 In this lesson, you're going to improve your pronunciation by learning how to correctly pronounce one of the most common words in English. Ask. Now, we're going to talk about this because I hear a lot of students pronounce ask as acts. Now, they're very similar in pronunciation, but you need to make sure you're not confusing them because if you use acts, when you're talking about ask, a native speaker is going to be a little confused. They might not understand you and it's definitely going to sound like you have an accent. So let's fix that. Of course, I'm Jennifer from jforestenglish.com and this channel is dedicated to helping you sound like a fluent, confident, natural English speaker. Now, before we go any further, make sure you subscribe and hit that bell icon so you're notified every time I post a new lesson. Now, let's dive in with this video. In this lesson, let's fix your pronunciation so you can correctly pronounce ask and it doesn't sound like acts. Now, let's be honest, acts, you're probably not going to use this in your vocabulary very much unless you're maybe a lumberjack, right? So it's not that you're learning how to pronounce acts, it's that you're fixing your pronunciation of ask, so it doesn't sound like acts. Now, first of all, let me know in the comments, do you hear a difference? Do you hear the difference between ask and acts? Can you hear it? Or do they sound exactly the same to you? So let us know in the comments. Yes, I can hear it. No, I can't hear it. And it's okay if you can't. These sounds are very similar. A native speaker can definitely hear that difference. So if you say acts when you want to ask a question, they are going to hear it as acts, okay? So we need to fix this. The important thing that we need to do for ask to pronounce this correctly is to get that s, that s sound. Ask, okay? Now, here's the thing. In acts, acts, there is a slight s sound, but it comes at the end of the word. Ask does not end on an s sound, okay? Ask ends on a k, k, k sound. So let's make sure you can do that. Basically, I'm taking my tongue, it's going to be at the roof of my mouth, and then I'm just flicking it. So try that. Okay, awesome. Now, let's practice the s. So look at my mouth position. And just push out the air. But now that you have that s, let's combine it with our k sound, right? So we go, so you're doing your s, and then you're just going to flip your tongue down after. So make sure you have that, okay? You may want to pause this video, go look in a mirror, and try that for a minute or two to get that sound. I'll do it one more time. Now, we just need to add on our vowel, ah, ah, okay? So it's our ah as an apple. Look at my mouth position. There are different a's, but this one is an ah, ah, as an apple, ah. So we just have three sounds that we now need to combine. We're going to start with our a, ah, ah. And that becomes when you get comfortable with it and you're able to do it at a fast pace, that becomes ask. Ask him a question. I'm asking you a question. I asked him a question. So make sure you're able to pronounce it in the different forms as well. We have our present simple, we have our past, and we have our continuous. Now what I just taught you does not change with any of those. So you can take that beginning sound and you're just going to add on the end. Now let's compare that now that you know how to pronounce ask correctly. Let's compare that to axe, axe. Notice it just goes from an axe, axe. So our sounds are almost reversed. This one is a s, okay? We have our s, our s, and then our k. This one, we have a axe, we have a k, we go from a k, and then we end it on a s. So we need to make sure you're flipping those sounds. Now with pronunciation, it's just a matter of repetition. Did you know I was going to say that repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition. If this is a problem sound for you, I want you to work on it every day for one minute. That's it. One minute, okay? Every day for one minute. And then by the end of the week, I want you to see how it sounds and compare it to my pronunciation in this video. Come back and make sure you're able to pronounce it correctly. So before you go, I want you to leave three sentences using ask and then leave them in the comments. Try to use different forms of the verb as well. So a past, a continuous, a present simple, and then I want you to say those out loud. I know I won't be able to hear them unfortunately, but still you'll hear them. So record yourself and compare it to mine. But for now, leave them as written comments and then say them out loud. If you found this video helpful, please hit the like button, share it with your friends, and of course subscribe. Now before you go, make sure you head on over to my website, jforrisenglish.com, and download your free speaking guide. In this guide, I share six tips on how to speak English fluently and confidently. And until next time, happy studying. All right, now I want to make sure you're not axing me. And instead, you're asking me a question because ax is kind of a scary word in English. And we don't want to confuse that with ask, right? And now you're not going to mix them up. That's awesome. And I'll see you in my next video. Bye.