Shadowing Practice: This Trick Will Change Your English Pronunciation FOREVER! (Fluent Speaking Practice) - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Here's a simple rule that will instantly improve your English pronunciation.
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If a word ends in a suffix that starts with I, like I -F -Y or I -O -N,
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this syllable right here is the key, because most of the time, this is the stressed syllable,
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and this tells us exactly how to pronounce this word.
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If you master this one pattern, you will know exactly how to pronounce hundreds of vocabulary words.
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Don't worry, you don't need to learn hundreds of new words to do this.
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In fact, there are tons of words that native speakers don't know.
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And just like in your language, we know when something sounds right or wrong.
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But this is more than just a feeling.
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This is something you can learn.
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So in this lesson, I'll explain exactly when and why we use this pattern.
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So you too can correctly pronounce new vocabulary words that you encounter,
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and you can create different forms of words that you already know.
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Also, you can download the free PDF worksheet for this lesson by clicking the link in the description below this video.
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Let's review a few very important things.
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Words are made of smaller parts called syllables.
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A syllable is a combination of sounds that contains only one vowel sound.
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If a word has two or more syllables, one of them is always stressed.
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A stressed syllable is easier to hear because it's louder, a little longer, and your voice is higher.
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For example, let's look at the word academy.
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This word has four syllables.
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A -ca -de -me.
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And we know this because there are four vowel sounds.
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And the second syllable is stressed.
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Academy.
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Notice the vowel sounds in the first and third syllables.
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Different spelling, but in speaking, they're both reduced to a schwa sound.
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This happens all the time in English.
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If a syllable is unstressed, there's a very high chance that the vowel will be reduced to schwa.
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Knowing where the stressed syllable is,
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is really important because sometimes when we change the form of a word by adding a suffix or a word ending,
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the location of the stressed syllable can move.
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When a stressed syllable becomes unstressed, or when an unstressed syllable becomes stressed,
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this can change the pronunciation completely.
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Let's compare the noun academy to the adjective academic.
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Academic.
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So what happened?
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Now the third syllable is stressed.
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So we pronounce the full vowel sound here with a short e -demic.
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Also, the vowel in the second syllable changed.
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It's not ca anymore.
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It's kuh.
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Unstressed with a schwa sound.
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Academic academic.
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So the big question here is, how do you know that?
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Why does the word stress change?
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Well, this is something that happens very often with suffixes that are Latin in origin.
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In fact, the origin of most English vocabulary comes from Latin directly or indirectly via French.
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If you speak a romance language like Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, etc., you have an advantage.
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Maybe you need to change the spelling or change the suffixes a little bit, but you already know most of these words.
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But you need to be really careful.
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I often hear speakers of romance languages making more pronunciation mistakes because they try to use the stress patterns from their language,
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not from English.
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So remember that in English, we don't stress the suffix.
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We stress the syllable immediately before the suffix.
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So anytime you see these suffixes,
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which we'll practice today, you will always know exactly how to pronounce that word with the correct word stress.
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Let's continue with some more examples of the I -C suffix.
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Anytime you see a word like this, you know that it's an adjective that was formed from a noun.
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For example, if someone has a lot of energy, he or she is energetic.
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Energetic.
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If something has the power of a magnet, magnet, it is magnetic, magnetic.
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An athlete is a person who's very athletic, athletic.
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Next, let's talk about adjectives that end with the suffix I -C -A -L.
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For example, the noun magic becomes the adjective magical.
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In both words, the first syllable is stressed.
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Magic.
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Magical.
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The next one is very important.
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In English, when we talk about this subject, politics, politics, this is always a plural noun.
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Just like the subject mathematics, you can study politics.
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The first syllable is stressed, and this is a short O, politics.
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So something that is related to politics is political.
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Political.
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So we move the stress from the first syllable to the second syllable in the adjective form.
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The vowel in the first syllable is unstressed and reduced to a schwa.
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Political.
