3 ways to pronounce the EX sound in English

Oh, E. You didn't expect your ex-girlfriend to do that, did you? Wow. That's nasty. Here's

the problem. This isn't how you spell "expect". And this isn't how you spell "ex-girlfriend".

But this is how you pronounce it. So today's lesson is on pronunciation. How to pronounce

the EX in English. It seems easy. X, here. But really, what happens is when the X comes

in certain, you know -- how do I explain? I'll do it this way. English is what we call

a "stress time language". And what that means is we stress certain parts of our language.

So we make some parts of the language stronger than others. You might think, "Why is this

important?" Well, most other languages are syllable stressed. And a "syllable" is basically

a vowel sound with some consonants, and the words are joined this way. Okay? But in English,

we don't really care about the sound of the syllable as much as we do about the stress

on the words. And because of that, when we do stress, it helps us figure out what is

a verb, what is a noun, what is an adverb, and what is an adjective, and what we call

"functions", like prepositions and, you know, pronouns. We can tell the difference by the

stress on the words. Easy? Good.

So this is why I have to mention this because that will explain why these things change.

The stress in English depends on -- where we say the X is depending on the sound it

makes. Remember what I said? Stress in English tells us if it's a thing or a verb or a describer,

an adjective, or an adverb or a function. And we have this here to help us figure out

which one is which.

There are a couple of rules I'm going to give you in a second or two. I'm going to go to

the board and look at that. But one thing I'm going to say now and at the end is please

remember that English is a global language, and not all the English in England is the

same as in Canada or the same as America or Australia. So some of the words, you'll go,

"Well, we say it like this." I'm like, "Yeah. You do. But we say it like this." It doesn't

make it wrong. It's just to remember. And that's why I usually say I make 80 percent

rules. 80 percent of the time, nobody cares because it's basically right. So those of

you with your books going, "Well, I read the Merriam dictionary, and it said this." You're

right. You got me. So what? Okay? Because the other dictionary says something else.

All right? So this is to basically help you understand that this is how you can understand

what we're doing. You don't have to be perfect, but you can understand what we're saying and

copy it. And to help make it easy for you to learn these things.

Are you ready? Let's go to the board.

Boom. I'm a new X-Man. Mr. Disappear. See? X-Man? Get it?

Anyway. Let's go to the board, all right?

So to help us figure out whether it's "eks", "iks", or "egz", I'm going to give you a couple

of, well, three little grammar rules that are quick and you can follow that will be

helpful to you.

No. 1, if the first syllable -- that's why I made it No. 1, because I'm smart like that

-- is stressed or -- please remember this part; it's very important -- or if it's followed

by a consonant, we're going to see "eks". Okay? So you've got your "ex" plus "con".

So in the first two cases we, have "extreme" and "expand". Okay? So we're looking at is

a consonant here, okay? And you know, we're not talking about the stress in the syllable

here. We're just talking about the fact that there's a consonant following. Cool? All right.

But if we look at "excellent", we do say, "This is excellent work." We say the "ex"

first. Is similar to "X-Men" where we really put the stress on the first part. So the first

syllable is stressed. So you have, "Excellent work." But nothing to the extreme. Right?

So you have the second stressed, but we're saying really what we care about is there's

a consonant following the "ex". Good? All right. That's the first one.

Now, let's look at the second one. See? Smart guy, again. Second syllable, No. 2. I work

at this. I'm a professional. Don't try this at home. Okay? The second syllable is stressed.

So we look at "expect", "exclude", and "external". All right? And because of that -- see what

we've got here? We say -- the second syllable, it becomes "iks". "Ikspect", "iksclude", and

"iksternal". Right? We don't know "EXternal". It's "external". "It's an external thing."

"He's excluded." All right? "What do you expect?" Not "expect". "What do you 'ikspect'?"

Once again, depending on the region, people actually say, "I expect". And they really

emphasize that EX. These are just general guidelines. All right?

The third one -- I like this one. It's my favorite one. It's the easiest one. It starts

with X. If the X is followed by a vowel -- so you just have to look for I, A, E, O -- you

know, the vowels. I, A, E, O, U. Something like that. I think. Yeah. I think so. Five.

Okay. We say "egz". Now, most texts will say "egz", e-g-z. I like "eggs" because I have

it with my bacon. And I like Mr. E popping out of his egg. See? Baby E came from that.

From an egg. So you look at "exit", "exam", "exactly". Funny enough, most of us English

speakers never think we say "eggs", but we don't say "exact"; we say "eggsactly". "Eggsactly".

Funny story, I went down to Mexico, and I thought this guy was talking to this Spanish

man who spoke perfect English because our plane wasn't leaving. And I was explaining

it in my poor, poor Spanish. And he would go, "Eggsactly. Eggsactly. Eggsactly." "Wow!

You speak English." "No. No senor." He didn't speak English, but he learned that one word,

and it sounded so much like English to me I thought, "Exactly. He speaks English."

But he didn't.

Anyway. It's been a quick lesson. I hope this helps you out. We talked about and touched

on a couple of things. So I'll make sure you understood. English is a stress time, not

syllable time. And because of that, the stress is important, and that's going to help you

when you're dealing with the letter X. Okay? It will also help with other things that we

do in English. But here is something for you to remember. There are three sounds for "ex".

There's "eks", as in "X-Men", "iks", as in "expect", and "egz", as in "exact". Okay?

And how you can know which one to use or when you're reading, which -- this will really

help. When you want to speak, say the words you're reading. Follow the rules. First syllable

stressed or followed by a consonant, "eks". Second syllable stressed, then it's "iks".

And if it's followed by a vowel, it's "egz" like "eggs", man, baby.

Listen. It's been fun. Have a great day. But before you go, you're going to go to my favorite

place, which is www.engvid.com, "Eng" as in "English", "vid" as in "video". Don't forget

to subscribe. You can get this lesson and other lessons on pronunciation, grammar, phrasal

verbs, and blah, blah, blah. Looking forward to seeing you there.

It's been an exciting time. Talk to you in a bit.