Hey guys, it’s Hadar. And this is the Accent’s Way – your way to finding clarity, confidence, and freedom in English.

I recently received a question from my most loyal fan, Donny Jay, who’s asking, how to pronounce the word ‘xenophobia’. According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, xenophobia is fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners, or of anything that is strange or foreign. So let’s get started.

We begin with a Z sound, ‘z’ as in ‘zoo’. And then the e… Oh my God, it’s not an X, it’s a Z. Why couldn’t they just put a Z there? God, this word was probably brought by a bunch of foreigners.

“Excuse me, but this is my frame…”

“…and all these ‘how to pronounce’ videos, anyway. I mean, can you just speak English?”

All right, Xenophobia, whatever. Where were we?

“Xenophobia”. We begin with a Z sound than the ‘e’ in “red” – ‘ze-‘, ‘ze-‘. Then it’s the N sound and a schwa, a reduced vowel – ‘nuh’, ‘nuh’. So, the jaw drops just a bit, the lips are relaxed, the tongue is relaxed, everything is relaxed. ‘nuh’, very small. ‘ze-nuh-‘, and then it’s the word ‘phobia’, and that’s actually how you pronounce the word – phobia.

It’s an F sound, and then the O as in ‘go’ – ‘fow’. It’s a diphthong, so go through the entire vowel. Make sure to round your lips at the end – ‘fow’. So it’s not ‘phoh-bia’ – ‘foh’, but ‘fow’, relax your jaw. Then it’s B as in “be yourself”, a Y sound as in ‘yes’, and a schwa. ‘yuh’ ‘yuh’, ‘bee-yuh’. ‘fow-bee-yuh’, ‘phobia’. ‘xenophobia’.

The ‘pho’ is the primary stress of the word, so it’s a little longer and higher in pitch than the rest of the syllables. ‘Xenophobia’. ‘He’s a xenophobe’. ‘He suffers from xenophobia’.

All right, that’s it. I hope you never have to use this word, but we’re reaching 2017, and unfortunately you might have to use this word. So now you know how to say it.

Have a wonderful week. Please share this video with your friends, your family, your colleagues, your neighbors, if you liked it. And don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel. Have a wonderful week and I’ll see you, hopefully, next week in the next video. Bye.