3 ways to pronounce the QU sound in English

To be or not to be? That is the kestion. "Kestion"? I thought it was supposed to be "question".

Hi. James, from EngVid. This is a lesson on pronunciation. I have many students, especially

blame them because they see the QU and they think it's a K sound because in other parts

of the world, QU is a K sound. But at the beginning of the word, it's different. Now,

today I'm going to help you with learning how to pronounce it, but I'm going to tell

you why. So you're going to get some history. And this is why I give history, to make it

memorable. Because once you understand something and you can remember it, you can use it. Cool?

Let's go to the board.

So Mr. E was saying, "Is it a 'kestion' or a 'question'? I have a 'kwa' sound." Okay?

Or why does the Q sound like "kwa"? Why do we have the "kwa"? Right? "Queen", "quake",

"quail", all "kwa", obviously. Right? Well, English today is not a phonetic language.

It's not. All you have to ask yourself -- do you live on a farm, or do you go to the pharmacist,

and spell it, and you'll go, "That's kind of crazy." And it is.

There are two main reasons for this. And I'm going to give you a little bit of English

history. So let's go to the book of English. Many pages. All blank. Okay. So history, because

I want to give you a little bit of history. Now, English is actually made up of four language

groups. Basically, the first group of English, which is -- and the reason why I'm looking

here is because I actually have the percentages. Okay? The first group of English were really

German. It was a Germanic language, hence "Anglo-Saxon". Okay? And that accounts for

about 30 percent of our language. Do you know that? Sorry, 26 percent of the language is

actually German because the first people were German speaking. Now, there was a time called

the Dark Ages when knowledge was lost, and people, you know, they didn't communicate

because Rome had fallen. Remember, Rome was Latin. That's another part of our language.

And it was kept by the religious people. Right? They had all the knowledge, and they would

spread it. When you went to school, they would teach people. So Latin became the technical

language and the scientific language, all language of ideas. All the? And the German

was the language spoken by the common people. Well, a kind of German. It was different from

the German that we speak or German spoken today.

Now, Greek is because, you know -- Greek and Latin languages, they were, actually, kind

of close. From way back, there was a time where there was an exchange. So we have a

little bit of Greek. Okay? In fact, that is where our alphabet comes from. A, B, C, as

easy as alpha, beta, kappa, delta, epsilon. A, B, C, D, E. There you go. Greek influence

on our alphabet. I'm giving you all of this for a reason that you'll understand that why

certain sounds which seem crazy make sense. And it's going to be the Latin and Greek connection.

The final part is -- we have the French come in. So why am I telling you this? I told you

there were two reasons. No. 1, if you have four languages coming together, you can't

have rules -- like, hard rules -- because the languages have different rules. Okay?

Second of all, it's going to explain to you why this weird sound comes up in the first

place. Part of, you know, the Greek and the Latin rules together, they created this Q

sound in our language. The second main reason English isn't phonetic -- simple. It was until

people wrote it down. What? When we say a language is phonetic, we say, basically, what's

written, how you write it is how you say. Well, before, English was what we call codified.

When people used to spell things like "cow", they would spell it like this, "kow", and

it was okay because only Johnny in Johnny's town wrote it this way. But unfortunately,

people moved to different places, and they went, "what about like this? This is a cow."

And guys like Webster and Oxford, they decided to make what we say "codify" the language

and said, "Okay this is the official spelling of these words." So a lot of sounds that we

used to make got taken out of the language, a lot of spellings. So a lot of the ones that

would be more phonetic were taken out for ones that people said, "We all agree that

these are the words." Hence why English isn't always phonetic. Because when you borrow from

Greek, German, and Latin -- in those languages it would have been phonetic. But when you

put it in our language, you're like, "This is strange." Cool?

Quick recap. The two reasons our language isn't phonetic. One, it's made up of four

languages, and all the rules don't come together. And because English spread across the world,

different places had different ways of saying it, some phonetic, some not phonetic. But

when they made English into one language and said, "This is the official language", they

got rid of some of the phonetic spellings, so we have this kind of funny language, which

is like a pizza. It's got everything on it, but it all comes from different places. Cool?

All right.

