Say the MONTHS of the Year Correctly in English

0:00 Hi.

0:00 I'm Rebecca from engVid.

0:01 In this lesson, you will learn how to pronounce

0:05 the months of the year correctly in English, alright?

0:09 Now, this is really important for so many reasons.

0:13 First of all, we use these months of the year very often,

0:17 right, when we're talking about everyday life, so they come up a lot.

0:22 Second, when you're working on your pronunciation,

0:25 there are so many things you can do to improve.

0:30 But sometimes, an easy trick is to focus

0:33 on the words that appear most often, like these, right?

0:37 Like the months of the year.

0:39 There are only 12 of them,

0:40 they come up very often, and you can master them, okay?

0:44 So, that's what we're going to focus on in this lesson,

0:47 to get you to master these frequent words, okay?

0:50 And also, sometimes, saying these words can be a little bit

0:55 more challenging because maybe in your native languages,

0:59 they are pronounced similar to this, to these, okay?

1:05 But not the same, and so that causes a little bit of interference, okay?

1:10 So, let's get rid of the interference,

1:13 let's work on how to say them correctly in English.

1:17 So, what we're going to do is this.

1:20 First, I'm going to say them.

1:22 So, I just want you to listen, okay?

1:25 You can even close your eyes if it helps you,

1:28 but just listen and get used to the correct sound.

1:31 I might explain a little bit along the way for some of them,

1:35 and that's fine, too, okay?

1:38 You can open your eyes, then, if you want to.

1:44 Okay.

1:45 So, the first one, "January".

1:48 "January".

1:48 Next.

1:49 Now, this one requires a little bit of explanation because

1:54 there are two ways that are very common in North America.

1:58 First, I'm going to say the most common way,

2:02 and then another way, which is also correct.

2:06 So, this could be said, pronounced as "Feb-yew-ary", "Feb-yew", okay?

2:12 "Feb-yew-ary".

2:13 Or, it could be pronounced with the R sound, "Feb-roo-ary", okay?

2:23 "Feb-yew" or "Feb-roo", alright?

2:26 So, let's say it the first way, with the Y sound.

2:33 "Feb-yew-ary", okay?

2:35 "Feb-yew-ary".

2:37 Or, "Feb-roo-ary", "Feb-roo-ary", okay?

2:42 Right now, just listen.

2:47 We're going to go back and you can repeat afterwards, okay?

2:58 "March", "April", "May", "June".

3:01 Okay?

3:02 I'm going to say them once again.

3:05 For now, what I'll do, so we don't stop every time on the second one,

3:11 I'll just say "Feb-yew-ary", okay?

3:12 But you know that you could also say "Feb-roo-ary".

3:15 So, let me say them once again, and this time, you're going to repeat after me.

3:23 "January", "Feb-yew-ary", "March", "April", "May", "June".

3:36 Okay?

3:39 Good.

3:41 Did you get those?

3:50 Alright?

3:50 Now, let's move on to the next six, okay?

3:53 Now, even though you might think that you've got it, it's okay.

3:58 Listen, I work with a lot of clients on pronunciation, and I know it takes time.

4:04 It takes time to get your mouth to say the right thing,

4:08 it takes time for your ears to get used to hearing the right thing, okay?

4:12 So, don't worry if you have to say them several times, that's completely okay.

4:17 Do that, in fact, try to use them as much as you can, alright?

4:23 Record yourself, listen to me,

4:25 listen to this lesson more than once to get the correct sound,

4:29 repeat after me, okay?

4:31 Do whatever you need to do to say it more often and master them,

4:36 because I know you can master them, okay?

4:38 Alright, now let's look at the next six.

4:49 "July".

4:50 You can repeat after me, okay?

4:58 "August", "September", "October", "November", "December".

5:04 Okay?

5:05 Let's say them again.

5:10 I'm going to say it, you'll repeat after me.

5:21 "July", "August", we're going a little faster,

5:31 "September", "October", "November", and "December".

5:36 Good, okay?

5:37 So, now that you've heard them and you've repeated them,

5:43 now we're going to say some sentences using the months of the year,

5:49 because sometimes somebody asks you a question, like,

5:52 "Okay, when's your birthday?" and you say, "January", okay?

5:55 Or, "In January", alright?

5:57 But sometimes you're just saying the word, but in real life,

6:00 you might also be using these names in sentences,

6:04 in questions, in answers, okay?

6:07 So, let's also make sure that you're using them correctly,

6:12 pronouncing them correctly, when you're actually speaking, alright?

6:17 Now, the other thing, by the way, which you might notice here,

6:21 is that all of the months of the year are written with capital letters, okay?

6:28 Perhaps your language doesn't do that.

6:31 For example, in Spanish, the months of the year are not capitalized,

6:35 but in English, they are capitalized.

6:38 So, make sure that when you write them,

6:41 that you write them with a capital letter, always, okay?

6:45 Months of the year, and also days of the week, okay?

6:51 So, that's important.

6:53 Now, another thing that we should do before we do the sentences

6:57 is let's just look a little bit at the stress, okay?

7:01 Because when we're saying these words,

7:03 we don't always stress in the same place, depending on the word.

7:07 So, let's just go through the months before we say the sentences,

7:13 and look at the stress.

7:16 January.

7:16 Where was the stress?

7:19 At the beginning.

7:21 February.

7:22 Or, February.

7:24 Whichever way, the stress was at the beginning.

7:33 Next, March.

