How to pronounce ‘spontaneous’

Hey, it's Hadar. And this is the Accent's Way, your way to finding clarity, confidence, and freedom in English. And today we're gonna talk about the word 'spontaneous', because I'm just feeling so spontaneous today. Spontaneous.

Let's break the word down. We begin with 'spaa', just like, "Oh, I'm going to the spa today". 'spaa': it's an S sound, then a P - so close your lips, and then open it to the 'aa' as in 'father' - 'spaan', 'spaan'. Then we shift to the TEI. 'spaan-TEI', just like the beginning of the word 'take' or 'table'. It's a diphthong, so it's a changing vowel. Make sure you're not pronouncing it as a clean 'eh' sound 'spaan-TEH' - no. 'spaan' - drop your jaw, relax your lips, 'spaan'. Then TEI, 'ei' - you see the shift from 'e' to 'i'? 'spaan-TEI'. And then 'nee' - it's a high E sound, 'nee'. And then you relax your tongue into a schwa sound - 'uhs', 'uhs'. But when you shift from the high E to the schwa - 'nee-y's' - you get like a little Y sound in the middle: 'spaan-TEI-nee-y's'. 'I'm feeling spontaneous'.

Now, the interesting thing about this word is the rhythm. Spontaneous. ta-TA-da-ta. In English, not every syllable receives the same beat. So it's not 'spontaneous' [ta-ta-ta-ta], but 'spaan-TEI-nee-y's', the TEI is the primary stress, so it's the longest syllable. And the [y's] at the end is the shortest. So it's really reduced and short - [y's]. The 'spaan' and the 'nee' are somewhere in the middle. 'spaan-TEI-nee-y's'. So that what creates the beauty of American rhythm: different lengths of different syllables, and also different words in a phrase or a sentence. Spontaneous.

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