2 Native English Pronunciation Tricks | Speak British English (+ Free PDF & Quiz)

- Hello everyone and welcome back to English With Lucy. I hope you're well, I hope you're

ready for a lesson I haven't done it in a really long time. For a very long time, I

have not done anything to do with sounding native because I didn't want to push my students

into thinking they have to sound like a native speaker or it's something that you should

absolutely aim for, sounding like you're a non-native isn't good enough. However, something

that really interests me when I'm learning a language, is how come I sound non-native

and they sound native? It doesn't mean that I want to achieve native level necessarily.

I just find it fascinating to see why do I sound the way I do and they sound the way

they do? In today's lesson, I'm going to teach you some native pronunciation tricks. So little

things that native English speakers do that you might not notice but once I point them

out, you will hopefully be able to apply them to your own speaking skills if you so wish.

If not, it's just good to know, isn't it? It's been a long time since I've spoken about

native English pronunciation. I don't want anyone to feel not good enough because they

don't have native level of pronunciation or they might never achieve it. Instead, I'm

equipping you with the information and you can make the decision about what's best for

you. I think that's a fair way to deal with it because I've had so many different messages

from people. On one side, people saying that they're so pleased that I've stopped pushing

native pronunciation and things like that, on the other side people saying they really

miss those old videos that they found them really helpful. So I think this is a fair

way of doing it. Here's the info, do what you want. So in this video, we're going to

be talking about noun verb pairs firstly. So these are two syllable words that can be

pronounced in two different ways, depending on whether that verb or a noun. I often hear

my students just focus on one pronunciation. For example the word permit as a noun and

to permit as a verb. A lot of learners of English will just take one of these pronunciations

and use them as both the noun pronunciation and the verb pronunciation. We'll talk more

about that later, I've got loads of examples for you. After that, we're going to talk about

how to pronounce words with specific suffixes and more specifically on what syllable of

the word do you place the stress. There are some rules and hopefully this lesson will

really, really help you or just be really interesting for you. Now, if you are really

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box and use your code LUCYOCT30 to start your free trial and to claim your discount. As

always, there is a free PDF that goes with this lesson and today we have a quiz and it's

a really good one, I really suggest you download it. If you'd like to get that free PDF, just

click on the link in the description box, you enter your name and your email address

and the PDF comes directly to your inbox and then every week after that, you automatically

receive all of my lesson PDFs. It's a free service, I hope you enjoy it. Okay, Let's

start with noun-verb pairs. This is something that really isn't obvious to students when

they're learning English, but once you clock it, does make a lot of sense and you'll start

to notice it around you as well. As a native speaker, I had no idea that we even did this

until I started learning to teach English. And I thought, "oh yes, we do do that. "I

need to teach my students this." So there are many, not all of them, but there are many

two syllable words in English that can be pronounced in two different ways. Take a look

at the noun, record and the verb, record. Record, record, record, record. To record

a record. To record a record. The spelling is the same but the stress is different. The

syllable stress changes the meaning and it does this for many different words and we're

going to look at them. Now, there are two categories for these word pairs. There are

those that keep the same general meaning but they change from noun to verb when the stress

moves from the first to the second syllable. There are also those which change their meaning

completely. Most of them change from a noun to a verb, but there are those that change

from a noun to an adjective. Firstly, let's take a look at those which change from a noun

to a verb but keep the same general meaning. Let's have a look at this first one. Decrease,

decrease, decrease, decrease. As a noun it's pronounced decrease, with the stress placed

on the first syllable. There has been a sharp decrease in homework submission. Now, if we

move that stress to the second syllable it becomes a verb to decrease, to decrease. We

don't want homework submission to decrease any further. Number two, import, import, import,

import. As a noun, stress in the first syllable, chocolate is an import from Switzerland, an

import. Changing it to a verb, how is it gonna be? The stress is going to be on the second

syllable, import, to import. Switzerland hopes to import more chocolate. Switzerland hopes

to import more chocolate. Notice my pronunciation of chocolate. I know that this is a word that

lots of learners of English struggle with. The way it's written, it's not necessarily

the way it's always pronounced. Chocolate, Chocolate. Not chocolate or chocolate, chocolate.

