How to pronounce 'Spontaneous' | American English

17,796 views ・ 2016-11-15

Accent's Way English with Hadar


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

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Hey, it's Hadar.
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And this is the Accent's Way, your way to finding clarity,
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confidence, and freedom in English.
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And today we're gonna talk about the word 'spontaneous', because I'm
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just feeling so spontaneous today.
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Spontaneous.
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Let's break the word down.
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We begin with 'spaa', just like, "Oh, I'm going to the spa today".
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'spaa': it's an S sound, then a P - so close your lips, and then open it to the
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'aa' as in 'father' - 'spaan', 'spaan'.
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Then we shift to the TEI.
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'spaan-TEI', just like the beginning of the word 'take' or 'table'.
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It's a diphthong, so it's a changing vowel.
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Make sure you're not pronouncing it as a clean 'eh' sound 'spaan-TEH' - no.
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'spaan' - drop your jaw, relax your lips, 'spaan'.
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Then TEI, 'ei' - you see the shift from 'e' to 'i'?
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'spaan-TEI'.
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And then 'nee' - it's a high E sound, 'nee'.
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And then you relax your tongue into a schwa sound - 'uhs', 'uhs'.
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But when you shift from the high E to the schwa - 'nee-y's' - you
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get like a little Y sound in the middle: 'spaan-TEI-nee-y's'.
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'I'm feeling spontaneous'.
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Now, the interesting thing about this word is the rhythm.
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Spontaneous.
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ta-TA-da-ta.
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In English, not every syllable receives the same beat.
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So it's not 'spontaneous' [ta-ta-ta-ta], but 'spaan-TEI-nee-y's',
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the TEI is the primary stress, so it's the longest syllable.
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And the [y's] at the end is the shortest.
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So it's really reduced and short - [y's].
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The 'spaan' and the 'nee' are somewhere in the middle.
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'spaan-TEI-nee-y's'.
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So that what creates the beauty of American rhythm: different lengths of
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different syllables, and also different words in a phrase or a sentence.
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Spontaneous.
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All right, that's it.
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Thank you for watching.
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Please share this video with your friends, if you liked it.
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And come on over to my website to check it out and get more
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great content every single week.
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Have a wonderful week, and I'll see you next week in the next video.
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Bye.
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