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In this American English pronunciation video,
we're going to study the pronunciation of

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the phrase: Be careful.

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This is part of a sentence study series, where
we look at a short, common phrase, and discuss

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its pronunciation.  First let's look at it
up close and in slow motion.

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Let's look at the stress. da-DA-da, be careful.
This is a three-syllable phrase with stress

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on the middle syllable. Click here to see
the video I made on three-syllable phrases,

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or see the link in the description.

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We start with the B consonant, so the lips
are together, and we're voicing it, bb, bb.

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Then they part and we have the EE vowel. The
jaw doesn't really need to drop for that,

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and the corners of the lips might pull a little
wide, be. The tongue tip is here, touching the

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back of the bottom front teeth. Next we have
the K consonant sound. To transition into

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that, simply lift the back of the tongue to
the soft palate, Be c-. Care-. The EH as in

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BED vowel followed by the schwa/R sound here. The
jaw will drop a good bit for this vowel, especially

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when it's in a stressed syllable. Ca-, ca-.
The tongue tip is forward, touching the back

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of the bottom front teeth, but then it starts
to pull back for the schwa/R. So for the R, the

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tongue has pulled back so it's fatter, and
the tip isn't touching anything. The tongue

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will touch the roof of the mouth, or maybe
the teeth, about here. Care-. This is our

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stressed syllable, so it will be longer, and
have that up/down shape of the voice. Care-ful.

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Now we have the F so the bottom lip will come
up and make contact with the top front teeth.

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The tongue will come back down again for that sound.
So it pulls back and moves forward again, it's

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a quick motion to make the R. Caref-. Now
we have the schwa/Dark L sound. You can really

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get by with just making the Dark sound, that's
what most Americans do. So, let your lip relax

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down from the F. Keep your tongue tip where
it is, and pull the back part of the tongue

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back, uhl, to make that dark sound, -ful,
-ful. You don't need to bring the tongue tip

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up, just leave it down. Careful, careful.
Be careful! da-DA-da, be careful.

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Let's watch one more time in slow motion.

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This video is part of a series. Click here
to see other videos just like it.

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If you have a phrase you'd like to suggest for 
this series, please put it in the comments.

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