We've talked about that. Now, we have got to talk about the Q itself. All right? We're

done the history. Time to do the lesson.

Well, I give you the percentages. You know, like German was 26 percent. Greek, actually,

it's funny; even though it's old, it's still, like, 13 percent. Crazy. And then, there's

Latin, like 26 percent, and blah, blah, blah. Let's go to -- because I told you about the

connection between the Greek and the Latin. Let's go to the board and take a look at that.

The Q in English is a digraph. Digraph. "Di" means "twice" or "two" in English. "Graph"

-- you know, you think of a graph that you put numbers on showing a change, right? It's

not quite the same. In this case, graph means a symbol representing a sound. And the QU

represents a sound. That sound is "kwa". And I know you're going, "Well, why 'kwa'?" If

you go back to the history -- I told you how there was Greek, and then the Latin people

came, and blah, blah, blah. Well, the Latin people took the Greek "kappa", right? There's

alpha, beta, gamma, delta, epsilon, and kappa. They took the kappa, the kappa sound, from

the Greek, the Greek alphabet. And they were using it. But what they found was there were

a lot of cases where the kappa was followed by a vowel. QU, or "kwa", was used to represent

there's a vowel coming behind it and you must round your mouth. "Kwa." Look at my mouth.

"Kwa." That is why they put the QU together, to tell you this is a "kwa" coming. So C then

became C, which became just K, a K sound, which is a harder sound. But they kept this,

this Q, to let us know that these words have this funny sound, the "kwa".

So look. It lets the speaker know to round your lips, round them, to make the next vowel

sound. And you hear in English all the time, a rounded vowel sound -- and you're probably

wondering what the hell they mean. They mean this. Make it round. Make your mouth round.

Cool. Right?

And that's why 90 percent of the time, when you hear "kwa" or Q, it's always "kwa". "Queen",

"quality", "queer", "query", "quail", "quake", right? "Quagmire." Don't ask. Okay? But there

are exceptions, and some of the exceptions, when I explain them to you, you'll go, "Well

that just makes sense." Right?

No. 1, in England, they like to cue. They will line up for hours in a cue. The word

"cue" means to get in a line because you're going to proceed somewhere else. This could

be for vehicles, "cars cued up", or for people. "Cue up to go to the doctor's office." You

line up because you're going to move forward. Right? So in England, they talk about the

"cue".

Remember I talked about the French origin? The French were there. I think I forgot. When

the French came into England -- actually, the Normans came into England. After a while,

they took over, and they put a French king on the English throne. So they put a French

man and said, "you are now the king of England." And he started to add all sorts of French

words to the language. One of the things the English picked up was the word "queue". "Queue"

means "tail". I don't know if you can see my tail. I've got a tail. I'm not human. Okay.

Well, the tail is what follows behind. I know. You're smart. You're already going, "A 'queue'

is a line. One person after the other. It follows behind." Precisely. So the English

took that "queue", the French "queue" and made it "cue" for "line", follow behind. You

like that? So you notice this word is a Q, not a kwa", because it's French in origin.

What about -- oh, God. Modern 20th century people are so, you know, environmentally with

it and health conscious, man, that they like quinoa. It's not "quanoua" or -- I can't even

say it with a "kwa", okay. It's called "quinoa". This is because it's from a Spanish-speaking

country. What? Well, Spanish is a Latin based language. Told you, Son. The history was necessary.

And it comes from Bolivia. So we get quinoa from Bolivia, which is a Spanish-speaking

country, which is Latin-based. The history makes sense.

And finally, here's my favorite one. In a place called "Toronto", which is in Canada,

they have a very famous area called "Queen's Quay". Every Canadian is now going, "What

the heck is he talking about?" They don't, because they call it "Queen's 'Key'". It's

old English, which is more Germanic-based. The "quay" sound is a K sound, not a "kwa"

sound. Otherwise, it would be "kway",

"Queen's Kway", which I thought it was for many years and got embarrassed and had to

learn it as a man. Okay? So it's "Queen's Quay". This is based on the old English or

the Germanic type. So we have the Germanic; we have the Latin; and we have the French,

all influencing our languages. And funny enough, because we keep them close to the original,

that's why they're exceptions.