7:35 Now, March has only one syllable, so there's no particular stress.

7:40 It's the whole word.

7:42 April.

7:43 Okay?

7:44 Here, the stress is a little bit here on the "a".

7:55 April.

7:56 Good.

7:57 May.

7:57 June.

7:58 No particular stress.

8:00 July.

8:01 July.

8:01 Where do you hear the stress?

8:05 Is it at the beginning, or is it at the end?

8:11 It's a little bit more at the end, right?

8:15 July.

8:16 Okay?

8:16 Next, August.

8:17 August.

8:18 The stress is at the beginning, "a".

8:23 August.

8:24 Good.

8:25 Now, listen to this one.

8:29 September.

8:30 Now, it's not at the beginning anymore.

8:35 Here, it's here, in the middle.

8:40 September.

8:40 Good.

8:41 October.

8:42 October.

8:43 What do you hear?

8:46 The stress, again, in the middle.

8:50 October.

8:51 September.

8:52 Okay?

8:53 November.

8:53 November.

8:54 Again, where did you hear the stress?

8:58 In the middle.

9:00 Good.

9:01 You're getting good at this.

9:03 And this one, December.

9:06 December.

9:06 Again, we had the stress there, okay?

9:10 So, you see in these longer ones that the stress is kind of in the middle.

9:15 Alright.

9:15 Now, let's say some sentences.

9:18 Okay?

9:18 So, I'm not going to write the sentences,

9:22 I just want you to listen and repeat the sentences after me, okay?

9:26 And they're going to be fairly short sentences or questions, okay?

9:32 So, the first one.

9:35 The conference is in January.

9:39 Say that after me.

9:43 The conference is in January.

9:47 Good.

9:48 My birthday is in February.

9:53 Good.

9:54 The next one.

9:56 We met in March.

10:00 Good.

10:01 They're getting married in April.

10:05 Good.

10:06 Are you saying the full sentence after me?

10:11 Say that, okay?

10:12 Just listen and repeat what you hear.

10:15 The exhibition is in May.

10:19 I graduate in June.

10:24 Good.

10:25 The contract ends in July.

10:31 Good.

10:32 Okay.

10:33 The next one.

10:37 The movie comes out in August.

10:42 Good.

10:43 The next one.

10:45 The kids start school in September.

10:50 Do you want me to say it again?

10:54 Okay.

10:55 The kids start school in September.

10:58 Kids is short for children, right?

11:01 It's like slang.

11:03 Alright.

11:04 The next one.

11:06 I bought a computer in October.

11:10 I bought a computer in October.

11:14 Good.

11:15 The next one.

11:17 The concert is in November.

11:20 The concert is in November.

11:23 Now, remember, sometimes, like the first time I said November,

11:29 the second time I said November.

11:32 Now, technically, the North American way is to say November.

11:37 But what's going to happen,

11:39 in different parts of the world and different parts of one country,

11:44 very often the pronunciation varies a little bit, okay?

11:48 Now, whatever I'm teaching you here will work

11:51 for you wherever you go in the world, alright?

11:55 But be aware that there are local variations, and so, if you move to the States,

12:01 and you move to a particular part of the States, and you realize,

12:05 because you're listening and you care,

12:08 you realize that people are pronouncing the name

12:10 of a particular month in a particular way,

12:13 and your goal is to be understood, okay?

12:16 So then, you might want to vary it a little bit.

12:20 It's not going to be very different from what we're learning here.

12:24 It might be slightly different, like November or November, okay?

12:28 So, just pay attention to that.

12:32 And the last one that we're going to- example

12:35 that we're going to give is my holidays are in December.

12:39 Say it again.

12:41 My holidays are in December, okay?

12:46 Very good.

12:48 Now, really, don't feel bad about, you know,

12:51 how long it might be taking you to get the exact pronunciation.

12:56 It's okay, it takes time.

12:57 I work with a lot of clients and I

12:59 know it takes a little time to get the pronunciation,

13:02 so usually what I tell my clients is,

13:05 after we have our lesson, I record it for them,

13:08 and then I tell them, listen every day,

13:11 pronounce it every day, and just even for a few minutes,

13:14 send it back to me so that you can be sure that you're getting it right.

13:18 It takes a little time, but it's worth it because these words,

13:21 as we said, come up very often, okay?

13:25 Now, another- just a little point that you might have noticed.

13:28 Remember that when we're saying the months of the year, usually,

13:32 if it's in a sentence, we're going to use a particular preposition.

13:36 Which word were we saying?

13:39 My birthday is in February.

13:42 The conference is in January, right?

13:45 So, with months of the year, we use the preposition "in", okay?

13:50 Remember that.

13:51 That's a little clue.

13:52 If you're not sure about that or you get that confused, which also happens,

13:56 please do watch my other lesson on "at", "on", and "in" related to time,

14:01 and that should help you to know when to say

14:03 "at", when to say "on", when to say "in", okay?

14:06 But for months of the year, we do say "in", alright?

14:11 So, I hope you enjoyed that lesson.

14:13 There is no particular quiz on this one,

14:16 but you can quiz yourself by recording it, by saying it, by practicing it,

14:22 by paying attention in this week and this month to how

14:26 you're saying it and how other people are saying it, okay?

14:30 When you're watching a movie or when you're at work or wherever else, okay?

14:34 So, that's it for now.

14:35 All the best with your English, and don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube

14:42 channel for more lessons like this one.

14:52 Thanks very much.

14:57 Bye for now.