A short instructional YouTube video by Hadar Shemesh explaining how suffixes affect word stress in longer English words. The video defines suffixes, states a general rule that adding many common suffixes shifts primary stress to the syllable immediately before the suffix, and gives multiple suffix examples (‑ity, ‑ical, ‑ogy, ‑meter) with example words and pronunciations.
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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 anti. Disestablishmentarianism. 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 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 full, full is the suffix. You get wonderful or possible when you add 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 the stress? A stress is the one syllable that sticks out the most. It's the most dominant syllable. It is usually longer, louder and higher in pitch. For example, in the word possible, the stress falls on the first syllable, pa possible. But here's the thing. Once I add the suffix erik, 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 suffix. Now listen to the pronunciation of the suffix. The I turns into an. The T is a flat T, so it's a d sout, and then a high e at the end. You, Possibility, activity, responsibility. You see, it's not responsible, it's responsibility. This is the primary stress. Responsibility. Let's take the suffix ekul, as in alphabetical. The suffix is ecole. Primary stress, one syllable before the suffix. Alphabetical, political, psychological. Psychological. Let's take the suffix as in biology, primary stress, open eyes and father. And then, although there is an O here, it's not baya, logi, not logi. And it's definitely not biology. Right, it's biology, technology, sociology. And finally, let's take the suffix mirror, mitter, as in kilometer, parameter, not parameter. The stress falls on the one syllable before the suffix, and suffixes are usually reduced. Thermometer alright, that's it. I hope this was helpful and if it was, please share it with your friends. Come over to my website and subscribe to keep getting more great content every single week. And that's it for today. Have a wonderful week and I will see you next week in the next video. Bye.
