Hi there, it's Hadar.
And this is the Accent's Way, your way to finding clarity,
confidence, and freedom in English.
And today we are going to talk about how to pronounce long words.
Like antidisestablishmentarianism.
No, not this word.
But we are going to discuss how to pronounce words with
three, four, or more syllables.
Usually, longer words in English have suffixes.
What is a suffix?
A suffix is this a little addition to the word, it's a small unit that
you add to the end of the word.
And it turns the word into a different one, a new word.
For example, if you take the word "wonder" and you add 'ful', 'ful'
as the suffix, you get "wonderful".
Or "possible" - when you add 'ity' turns into "possibility".
Now the one thing you need to remember, or probably one of the most important
things about English pronunciation, is where you place the stress in a word.
What is a stress?
A stress is the one syllable that sticks out the most, it's the most
dominant syllable, and it's usually longer, louder, and higher in pitch.
For example, in the word "possible" the stress falls on the first
syllable - 'po' - "POssible".
But here's the thing, once I add the suffix 'ity', it changes the
stress - the placement is changed.
So it turns into ""possibility.
So let's deduce from this the general rule.
In most words with suffixes - that's relevant for most suffixes, not all
of them - once you add the suffix, it changes the position of the stress to
the one syllable before the suffix.
So no matter where the stress is at the beginning, once you add the
suffix, the stress falls on the one syllable before the suffix, the one
syllable to the left of the suffix.
Now let's go through a few suffixes, how to pronounce the suffix,
and I'll give you example words.
Let's stay with the 'ity' suffix.
Now, listen to the pronunciation of the suffix.
The Y turns into an 'uh', the T is a flap T, so it's a D sound; and
then a high E the end - 'uhdee'.
'possiBI-l'dee'.
'acTI-v'dee'.
'responsiBI-l'dee'.
You see, it's not "resPONsible", it's 'responsiBI' - this is the
primary stress - "responsiBIlity".
Let's take a suffix 'ical', as in "alphabetical".
The suffix is 'ical', primary stress one syllable before
the suffix - 'alphaBE-d'k'l'.
'poLI-d'k'l'.
'psychoLO-g'k'l.' "psychological".
Let's take the suffix 'logy' 'logy', as in "biology".
'biO' - primary stress, 'ah' open 'ah' as in "father", and then 'l'gee'.
Although there is an O here, it's not 'biolOgy', it's not 'lOgy'.
And it's definitely not 'bioLOgy', right?
It's 'biO-l'gee'.
'techNO-l'gee''.
'sociO-l'gee'.
And finally, let's take the suffix 'meter' 'meter', as in "kiLOmeter".
"paRAmeter".
Not "paraMEter", the stress falls on the one syllable before the suffix,
and suffixes are usually reduced.
"paRAmeter".
"therMOmeter".
All right, that's it.
I hope this was helpful.
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And that's it for today.
Have a wonderful week.
And I will see you next week in the next video.
Bye.