How to Pronounce UNIVERSITY American English

In this American English pronunciation video,
we’re going to go over the pronunciation of

the word ‘university’.

This week’s Word of the Week is ‘university’.
‘University’ is a five-syllable word with

secondary stress on the first syllable, and
primary stress on the third syllable. U-ni-ver-si-ty.

University. It begins with the ‘ju’ diphthong,
uni-, uni-. Then we have the N consonant sound

and the schwa in the second syllable, which
is unstressed. So, the tongue tip will go

to the roof of the mouth for the N, uni-,
uni-. Then we have the stressed syllable -ver-.

It begins with the V consonant sound, so the
bottom lip will come and make contact with

the bottom of the top front teeth, vv, vv.
Univer-. The vowel sound is the UR as in HER

vowel, -ver-, -ver-, so you don’t need much
jaw drop for that. The tongue will pull back,

and make contact here with the roof of the
mouth, or the insides of the teeth. Univer-sity.

Then we have two unstressed syllables that
will be flat, lower in pitch and volume, -sity,

sity. I want to point out, we have a T here
between two vowel sounds. That means it’s

going to be a flap, not a True T, -sity, -sity,
-sity. University. University.

He teaches at New York University.

That’s it, your Word of the Week. Try it
out yourself. Make up a sentence with the

word, record it, and post it as a video response
to this video on YouTube. I can’t wait to

watch it.

That’s it, and thanks so much for using Rachel’s
English.