Number three increase, increase, increase, increase. As a noun, there has been an increase

in absences. There has been an increase in absences. And then changing it to a verb,

we don't want the absences to increase any further. We don't want the absences to increase

any further, to increase. Number four, insult, insult, insult, insult. As a noun, what she

said to me was an insult. What she said to me was an insult. And as a verb, I hope she

doesn't insult me again. I hope she doesn't insult me again. Insult, insult. Number five,

permit, permit, permit, permit. As a noun, she doesn't have a walking permit. She doesn't

have a walking permit. And as a verb, I can't permit you to walk here. I can't permit you

to walk here. Permit, permit, permit, permit. Number six, this is a big one, this is very

common. Produce, to produce. As a noun, produce. We sell lots of produce from our allotment.

An allotment is a patch of garden that you can rent from your local area and you can

use it to grow vegetables. It's very popular here in the UK to have an allotment if you

don't have a big garden where you can grow vegetables and flowers. As a verb, produce.

Our allotment produces lots of vegetables. Our allotment produces a lot of vegetables.

Number seven, reject, reject, reject, reject. You can see for this one and for decrease,

number one, the vowel sound actually changes not just the stress. We say, decrease, decrease

and reject, reject. As a noun, you can take the reject pile of clothes to the tidy tip.

A tidy tip is basically a recycling centre here in the UK. You can take pretty much anything

in your car and recycle it. To reject as a verb, unfortunately, the charity shop will

reject any dirty clothes. Unfortunately, the charity shop will reject any dirty clothes.

If the charity shop won't take it, you take it to the tidy tip. And lastly number eight,

we have suspect, suspect, suspect, suspect. As a noun suspect, they took the suspect into

the jail cell. They took the suspect into the jail cell. And as a verb to suspect, they

suspect she committed fraud. They suspect she committed fraud. Now let's have a look

at those that change from noun to verb or noun to adjective but they're general meaning

changes. In the previous bunch their general meaning stayed the same, these are different.

Firstly, we have address and to address, address, address. An address is where you live. I'll

give you her address. If we change it to a verb, the meaning changes. She filmed a video

to address the rumours. She filmed a video to address the rumours. This means to speak

about. We also have conduct and to conduct, conduct, to conduct. Your conduct is not acceptable.

Your behaviour is not acceptable. Or we have to conduct which means to lead or guide. My

dad was invited to conduct the local orchestra. Next we have console and console, console,

console. She spends all day on her gaming console. Console is a set of controls. Or

she was sad so he consoled her. She was sad so he consoled her. To console someone is

to make them feel better at a time of grief or sadness. Number four, one word I say a

lot, content, content or content, content, an adjective. The content of his report was

very complex. The content is what is contained. Or relaxing in the sunshine makes me feel

so content, so happy, so peaceful. We also have default and default, default, default.

You can revert to the default settings on your iPhone. The default settings are the

settings that something comes with. Or our mortgage was denied for defaulting on a loan.

If you default on something, you do not make the required payments. Number six we have,

entrance and entrance, entrance and entrance. The entrance is shut so go through the back

door. Entrance, entryway. We also have entranced. I was entranced by his singing voice. I was

hypnotised by his singing voice. We have object, object and object, object, object. Certain

objects are not allowed on planes, certain items. Or to object, would anyone object if

I suggested we postpone this meeting? To object is to complain in this case. Number eight,

we have project and to project, project or project for some people and project. The project

is easy enough for two people. The piece of work is easy enough for two people or can

you project your computer screen onto the white wall. To project means to cast forward.

