How to say words ending with -ial [social/memorial/controversial]

27,463 views ・ 2017-05-11

Accent's Way English with Hadar


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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Hey guys.
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It's Hadar.
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Today we're going to talk about the suffix '-ial', as in the
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word "social" or "testimonial".
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Now, when you add the suffix '-ial' to a word, it turns it into something
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that is related to the original word, to the root of the word.
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So for example, if we take the word "finance" and add the suffix '-ial',
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it turns into "financial" - something that is related to finance, right?
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And it turns into an adjective as in "financial problems".
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I use it to describe another noun.
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Now, when we talk about the suffix, we want to think about
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two things: the stress in the word that has the suffix '-ial'; and the
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pronunciation of the suffix '-ial'.
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Because it's not consistent, but there are patterns, which
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we're going to discuss today.
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Now, when you add the suffix '-ial' to a word, it doesn't matter where the
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primary stress is in the root of the word.
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Once you add the suffix, the stress shifts to the one syllable before the suffix.
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So for example, if we take the word "memory", the primary stress is on the
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first syllable, right, - ME- mo-ry.
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But when we add the '-ial' suffix, okay, it's not 'ME-mo-rial', no, the stress
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does not remain on the first syllable.
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It shifts to the one syllable before the suffix, and then it
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becomes 'me-MO-rial', memorial.
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Same thing with "finance".
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The primary stress is on FI - 'FI-nance'.
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Once I add the suffix, then it turns into 'fi-NAN-cial'.
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From 'fi-' it shifts to the second syllable - NAN - the
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one syllable before the suffix.
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Okay?
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So this is the first point.
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The second point is the pronunciation of the suffix.
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So here's the thing.
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When the suffix appears after all consonant sounds except for a 'sh' sound,
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then we pronounce it as 'ee-uhl' - two vowels, 'ee-uhl', as in "trivial".
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You hear it?
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'TRIV-y'l'.
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So it's not 'trivi-yal'.
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We don't pronounce the 'a here, it's a schwa.
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So basically, it's a high E sound, and then you shift to a schwa and a dark L.
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But something in the shift between the high E and the schwa creates a 'y' sound.
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Okay?
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So listen to it.
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'TRIV-y'l', 'TRIV-y'l'.
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'tes-tuh-MOW-nee-y'l'.
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'e-duh-TO-ree-y'l'.
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Notice that in all of these words the stress is on the one
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syllable before the suffix, right?
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'e-duh-TO-ree-y'l', 'tes-tuh-MOW-nee-y'l', 'TRIV-y'l'.
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Okay?
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Good.
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Now, when this suffix appears after a 'sh' sound, then you don't hear this
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'-ial' sound as in "financial", right?
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It's not 'finan-shial', you don't hear two vowels.
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The SH and the L connect and it feels like there is nothing in the middle there.
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It's like they're best buddies and they don't want anything to
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hold them away from each other.
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Okay?
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So, 'fai-NAN-sh'l', 'SOW-sh'l'.
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It's not 'SOW-shial'.
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Now, the 'SH' consonant sound is not represented with the typical
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spelling pattern of SH, okay.
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You will never find an SH before the suffix '-ial'.
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It will be represented with either a 't' as in "martial",
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"influential", or "potential".
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And don't forget the dark L.
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It's not 'potential' [with the light L] - very light L just produced with the tip
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of the tongue touching the upper palate.
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No, you have to engage the back of the tongue to create that
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really dark L sound - "potential".
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It can also be represented with the 'c' consonant letter, like "social",
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"financial", or "commercial".
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Or it can be represented with an 's', as in the word "controversial".
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'kan-tr'-VUR-sh'l'.
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Now, this is a long word.
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And in fact, this video started from someone asking me how to
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pronounce the word "controversial".
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Now, I could make a video on how to pronounce controversial, but I
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decided that I want to give you more tools to know how to pronounce every
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word that has this '-ial' suffix.
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And I believe that all you need to know is where to place the stress
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and how to pronounce the suffix, and everything else falls into place.
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So, let's take the word "controversial".
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You know that the primary stress should be before the suffix.
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So it's the VUR - 'kan-tr'-VUR-sh'l'.
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And because you have the 'sh' sound represented with the 's', you know that
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the suffix should be pronounced as 'sh'l'.
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So you already know the ending - 'VUR-sh'l', which makes it a lot
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easier to understand how everything else should be pronounced.
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It kind of like, once you've figured out these two things - the primary stress
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and the pronunciation of the suffix - everything else just falls into place.
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'kan-tr'-VUR-sh'l'.
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"controversial".
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Good.
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Now, I made a list of a bunch of words with the suffix that I want you to
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go ahead and take it from my website, so you can practice the different
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pronunciations of this specific suffix and just try out a few words.
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Because you cannot make true change without practicing it, without feeling
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it, and without repeating it over and over and over, no matter how boring it may get.
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This is why I wanted to make it easy on you.
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So, you can go ahead and click on the link below or right here in the video,
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and go to my website and download the PDF and the audio of this specific exercise.
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Okay, that's it.
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I hope this was helpful.
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Please share this video with your friends, if you liked it.
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And you're invited to check on my website for more great content.
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And please let me know in the comments below how this practice is going.
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And of course, if you have other things that give you a hard time in
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English, whether it's pronunciation or vocabulary or grammar or whatever.
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So, don't be shy, leave a comment below.
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And that's it.
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Thank you so much for watching, and I will see you next week in the next video.
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Bye.
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