Hey guys, it’s Hadar. And this is the Accent’s Way. I have a little story for you. When I was a little girl, we had pirate cable at home, so we would get all these American 90’s military movies. And I remember myself sitting there, hearing them saying the word ‘colonel’.

And I remember trying to imitate their pronunciation. And I knew that there was an L there, so I would always try to say it really quickly – ‘coLonel’. I literally remember myself walking around the house saying this word, trying to make my pronunciation closer to the way they’re saying it. ‘coLonel’.

It was only years later when I found out that the reason why I can’t make it the same is because… there is no L there, there is no L. Because in the word ‘colonel’ there is an R sound. And yes, I know, it’s weird. But that’s the only word in English that is spelled with an L but pronounced with an R.

So, to say this word, you wanna start with a K sound and then bring the tongue up for the R: k’r, like the word ‘sucker’. k’r. And then the second syllable is an N sound, so bring the tongue up to touch the upper palette, and then pull it back to the L immediately: n’l. And it’s a dark L, so you wanna round your lips just a bit, and then create this tension in the back – n’l – as you’re making the L sound. n’l. k’r-n’l. Colonel. Lieutenant Colonel. And it’s a lot easier to say than ‘k’l-n’l’, cuz that’s kind of impossible.

Okay, that’s it. I hope this was helpful. Please share it with your friends to reveal the secret of the word ‘colonel’. And don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel.

Have a great week, and I will see you next week in the next video. Bye.