How to pronounce 'chaos' | American English

22 Nov 2018 · 2 min

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1:32

A short YouTube lesson by Hadar Shemesh (The Accents Way) teaching American-English pronunciation of the word 'chaos' and its derivative 'chaotic'. The speaker breaks the word into syllables, explains initial aspiration of /k/, primary stress on the first syllable (A as in 'day'), the second-syllable vowel (as in 'father'), the connecting intrusive /j/ (y) glide, and models examples including 'chaos' and 'chaotic' (with a flap T).

Chapters

Chaos. Hey guys, it's hadar. And this is the accents way. Today we're going to talk about how to pronounce the word chaos. Chaos. There is so much chaos in this world. Okay, we begin with a K sound. The K at the beginning of words is aspirated. So it feels like there is a little H right after K, K, K. And then it's the A as in day K. And that's the primary stress. So it's going to be higher in pitch and longer. K. The second syllable is as in father and then you ended up with s. But when you connect those two vowels, you hear an intrusive sound, a small little Y sound right there in the middle. So actually we want to say K, K, yos. Chaos. Chaos. Look at all this chaos. Chaotic. What a chaotic afternoon I had. Chaotic. Chaotic with a flap T. The place was so chaotic I left immediately. Chaos. Chaotic. Practice it. That's it. That was short and hopefully not too chaotic. Leave me a comment below and share one sentence with the word chaos or chaotic and let's practice it together. Have a wonderful week and I'll see you next week in the next video. Bye.