And finally we have subject and subject, subject, subject. What was your favourite subject at

primary school? A subject is something taught at school or university or as a verb, I was

subjected to another creepy lunch with my boss. If you are subjected to something, it

means you are forced to undergo something. You're showing that you didn't want to do

it. Okay, that's it for the first part of the lesson, the first trick. I've got a really

good quiz in the PDF, so if you haven't downloaded that already make sure you do 'cause you can

test your learning. Now we're going to move on to a really short section, another trick,

which is showing you how to pronounce words with certain endings. So we're going to look

at some common suffixes and with all of these suffixes in general, the word stress is right

before the suffix. This applies to words of all syllable lengths. If that's not making

sense, let me show you a couple of examples and then we'll just go straight through the

list. Now, as always in the English language there are rules, but there are always words

that break those rules but this will give you a general idea. Let's start with number

one, the suffix able, able. The stress is on the syllable right before the suffix. So

durable, laughable, ineffable. So you can't say that the stress is always on the second

syllable. The stress is always on the first syllable because you can see that ineffable

has four syllables, the stress comes on the syllable just before able. Laughable, ineffable.

We also have the -ial suffix. Social, financial. Again, it's right before. So we're going to

do one more and then I'm going to put you through a test, okay. We have the -cian suffix.

Musician, clinician, right before the suffix. Now for each suffix, I'm going to give you

two words, each containing that suffix and I'm going to give you a little bit of time

to say it out loud correctly, and then I will say it correctly for you and you can check

if you've got it right. Share your results in the comment section. Let me know if there

are any that you struggled with. Okay, we have -ery. How would you pronounce these two?

Okay, bakery, scenery. What about -ian? Go ahead. We have comedian and technician. What

about -ible? Have a go. Impossible, terrible. And -ic, please try. It should be diabetic,

characteristic. How are you finding these? Easy or difficult? Let me know. We have -ion,

go ahead. It's position, vegetation.

- ia, try these two. Media, Victoria. What about -ient? We have ingredient, ancient.

What about -ious? Please have a go. It should be mysterious, various. Second from last -ish,

have a try. It should be English, punish. And finally, -osis. Try for the final time.

It should be hypnosis, osmosis. Hopefully, you found that really easy and if not don't

worry, it just takes practise. Really try to stay aware when you're listening to people

and seeing where they're putting that syllable stress. I've just got a few more for you to

listen to. I have got seven suffixes that nearly always have the stress placed on that

suffix. We'll try it again in the same way. I will let you know the suffix, show you two

words and I want you to go ahead and pronounce them out loud with the stress on the final

syllable on the suffix. I'll show you the first one. We have words ending in -ade. The

stress is on that final syllable on that suffix. Lemonade, arcade. Try it with the next one.

Words ending in -ee. Okay, it should be agree, guarantee. -eer, try please. Engineer, puppeteer.

Number four -ese. Siamese, Japanese.

- ette. Cassette, corvette.

- ique. Unique, physique. And -oon. It should be afternoon, cartoon. Right, I hope you enjoyed

that lesson. For people with certain mother tongues, that seems really easy, but if you

have a different languages as your native language, it can be more complex. So before

you write in the comments, "this was so easy, how could anyone get this wrong?" Consider

that people have really different languages to yours as their native language. I really

hope you enjoyed the lesson. I hope you learned something. Let me know how you found this

lesson in the comment section down below. If you'd like to download the PDF which contains

a quiz, click on the link in the description box, you enter your name and your email address

and I send the PDF straight to your inbox and then every week after that you automatically

receive my lesson PDFs. It's a free service, I hope you enjoy it. Don't forget to check

out Lingoda. You can sign up for your seven day free trial, that's one week's access with

three entirely free classes and if you use my code LUCYOCT30, you can get up to 30% off

your first course. Don't forget to connect with me on all of my social media. I've got

my Instagram, I've got my Facebook and I've got my website englishwithlucy.co.uk. On the

website, I've got a really cool pronunciation tool where you can click on phonemes and you

can hear me pronounce them in words that contain those phonemes. E, word, no. I've also got

my personal channel where I'll show you round our new house. We've moved away from the farm,

we've also got married, there's been lots going on. I'll explain it all there. There's

a lot to talk about. I will see you soon for another lesson.