Hi again and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy's American English pronunciation podcast.

My name is Mandy, and this is our 180th episode.

This is another intermediate to advanced lesson.

I'm going to include international phonetic alphabet symbols in the transcript for this episode to help provide extra clarity.

So if you want to see those, just go to www.prenuncian.com slash podcast and click episode 180. The word because is one of those words that we use all

the time. In fact, because is in the top 100 most frequently used words of English. Like many high-frequency words, its pronunciation can change based on the word being stressed

in a sentence or not.

The word because is extra complicated because there are three forms.

First, the stressed pronunciation, because.

Then, the more pronunciation, because.

Then, the more common unstressed pronunciation, because, and the informal form of because, usually written as apostrophe C-U-Z.

So, after all of that, what exactly is the difference between these pronunciations and why

do they matter for speaking in an American accent?

First, let's talk about what's true for both the stressed and unstressed form.

The first syllable is pronounced b with a short

I sound, not B with a long e sound. This shouldn't be surprising since the second

syllable of the word is stressed. If the second syllable is stressed, the first

syllable will be reduced and reduced letter E is often reduced to a short I sound.

Now let's talk about the changes to the word based on it being the stressed word in a sentence or not.

The word, because, is a simple conjunction, so it's not usually given extra emphasis.

As a conjunction, it joins ideas. The ideas, not the joining words, are usually stressed.

If I want to give it extra emphasis, though, I can.

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