How is 'epitome' pronounced according to the speaker?

Hadar ShemeshYour digital fluency coach

How to Pronounce 'Epitome'

4 May 2022 · 1 min

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0:53

A short spoken tutorial by Hadar Shemesh explaining how to pronounce the English word "epitome." The speaker breaks the word into sounds: an initial schwa, a stressed syllable with an aspirated p ("pit"-like), a light/flapped t (sounding d-like), and a final "-me" with a high /i/ vowel, producing "ə-PIT-ə-mee".

Questions this video answers

ə-PIT-ə-mee (initial schwa, stressed 'PIT' with aspirated /p/, a light/flapped /t/ sounding d-like, final /m/ + high /i/).

Chapters

How to pronounce the word epitome. You start with a schwa sound, not an e. Relax your tongue, relax your lips, do not open your mouth. Release a short sound. Then the primary stress is a p sound in the e, as in set, not P. P, like pick it up. The the P is aspirated, so you can add a small H right after the p. And then we have a d sound in the schwa. The D is really light, so it almost sounds like a trilled R. Epita. Epita? Yeah, just like the flap T. Epita. And then mi end it with an M and a high E. Epitome. Epitome.