How to pronounce J & Y in English

Correct pronunciation is important in order to sound like a native speaker. Some English letters and sounds can be very different from your first language. The J and the Y are good examples of this. Do you know the difference in pronunciation between these two letters? Don’t confuse your listener by saying “Jell-o” instead of “yellow”! Watch this lesson, and learn a few techniques to help you master the J and Y!

TRANSCRIPT

Hi. I’m Ronnie. Do you have problems saying “je” and “ye”? Are you a Spanish speaker? Maybe. If you speak Spanish, so if you’re from Mexico, or Spain, or other Spanish-speaking places in South America or all over the world, it’s going to be difficult for you to get the pronunciation of “j” like “je” and “y” like “ye”. Do you know why? Because in your language, it’s just different. Isn’t it? It’s the opposite. Why does English have to be so difficult with pronunciation? I’m here to help you. Maybe you have seen a lesson like this. I did a lesson like this a long time ago, years and years ago, really, but we had some audio difficulties, so I’m here to redo it back in the year 2015. Go for a time warp with me. “J vs. Y”.

First of all, let’s focus on the mouth position, and what we do to get the differences in the pronunciation of these letters. The first one: “je”. Your throat, the air’s going to come out of your throat almost like you’re yelling, so it’s like “je, je”. Your teeth are a little bit apart, “je”, and you’re going to throw the air out: “je, je”. It’s a very strong sound. Now, the “y” sound, on the other hand, is not as strong. It’s more of a “ye, ye”. Think about this: what’s the position of my mouth when I make the “je” and when I make the “ye”? When I make the “ye”, I get to smile a little bit. My cheeks are really tight, so I’m like: “ye, ye”. When I do the “j”: “je”, my mouth is more sloppy and wiggly. So, it wiggles like Jell-O. The “j”, your mouth is not as tight: “je” and more loose and open. And with the “y”: “ye”, you have to make your mouth tight, your cheek’s got to be tight. These are your cheeks. Your cheeks have to be tight and: “ye”. It’s a much softer sound. Let’s go through some examples, shall we?

Somebody’s name: “Jo-Jo”. “Hi, Jo-Jo, how are you? Cool.” “Jo-Jo, je, Jo-Jo.” Oh, it’s another name. This is not Juan, oh no. In English, we say: “Je, John. Hi, John, how are you? Cool. Thanks for watching.” The next thing we have, a really, really fast airplane is a “je, je, jet”. Jo-Jo, John, jet. You try now. Perfect. Good. Next one, the word “jeer”. Oh, what does that mean? That’s a strange word. I’ve never heard that. “Jeer” means you make fun of someone. It’s not very nice to do to people. This, another one is a person’s name, it could be a boy or a girl: “Jess”, “Jessica”, “Jessie”. So this word is: “je, Jess”. “Jell-O”. What’s Jell-O? Jell-O is gelatin, it’s a dessert. In Canada and in North America, or in… Sorry. In Canada and America, Jell-O is a brand name of a kind of gelatin. And there was a really famous actor that would advertise Jell-O. Bonus points if you know his name. Jell-O Pudding Pops. We have the months of “June” and “July”. So practice the “je” sound. Good.

Okay, so let’s move on to the “ye”. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. “Yo-yo”. What’s a yo-yo? I bet you you know what a yo-yo is. A yo-yo is a toy. Hmm. It’s a toy on a string. Maybe you are really, really good at playing with a yo-yo. I’ve never been really good at yo-yoing. It’s a noun, it’s a verb. Just to… Didn’t work. Bored. Ronnie doesn’t like to yo-yo, but pronunciation is fun. So this word is: “yo-yo”. You may hear this in some movies, and people be like: “Yo, yo, yo, what’s up, yo?” You have to be careful if you’re going to be a cholo gangster, not to say: “Jo, jo.” You have to say: “Yo, yo.” Please be careful. [Yawns] “Yawn”, “yawn”. Yawn means you go [yawns] because you’re tired, so you yawn. Next: “yet”. “Yet” is a kind of grammar word and it means that something is going to happen, but it won’t happen now. So it’s like “still”. I yet have got to get you to subscribe to my YouTube channel. Go do it. “Year”. The year is 2015. Funny story, the other day I was looking at my phone and I realized that it wasn’t 2014 anymore. And the thing I was looking at, at the supermarket had expired. Ronnie has no concept of years, but now I do know it’s 2015 is the year. “Yes”. Not: “Jes”, “Yes”. The colour, beautiful colour of “yellow”. Let’s practice one more time. Yo-yo, yawn, yet, year, yes, and yellow. Oh, we forgot one. “Yeast”. Yeast is something that we use to make bread or pastries rise. It’s also an infection that some people get. Let’s not talk about that in the pronunciation lesson; we’ll save that one for later.

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