How to Pronounce: Excuse Me

Hello! I’m John Russell.

Let’s continue our exploration of common words, phrases, and questions.

Today we take a common phrase: Excuse me.

This is a polite statement that we use in a couple situations.

We might say “Excuse me” to get the attention of someone else.

We might say “Excuse me” when asking permission to move past someone else – say in a store or on public transportation – or if we accidentally bump into someone else.

So, it’s an important phrase to learn because it suggests a level of respect and patience for others.

“Excuse me” can be a bit difficult to pronounce – particularly the first word.

If we break apart the word “excuse” into its individual sounds, we find that it contains a group of consonant sounds toward the beginning of the word. This groups of consonants is what causes diffficulty for many English learners. So, let’s start by ignoring the harder part of the word.

Let’s start with the last part of the word. Repeat after me:

“use”

“use”

“use”

Now we start to include more sounds:

“cuse”

“cuse”

“cuse”

Now we will add the hardest consonant sounds:

“xcuse”

“xcuse”

“xcuse”

And finally, we end by adding the vowel sound:

“excuse”

“excuse”

“excuse”

After that, we only need to add the word “me.”

“Excuse me.”

That’s all for today! Keep up the good work!