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Also, if you want to know exactly why the pronunciation of T changes in American English,
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I highly recommend watching this lesson next.
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If you're talking about something that's the usual type or representation of something, it is typical.
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Typical.
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Next, we have the subject of philosophy.
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Philosophy.
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This is the study of the meaning of life and why we exist.
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Deep thoughts something that is related to philosophy is philosophical.
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So you can have a philosophical argument, a philosophical problem.
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You can be a philosophical person, etc. Let's keep going with our next suffix, i -a -n.
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Now you will see two different variations of the spelling.
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Sometimes c -i -a -n, sometimes s -i -a -n, both pronounced with a sh sound, shun.
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Most of the time, this suffix refers to people who are professionals or specialists.
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A person who plays or writes or performs music is a musician, music, musician.
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A person who works in the field of politics is a politician.
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Politician.
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So the third syllable has the primary stress.
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But notice that the first syllable has some secondary stress.
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We don't reduce this syllable to a schwa like in the adjective political.
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But it's not the main stress.
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The primary stress comes immediately before the suffix politician, politician.
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We also have a strong t -t sound there.
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Okay, pay attention because my pronunciation is going to change in the next two examples.
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Sometimes we separate these two vowel sounds and pronounce them independently with two syllables, i -in, i -in.
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And this only happens when the sound before this suffix is voiced, like r or d.
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Don't worry, our rule has not changed.
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Just remember that this rule still applies if the suffix has more than one syllable.
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Let's keep going.
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A person who works in a library, library, is a librarian, librarian.
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What's the name of a person who performs comedy?
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A person whose job is to make you laugh.
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That person is a comedian.
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So comedy changes to comedian.
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Next, we have a very useful suffix that forms adjectives from nouns or from verbs.
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I -A -L.
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You will see a couple of different variations of the spelling, including C -I -A -L and T -I -A -L.
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A perfect example is special.
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Special.
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This is related to the word species, which describes a particular type or group of plants or animals.
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Notice that I'm not saying special.
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These sounds come together to form a sh sound.
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And we really reduce that final vowel to the point where you really only hear the dark L sound.
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Special.
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Special.
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Benefit.
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Beneficial.
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Benefit.
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Beneficial.
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Part.
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Partial.
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Part.
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Partial.
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Okay, you try the next one.
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You can do something in confidence or something can be confidential.
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This means secret or private, like confidential information, confidential documents,
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etc. Next, an extremely useful suffix that forms nouns from verbs, I -O -N.
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Again, you'll see two different spellings.
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T -I -O -N, which is pronounced with a voiceless sh sound, shun, and S -I -O -N,
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which is usually pronounced with a voiced j sound, shun, shun.
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But there are exceptions, of course.
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English always has exceptions.
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So the verb create becomes the noun creation.
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Create, creation.
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You can decide something or you can make a decision.
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Decision.
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This changes from a long I sound in decide to a short I sound.
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And we're pronouncing the voiced Z in decision.
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Here's a really good spelling tip.
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Anytime you see a Latin -based verb that ends with U -D -E in English,
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the noun form will change to S -I -O -N.
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The verb conclude changes to the noun conclusion conclusion.
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Intrude, intrude changes to intrusion, intrusion.
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Here's another tip for Latin -based verbs in English that end with I -B -E.
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To create a noun, the B becomes a P, and then we add T -I -O -N.
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So the verb describe becomes the noun description.
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Describe with a long I, description with a short I in the stressed syllable.
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Another example, the verb transcribe becomes transcription.
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Transcription.
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Your turn.
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A doctor can prescribe something, prescribe, or you need a...
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Prescription.
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Prescription.
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Almost done.
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This is another extremely useful verb suffix for talking about making or causing to become.
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And that is I -F -Y, pronounced as if I. If I.
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For example, to make something simple is to simplify.
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Simplify.
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Now here's the noun identity.
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Identity.
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You can say identity, but it's very common in American English to drop the T after the N in an unstressed syllable.
