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
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
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."
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.