Pronounce English Words Correctly: 5 Common Suffixes

hey guys this is the clear English corner and I'm Keenan your personal American English pronunciation coach in this lesson we're talking about five very common suffixes or word endings we're going to talk about how these endings are pronounced and how they impact the word stress patterns or which syllables are emphasized and stand out within the word each of these suffixes is super common so learning how to pronounce them and how they impact stress patterns is going to help you pronounce hundreds of English words more clearly and naturally so let's dive in we'll start off with two suffixes TI o N and SiO n these suffixes are both usually pronounced chené chené if they were spelled the way they sound it would look like this chené chené we're going from the sh-shh sound there's a schwa vowel and then that nation' tion every time you see a tion or sio and ending the stress or emphasis is going to fall on the syllable right before the suffix so the pattern starts emerging when we look from the end of the word not the beginning of the word here's some examples take this word operate operate three syllables with emphasis on the first syllable and the vowel sound ah operate when we add the tion ending we get operation operation do you hear how the stress shifts to the a vowel sound in our third syllable right before the tion ending operation he'll need an operation another example inform inform our emphasis is on the or vow sound in the second syllable in form when we add our tion ending we get information information again the stress shifts to that a vowel sound right before the TI o and ending information I need more information here's another example contribute contribute we've got stress on the second syllable emphasizing the a vowel sound contribute but when we add our tion ending it becomes contribution contribution with emphasis on the vowel sound right before the tion ending contribution can you make a contribution same thing with the SiO and ending as in the word expression expression you can hear the emphasis on the a vowel sound in the syllable right before the SiO and ending expression did you see her expression and also confession confession again emphasis on that a vowel sound in the syllable right before the SiO and ending confession can I make a confession so most of the time the tion and si o in endings are both pronounced tion you will sometimes hear the tion ending pronounced Chen Chen with the CH sound if it were spelled the way it sounds it would look like this Chen and this happens when there's an S before the tion ending as in question question did you have a question and also suggestion suggestion can I make a suggestion as I and is sometimes pronounced jen-jen with that tricky G sound so the SI o n is either Shen or Jen how do you know which one is which well s io n is pronounced Jin when the ending comes after a vowel or an R so for example decision decision our ending comes after the vowel and so the pronunciation changes but our emphasis is still on the syllable right before the word ending decision I need to make a decision also occasion occasion s io n following the a vowel sound becomes Jin occasion it's a really special occasion one more example version version here our suffix comes after the R sound and so we use this version is this the latest version so to summarize tion and si o and our most often pronounced shin and when you see these word endings this syllable stress pattern shifts to the syllable right before the suffix all right moving on next suffix I see ik ik this one's a little more straightforward it sounds the way it's spelled and the pronunciation doesn't change we're starting with the it as in big vowel sound going into the with the back of the tongue rising for the sound ik ik again when you see this word ending the stress pattern shifts to the syllable right before the suffix so for example economy economy emphasis on the second syllable and the ah vowel sound changes when we the icy ending and becomes economic economic our stress shifts to that a vowel sound right before the icy ending economic he studied economics economics is the study of the economy do you hear how the stressed shifts in those words let's try another one Academy Academy four syllables in this word with emphasis on the second syllable and the a vowel sound Academy when we add our IC ending we get academic academic and our stress shifts to the vowel sound right before the IC ending academic he works in academics another example history history three syllables with emphasis on the if vowel sound in the first syllable history becomes historic historic when we add the IC ending the stress shifts to the or sound right before the suffix historic this is a historic moment try this one drama drama two syllables emphasis on the AH sound in the first syllable drama we add our IC ending and we get dramatic dramatic our stress shifts to the AH vowel sound right before our suffix dramatic that was really dramatic one more example strategy strategy three syllables emphasis on the a sound in the first syllable strategy when we add the ik ending it becomes strategic strategic and our stress shifts to the e vowel sound right before our suffix strategic it's a strategic move now there are a couple common exceptions where the stress doesn't fall on the syllable right before the ik ending so let me share those with you we have politics politics rhetoric rhetoric Arabic Arabic and lunatic lunatic in each of these examples the stress falls on the first syllable in the word instead of the syllable right before the ich ending these exceptions are very rare though so when you see a word that ends with ich that stress is going to fall right before the word ending almost every time all right our final two suffixes itu i and ii to you why i put these together because they're pronounced the same in american english we pronounce these endings as Eddie Eddie we've got the ED vowel sound and then listen closely that's the letter T but it's a flap T in American English it's gonna sound like a quick D followed by the e vowel sound Eddie Eddie instead of it t it C so again with these word endings the stress is going to fall on the syllable right before the suffix here's some examples this word active active two syllables emphasis on the vowel sound in the first syllable becomes activity activity are stress shifting to the vowel sound in the second syllable right before our word ending activity this is a new activity this word able able to syllables emphasis on the first syllable that a vowel sound able becomes ability ability our stress shifts to that a vowel sound in the syllable right before the suffix ability he definitely has the ability this word major major two syllables with emphasis on the a vowel sound in the first syllable major becomes majority majority with emphasis on the or vowel sound right before our suffix majority the majority rules social social to syllables with emphasis on the Oh sound in the first syllable social becomes society society with emphasis on the I vow sound right before our suffix Society they're part of the Historical Society and one last example anxious anxious two syllables with emphasis on the first syllable the a vowel sound shifts becomes anxiety anxiety with stress shifting to the I vow found right before our suffix anxiety I have some anxiety about it alright so there you have it we've covered five common suffixes today tion sio n I see eye to eye and ety with each of these word endings the stress shifts to the syllable right before the suffix we've done a lot of practice together in this video but if you need a little more help you know I've got you covered you can click on the link below to grab your list of 50 practice words for each of the suffix groups we've covered today that's a wrap for 5 comments fix's how to pronounce them and how they impact words dress I hope you found the lesson helpful if you did definitely leave a thumbs up and share the lesson with your friends if you're new to the clear English corner be sure to subscribe and tap the bell so that you'll get a notification anytime a new lesson is published as always thanks so much for tuning in and I'll see you next time

Channel: Clear English Corner with Keenyn Rhodes

Views: 215,712

Keywords: how to, pronounce, english, words, suffixes, american, pronunciation, accent, say english words, english words, english pronunciation, spoken english, tion, american english, american english accent, american english pronunciation, pronunciation american english, american english learning, american accent, american accent training, american pronunciation, accent reduction, how to speak american accent, clear english, clear english corner, keenyn, learn, lessons, training, tutorial, practice

Id: fs5LSLs3tdw

Length: 13min 35sec (815 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 18 2018