Alright, so today I decided to really knuckle down on the pronunciation of the word wilder. It’s one of those words that looks simple enough, but I felt like I wasn’t quite getting it right, sounded a bit off when I said it out loud.
Starting the Practice
First thing I did was just say it a few times, listening to myself. Yep, confirmed my suspicion. It didn’t sound smooth. The middle part felt clumsy.
So, I broke it down. Like really broke it down.
- The beginning part: “wild”. Okay, that’s the long “i” sound, like in “while”. Got that.
- Then comes the ‘l’ sound right after that ‘i’. This is tricky sometimes. You gotta get your tongue up there for the ‘l’ right after the vowel sound finishes. I practiced just “wile”, “wile”, “wile”. Focusing on that transition.
- Next part: the “-der”. Just a simple “d” sound followed by that soft “er” sound, like in “teacher” or “father”. Didn’t want to make it too strong, like “durr”. Just a relaxed “-der”.
Putting it Together
Okay, got the pieces. Now, putting them back together. I started really slow: “wile” … “der”. Again: “wile” … “der”. Trying to make the connection between the ‘l’ and the ‘d’ smoother. It’s easy to pause too long or jam them together weirdly.
I must have repeated “wilder” slowly about twenty times. Seriously. Just focusing on the feel in my mouth and the sound.
Then, I started speeding it up, bit by bit. Wilder. Wilder. Wilder. Trying to keep that ‘l’ sound clear but not getting stuck on it before the ‘d’.
I also pulled up some online dictionaries, the ones where you can click the little speaker icon? Listened to a few native speakers say it. Listened really close. Then tried to copy that exact sound and rhythm. That helped quite a bit, actually. Hearing it clean and clear.
Checking the Result
After a while, maybe 15 minutes of this repetition and listening, I tried recording myself saying it a few times on my phone. Played it back.
Big difference! It wasn’t perfect, maybe still needs a tiny bit of polish, but it sounded much more natural. The flow from the “wile” part into the “der” part was way better. It didn’t sound forced or clunky anymore.
So yeah, that was my little pronunciation workout for today. Just focused drilling on one word. Feels good to actually work on these small things and hear the improvement. It’s definitely sounding less weird now.
