In this American English pronunciation video, we’re going to go over the pronunciation of the word ‘opportunity’.

This week’s word of the week is ‘opportunity’. It’s a five syllable word with secondary stress on the first syllable and primary stress on the third syllable. Da-da-DA-da-da, opportunity.

It begins with the AH as in FATHER vowel. You do need a little bit of a jaw drop for that. Ah, ah, Op-, then the lips will come together to make the P sound. Op-, -por-, -por-.

Next we have the schwa R sound. The R will take over the schwa so don’t worry about making that a separate sound. Op-, -por-, -por-. So the tongue will pull back and up for that R sound. Op-, -por-, -por-, -por- and now we have the stressed syllable, it begins with a T and since this is a stressed syllable it will be a true T. Op-, -por-, -tu-, -tu-. So to make the T the tongue goes to theroof of the mouth and the teeth will close. Op-, -por-, -tu-. We’ll stop the air just a little bit and thenlet it escape when we part the teeth going into the next sound. In this case the OO as in BOO vowel. Notice how much your lips need to round for that. Tu, tu. Op-, -por-, -tu-. Opportunity.

Next we have the N consonant sound, so the tongue will go to the roof of the mouth again. Tun, n, n. This time for the n. Opportunity.

Then we have the IH as in SIT vowel. And now we have a T this comes between two vowels. It’s not beginning a stressed syllable, so is a flap T. Opportunity. Ni-ty, ni-ty, ni-ty. So the tongue will come down for the IH vowel back up to the roof of the mouth, quickly for the flap T then down againfor the EE as in SHE vowel. Opportunity. Opportunity. This is a great ‘opportunity’.

That’s it your “word of the week”. If there is a word you would like to suggest for the “word of the week” put it in the comments below.

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