YouTube lesson by Hadar Shemesh explaining how to pronounce the word 'acknowledge' in American English. The speaker breaks the word into syllables, describes tongue and mouth positions (schwa, N, 'ah' as in father, L, final schwa + consonant), highlights primary stress on the second syllable (na), contrasts the pronunciation with the standalone word 'know', and provides example sentences and a call-to-action for comments and subscriptions.
Chapters
Hey, it's Hadar. 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 know is pronounced completely different than the way it's pronounced in the word acknowledge. Listen, Know. 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 acknowledge. Doesn't sound the same. Here we change to the ah 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. So although there is an a here, it's not lage, a kna, laj. It's a kna luj, luj. Really quick and really short. Listen to the music of this word Tatara. 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. Alright. 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. Alright, I'm waiting to get your comments below. So that's it. Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel if you haven't yet. And come on over to my website to check it out and get more great content. Have a great week and I will see you in the next video. Bye.