By the way, at Queen's Quay, you think "key". Why? It's a building structure by a river

or lake where people can get off of their boats to go on land or we put things in to

put, you know, people or merchandise or things on to boats to leave. That's why "Queen's

Quay" is by a river. Okay? So you always hear about a quay something, the London Quay is

where people take off their things or put them on. We say "unload" or, you know, "load"

or "unload". You know, fancy words for "take off" and "put on". Right?

Quinoa, if you're, like, socially, like, with it, man, you're probably eating quinoa instead

of oatmeal or rice because you're -- and the "cue". You cue up at the doctor's office.

You cue up to pay your taxes. You cue up for many things. Never anything good, really.

Okay.

So this is why the "kwa" sound is in English. I hope that answers all your questions. No

"kestions" anymore, okay? When you come and see me, I don't want to hear any "kestions,

teacher". Your questions. If you have any more questions, you know where to go. First,

you want to do the quiz, right? And you're going to have to go to -- oh, before I forget.

I'm going to take my magical break. I forgot something. Are you ready?

Okay. So let's have some fun with the QU or "qua" sound. Now, you already know, but I'm

sure you don't know -- joining that, there. "Query", "quarrel", "quench", "quake", "quaint"

-- what do those words mean? Well, a "query" is a question or a line of questioning. A

query can be a noun. "Querying" -- is "queried" -- or it was "queried" is a form of a question,

to form a question. "I have a query." Think of "theory". Rhyming slightly, but not quite

the same. Okay. So "query", a question.

What about "quarrel"? "Quarrel" is a verbal argument. "Did you quarrel with him?" But

the funny thing about "quarrel", it's not just argument; it's usually with people who

are friends. If people have been friends or you know have a good relationship, and they're

having a quarrel, using that word tells me that they are friends and they're not agreeing

on something, versus he's not agreeing with him. There's no relationship. But a "quarrel"

and usually between people who know each other. Okay?

What about "quench"? "Quench" is like a "wench". No. It's not at all. "Quench". When you're

thirsty and you need to drink, like this water, for instance -- I need to drink.

Natural spring water. It quenches my thirst.

That means I am no longer needing water, or I don't need water. "Quench".

What about "quaint"? "Quaint". Well, the first thing you should know about "quaint" is because

-- it's "unusually attractive". And I'm sure you found this word very attractive because

it's not correct. It's a-i, like "paint", "quaint". "Quaint" means unusually attractive

or old-fashioned like my vest and tie. This is old-fashioned. Nobody wears this anymore.

Heck, I even have a hanky. That's how quaint I am. Your grandfather has these. Ask what

it is, boys and girls. You probably don't know. Alright.

So remember. A "query" is to ask a question. "I have a query." That means question. Fancy

ten-dollar word you can use to impress your other English students or people studying

with you. "I have a query about that." "You don't have a question?" "Yes, Son." It's a

ten-dollar word. "Quarrel." You can quarrel with your friends. Right? "Quench." I need

to drink something. Definitely not this. I need to -- I feel better. My thirst is quenched.

By the way, you can use "quench" for knowledge. Right? "Quench my thirst. I have a thirst

for knowledge. I need to quench it. So I read books and I study." I learn English with EngVid

because I want to quench my knowledge or quench my thirst for knowledge. "Quake." All right?

"Quake", shake. "Shaking and stirring. Shake, shake, shake. Shaking, baby, shake." Yeah.

I can dance. "Quake." Right? That's what follows earthquake. The earth moves. "Quake." And,

as I said, "quaint". Old fashioned or unusually attractive. "It's quaint."

Well, anyway. I hope you liked this lesson. I think it was a little more than quaint.

I think it helped you quench some of that thirst you have to learn English. There will

be no quarreling on this. But you may have queries. And you know where you go to get

your queries satisfied? Well, I'll show you, Son. You're going to go to www.engvid.com,

"Eng" as in "English", "vid" as in "video". Don't forget to subscribe. Join us, me and

all the cool people I teach with -- or friendly people. And learn more English. Looking forward

to seeing you. Hope you enjoyed the lesson. All right, Mr. E. Any more questions or "kestions"?

I hope not. Take care.