Hadar Shemesh breaks down how to pronounce "acknowledge" syllable by syllable. The stress falls on the second syllable, and the word ends with a nasal n sound followed by an open 'ah' and a final consonant cluster.
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Welcome to the Influency Podcast. I'm Hadar, and this is how to Pronounce Friday, where we take a confusing word or word pair. We learn how to pronounce it and how to use it with confidence. Let's get started. Hey, it's Herar. Today we're going to talk about the word acknowledge. Acknowledge. I love this word because this is yet another example of a word that the root of the word, the word no, is pronounced completely different than the way it's pronounced in the word acknowledge. Listen. No. So obviously there is the k that is not pronounced. It starts with an n sound, then the o as in go. All right. No, in the word acknowledge. All right. Notice that I'm not going through the long diphthong. It's not a kno. Luj doesn't sound the same. Here we change to the as in father. Na. So let's break it down. We start with a schwa sound, and then you shift to a K sound. So for the schwa, you basically do nothing. Drop your jaw, relax your lips, relax your tongue. Then you move to the N sound. So lift the tongue up to touch the upper palate. N. And then drop your tongue down. Open your mouth, relax your lips for the ah, as in father. Listen. Na. Na. See how open my mouth is? You have to open your mouth for this one. Then you move on to the last syllable, which is an l sound, another schwa, and a consonant. Luj. Luj. So although there is an a here, it's not. It's really quick and really short. Listen to the music of this word acknowledge, because the na is the primary stress. So I raise my pitch a little bit, and I stretch the vowel, the middle vowel, the vowel that is stressed. Acknowledge. I acknowledge your efforts to speak better English. Acknowledge. All right. I also acknowledge that it may not be as simple as I just said it is. So if something is still not clear, let me know in the comments below. Or if it is clear, let me know if you have any other questions, like how to pronounce other words or difficult sounds in American English. All right, I'm waiting to get your comments below. Okay. That was your how to Pronounce Friday episode. I hope you enjoyed it. And if you like the podcast, then consider subscribing to the podcast. And if you feel really crazy, you can even rate and review the podcast. And you can find me at Hadar Accentsway on Instagram, where you can DM me and ask for all the crazy, fancy, confusing words that you'd like to know. How to pronounce. Have a beautiful day, and I'll see you next time.
