Fix these 3 common pronunciation mistakes in English!

Do you pronounce “bow“ with an ending sound similar to “cow“ or “low“? Both are correct, but each has a different meaning! In this lesson, you’ll learn the pronunciations of “bow“ and sets of words that end with “-atch“, and “-ough“. To speak correctly in English, you have to learn and memorize common vocabulary. I’m going to teach you to pronounce some common words that English students often make mistakes with. I’ll give you definitions so that you can expand your vocabulary and learn to speak correctly at the same time. Some of these words are homophones -- words that are spelled differently but sound the same. You’ll also see homonyms -- words that are spelled the same but pronounced differently. Know them all? Take the quiz at to see if you have learned the meaning, spelling, and pronunciation of these words! TRANSCRIPT Hi. I’m Gill at , and today we’re having a lesson on confusing pronunciations and spellings. Okay? I’ve got three main examples for you of confusion, because sometimes they... They’re spelt in the same way, but they are pronounced differently. Okay. So, let’s start. So, the first one is this word “bow“, which can be pronounced in two different ways. Okay? If it’s this, it’s a bow. Either a bowtie or a bow, a ribbon with a bow in your hair. Or if you tie your shoelaces in a bow. Okay? So that’s a bow. So, for example, you can say: “She has a bow in her hair.“ And it’s this... This sort of shape. Maybe a ribbon tied into a bow. Or: “He is wearing a bowtie.“ So, instead of a long tie, a bowtie like that. Okay? So that’s “bow“. So that’s pronounced like “oh“, “bow“. Okay? But then there’s another kind of word spelt the same but pronounced differently: “bow“. Okay? So, it’s like this here, if you do this. Usually men bow. Women curtsy. If this is when you meet the Queen, men bow, women curtsy. So, men do this, bending. “Men often bow when they meet the Queen.“ So, this one is like “ow“, if that helps. “Ow“. So: “bow“, “bow“, and they’re spelt exactly the same. So, you can only tell... If you’re reading it, you can only tell from the context which one it is. If someone is speaking, you can tell from the pronunciation. Okay. Bow, bow. Right, so moving on to the second example, completely different, but there’s one little confusion with this one. Words that end “atch“. Okay? So, usually it’s just one letter in front of “atch“. So, we’ll have words like: “batch“, “catch“, “hatch“, “latch“, “match“, “patch“. You may not know the meaning of those; I’ll tell you in a second. But they all have this short “ah“ sound, like with “apple“. Okay? When you say: “Apple“, “ah“ like that. “Batch“, “catch“, “hatch“, “latch“, “match“, “patch“. But this with the time on it is a “watch“. So it’s not a watch; it’s a watch, so it’s short “o“ sound, “aw“, as in “orange“. So it’s apples and oranges, really. So, “ah“ and “aw“, so a watch. I realized this when a student of mine who is in Russia said: “Catch“, and I thought: “Catch and...“ When she typed it, wrote it via Skype, I saw it was “catch“, so I realized then: Ah, she was thinking of “watch“, and saying “catch“. But it’s wrong. It’s “catch“. So “watch“ is the only one I can think of that has the short “o“ sound. Okay, so we know what a “watch“ is. A “batch“, if you don’t know what a batch is, it’s like a set of things, like bread... Bread rolls in a batch, a batch of six or a batch of 12 rolls of bread. A batch that go into the oven to be baked all together. That’s a batch. “To catch“, if someone throws a ball to you, you try to catch it. Oh. “Hatch“, if there’s an egg and the bird is sitting on the egg, keeping it nice and warm, and then one day the shell starts to break and a little beak comes out, and the little bird... Little baby bird is hatching. That’s “to hatch“, when the egg breaks and the little baby bird comes out. That’s “to hatch“. A “latch“ is on a door to close the door. And sometimes it’s just something that goes over, and it closes the door. That’s the latch. Okay? A “match“ is something you... If you’re... Oh, hope you don’t smoke cigarettes, but to light a cigarette, people often use a match, a little wooden... It’s got a red or brown tip on it, and a piece of wood, and you go like that with it, and you get a flame, and you light the cigarette. Or you may be lighting a fire, you strike a match and you light the fire with it. Okay? “Match“. “Match“ can also mean putting two things together that are the same, or colours that match. The purple and blue, maybe, you think: “Oh, yes, purple and blue, they go together well. They match.“ So, two totally different meanings of “match“.