into the r b r br br
Okay I recommend square tense lips for that r sound just so that you don’t pucker your lips too much.
Next let’s go to this short ih sound. You can see my mouth is relatively relaxed the tip of my tongue is going to be just behind my top front teeth and my tongue in my mouth is relaxed. It’s high up but it’s not really tense and stiff it’s just slightly relaxed so I have a nice ih ih ih
My back tongue is anchored on the insides of my back top teeth. So again we have ih ih ih.
The difference between the short i in and the long e in breach is that for this long e my lips are going to be tense in a smile shape and my tongue is going to be very high and flat and tense: e e e. Now to look at the difference between the two we have e ih e ih e ih
My tongue will just pop down slightly there. Next let’s look at that j and that ch the tongue is going to do the same thing as are the lips. The only difference is going to be your voice. So for that j and ch to make these sounds, you’re going to touch the tip of your tongue to the back of your top front teeth and then it’s going to pull back into the middle of your mouth. Think about you’re starting like with where you say the t sound, t t t, or the d sound, d d d. You’re going to start there and pull the tongue back. The j sound is voiced that means your voice box and your throat is vibrating and on and the ch is unvoiced meaning that your voice box is not moving and not vibrating. So again let’s try this j j j j and ch ch ch
let’s listen again
j ch j ch
Let’s try this all together:
bridge bridge bridge
breach breach breach
bridge breach
bridge breach
And one more time
bridge bridge bridge
breach breach breach
breach bridge
bridge breach
And now for a sentence:
In the movie the soldiers ensured the enemy could not breach the bridge.
So give it a try I know people are going to notice the difference.
If you need some help or you’re interested in some classes check us out at Tarle speech dot com.
Thanks so much everyone have an amazing weekend!