Howdy, it’s Hadar. And this is the Accent’s Way, your way to finding clarity, confidence, and freedom in English. Sucre asked me to explain how to pronounce the word ‘interpretation’. So we’re going to talk about the word ‘interpretation’ and the verb ‘to interpret’, ‘interpret’.

The word ‘interpretation’ begins with ‘in’, as in ‘come in’. ‘in’. It’s a relaxed ‘I’ sound, and then we lift the tongue up for the N – ‘in’. Then we drop to a schwa sound: t’r. So it’s a T sound, and then you pull it in for the R directly. There is no vowel there, it’s a reduced vowel: ‘t’r’ as in Turkey or terminal. t’r.

The second syllable is yet another schwa – pr’. So it’s a P sound, then you pull it in for an R – pr, and then you relax the tongue for a schwa – pr’. Then the primary stress – a strong T with a long ‘ei’ – TEI. ‘in-t’r-pr’-TEI’. So you go higher in pitch for the primary stress. And then you drop again to a schwa – to reduced vowel – in sh’n: a SH sound, then directly N – sh’n. ‘in-t’r-pr’-TEI-sh’n’.

Now, the verb ‘to interpret’ is almost the same, except for the stress. So, the stress here shifts to the second syllable. We begin the same: ‘in’ and then T’R. It sounds the same because it’s the ‘ur’ as in STIR vowel sound, it’s just like the schwa. So, you don’t pronounce… it’s not ‘in-TER’, although there is an E here. It’s a T that shifts to the R directly: T’R. ‘in-T’R’.

And then you drop to ‘pr’t’: pr – pull the tongue in for the R, round your lips – pr, schwa- pr’. And then you close it with a T – pr’t. You don’t pop the T, so it doesn’t have to be ‘interpreT’. No, a T at the end of the word is sometimes just an abrupt stop of air: ‘in-T’R-pr’t’. All right? Good.

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