Learn how to pronounce the words IMMUNE, IMMUNIZE, IMMUNITY with this American English Pronunciation Lesson.
Definitions:
IMMUNE means to be resistant to an infection.
Pronunciation:
IMMUNE – IH-M’YOU’N or UH-M’YOU’N or /ɪmˈjun, ˈɪmjuˌnaɪz, ɪmˈjunəti/
IMMUNIZE – IM-YOU-NIZ or /ɪmjuˌnaɪz/
IMMUNITY – IM-YOU-NUH-DEE or /ɪmˈjunəti/
Most of the time, when a suffix is added to a root word, the syllable stress remains the same. However, there are some suffixes that impose stress, ITY does this and the stress changes. When words get longer and have more syllables, then some syllables must get faster and shorter. Often times, this leads to an UH or schwa in words.
Transcript:
Hi everyone Jennifer from Tarle speech with your question of the week! Our question today is how to pronounce the words
immune which means resistant to an infection
immunize and immunity
So let’s take a look at these words. We have immune, immunize, and immunity. So let’s start with word number one. You are going to pronounce this word by stressing syllable 2. So that syllable is going to be louder and higher in pitch and the vowel is going to be longer. And in this case we are going to use the vowel u as in you out there.
Now for syllable number one, I have it listed as a short I because I think most people tend to read it this way. Keep in mind that this is a short unstressed syllable so the vowel is going to be shorter and relaxed and unstressed. You can say ummune or immune either is fine. They’re both super close. The key is it’s unstressed and it’s very short. So again right here we have
immune immune immune
Now when we add the ize everything is going to say the same.
imuniz immunize immunize immunize
That syllable stress is going to stay the same and we’re going to continue stressing syllable number two.
Last when we have immunity the stress stays the same. Oh my goodness! If you watched my video last week you know that this ity is a stress imposing suffix and it will change the rules and it means that you shift the stress. In this case you don’t have to shift the stress because we always stress the syllable right before the Uh D. And in this case it’s still the U so that’s why this confuses some people because we don’t change that stress.
So we have im you nadi
im you nadi
Let’s try them all together:
immune immune immune
immunize immunize immunize
immunity immunity immunity
immune immunize immunity
So give it a try I know people are going to notice the difference. If you found this helpful please share us with your friends. If you need more help check out our products and our classes at Tarle speech.
Have the best weekend everyone thank you!