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To correctly show the identity of something is to identify.
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Identify.
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Or identify is also fine.
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To cause someone to notice or become aware of something is to notify.
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Notify.
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And this is the moment when everything we've talked about comes full circle.
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When something comes full circle, that means we return to an old idea, but with new context or new understanding.
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We can take these verbs with I -F -Y and we can create the noun form.
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And you will already know how to pronounce it because now you know the correct stress pattern.
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So with these words, change the y to an i, add c -a, and then add t -i -o -n.
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So what is the noun that describes the action of simplifying something?
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Simplification.
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Simplification.
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Five syllables.
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So again, Then the long vowel sound I becomes short, I in this unstressed syllable.
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Simplify, simplification.
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Identify changes to identification.
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Identification.
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Wow, six syllables.
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And finally, to notify becomes notification.
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notification.
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Make sure you turn on your notifications so that you're notified every time I upload a new lesson.
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If this lesson was useful and you enjoyed it, please like this video and subscribe to my channel for more.
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Thank you so much for watching.
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I'm Gina.
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This is Your World in English, and I'll see you next time.
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Bye!
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 194 sentences and 1764 words to shadow. The speech runs for 15:32. The speaker talks at a steady 114 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. Only 75% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| noun noun | /naʊn/ | A word that functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as person, animal, place, word, thing, phenomenon, substance, quality, or idea… |
| pronounce verb | /pɹəˈnaʊns/ | To declare formally, officially or ceremoniously. |
| distress noun | /dɪˈstɹɛs/ | Physical or emotional discomfort, suffering, or alarm, particularly of a more acute nature. |
| verb noun | /vɝb/ | A word that indicates an action, event, or state of being. |
| spelling noun | /ˈspɛl.ɪŋ/ | The act, practice, ability, or subject of forming words with letters, or of reading the letters of words; orthography. |
| lesson noun | /ˈlɛs.ən/ | A section of learning or teaching into which a wider learning content is divided. |
| pronunciation noun | /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/ | The formal or informal way in which a word is made to sound when spoken. |
| politician noun | /ˌpɑ.ləˈtɪʃ.ən/ | One engaged in politics, especially an elected or appointed government official. |
| philosophical adjective | /ˌfɪl.əˈsɑ.fɪ.kl̩/ | Of, or pertaining to, philosophy. |
| notify verb | /ˈnoʊtɪfaɪ/ | To give (someone) notice (of some event). |
| anytime adverb | At any time. | |
| notification noun | /ˌnoʊtɪfɪˈkeɪʃn̩/ | The act of notifying. |
| confidential adjective | /ˌkɔn.fɪˈdɛn.ʃəl/ | Kept, or meant to be kept, secret within a certain circle of persons; not intended to be known publicly. |
| vocabulary noun | /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/ | A usually alphabetized and explained collection of words e.g. of a particular field, or prepared for a specific purpose, often for learning. |
| conclusion noun | /kənˈkluːʒən/ | The end, finish, close or last part of something. |
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | are made · is unstressed · was formed |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | people who are · person who plays · person who works |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | has not changed · we've talked |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 17 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, I'll, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: athletic /æθˈlɛt.ɪk/, mathematics /mæθ(.ə)ˈmæt.ɪks/, athlete /ˈæθ.liːt/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, politician /ˌpɑ.ləˈtɪʃ.ən/, notification /ˌnoʊtɪfɪˈkeɪʃn̩/, confidential /ˌkɔn.fɪˈdɛn.ʃəl/, conclusion /kənˈkluːʒən/
- Long words — get the stress right: pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, politician /ˌpɑ.ləˈtɪʃ.ən/, philosophical /ˌfɪl.əˈsɑ.fɪ.kl̩/, notification /ˌnoʊtɪfɪˈkeɪʃn̩/, confidential /ˌkɔn.fɪˈdɛn.ʃəl/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like noun, pronounce, distress.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.