Hello, I'm John Russell. Let's begin with a new area of exploration, scientific terms.
Developing our ability to pronounce these words can help us discuss the social sciences,
earth sciences, chemistry, physics, and more. Let's start with an important term, experiment.
Why is experiment an interesting word? The answer is this. The X factor! I'll explain.
In American English, we have a couple of general ways we deal with the letter X. The letter
X is a consonant, but depending on what comes after it, the pronunciation can change.
Here is a very general idea. If X is followed by a vowel sound, then X is pronounced like
this. So, in the words examine and exit, we have vowel sounds after the letter X. So,
we pronounce X like this. But if an X is followed by a consonant, or if it is at the
end of the word, it is pronounced X. Think back to our word experiment. We pronounce
it like this. Experiment. Let's compare our two ways of pronouncing X. Experiment.
Examine. At the beginning of this lesson, I told you why experiment is an interesting
word. And now you know all about the X factor. That's all for today. Keep up the good work.