How to Pronounce est Endings American English
In this American English pronunciation video,
we’re going to go over words with the -est
ending.
As you may have learned in a grammar class,
the -est ending is superlative, the most of
something. For example, “That was the funniest
movie I’ve ever seen!”, or “She’s
the tallest one on the team.”
Recently someone asked me, How is this ending
pronounced? Thanks for your question.
If you look at it on its own, it looks like
it might be ‘est’, just like the word
BEST without the B, or WEST without the W,
-est.
But that’s not how it’s pronounced. This
is always an unstressed syllable, so it won’t
be pronounced EST, with a longer vowel and
a shape in the voice, EST. But, it will be
pronounced –est, ih, ih, -est. The IH vowel
and the ST consonant cluster, lower in pitch,
lower in volume, lower in energy, fast. EST,
-est. Let’s compare. EST, not correct.
–est [4x], correct.
Practice that with me, -est [4x].
To make the unstressed IH sound, the tongue
tip is forward, lightly touching the back
of the bottom front teeth. The top front part
of the tongue lifts a little towards the roof
of the mouth, ih. The jaw drops only a little
bit. Ih, ih. The lips are relaxed. Ih, -est,
-est. To make the S, the teeth have to come
closer together. The tongue stays forward
and the tip can either point down or up (I
keep it pointed down), isssss. To make the
T, bring the tip up to the roof of the mouth,
stop the air, and release it, tt, pushing
the air through the teeth. St, st, -est, -est.
Let’s look at some words with this ending.
Biggest. Biggest. –est, -est, -est. Notice
how it sounds like “ist” and not “est”.
That’s what we want, –est, -est, biggest.
Tallest, -est, -est. Tallest.
Funniest, -est, -est. Funniest.
Now that you’re comfortable with the ending,
we’re going to throw in something else,
the Flap T. When a T sound comes between two
vowel sounds, or after an R and before a vowel
sound, it becomes a Flap T.
Let’s take the words ‘smart’ and ‘brightest’.
The final two sounds in ‘smart’ are R
and T. When we add the –est ending, the
T comes between the R and a vowel, so it’s
a Flap T. We don’t make it a True T, tt,
tt, smartest, smartest, -test, -test. But,
a Flap T: smartest, -test, -test, -test. The
Flap T sounds like a D between vowels in American
English, the tongue just bounces once against
the roof of the mouth. Depending on your native
language, this might sound like an R to you.
I’m going to hold out the R before the flap.
Watch how the tongue bounces against the roof
of the mouth. Smarrrrrrrrr-test [2x]. Smartest.
The word ‘bright’ ends in the AI diphthong
and the T. So, when we add the –est ending,
the T is between two vowels or in this case,
a vowel and a diphthong. That’s a Flap T.
I’m going to hold out the AI diphthong.
Watch the tongue bounce once against the roof
of the mouth. Briiiiiiiigh-test [2x]. Brightest.
Can you see the tongue flap? Brightest.
Let’s practice some more words. I want you
to practice them first, out loud, before I
say them. Remember to make the ending lower
in pitch, lower in volume, down here, -est,
-est, -est.
This first one has a Flap T.
Greatest, greatest. -est, -est, -est. Greatest.
Highest, -est, -est, -est. Highest.
Nearest. -est, -est, -est. Nearest.
Earliest. -est, -est, -est. Earliest.
Lowest. -est, -est, -est. Lowest.
Finest. -est, -est, -est. Finest.
Youngest. -est, -est, -est. Youngest. This
one is a little different. By itself, the
word is ‘young’, with no hard G sound,
just the NG sound. Young, younnnggg. But when
we add the –est or –er ending, we do make
a hard G: younger, ggg, -ger, younger, or,
youngest, ggg, -gest. Youngest. This is also
true of strong – strongest, ggg, -gest,
and long, longest, -gest, gg, -gest.
Great job everybody. If you only remember
one thing from this video, I hope it’s that
this ending is always unstressed. We want
it to be quieter, lower in pitch. Less important!
-est, -est, -est.
I’m very excited to tell you that I recently
finished my first book. If you liked this
video, there’s a lot more to learn about
American English pronunciation, and my book
will help you step by step. You can get it
by clicking here, or in the description below.
That’s it, and thanks so much for using
Rachel’s English.