Three ways to pronounce CC

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Hello students! I’ve noticed a pronunciation mistake that students frequently make with words like “success”: they say something like “sussess” pronouncing the CC like an S sound. But this is not correct – the CC in success is pronounced like KS – suk-SESS. It’s the same for suk-SEED and suk-SESS-ful.

But is the double C always pronounced this way in English? No! There are three different ways to pronounce it – actually it’s more like two major ways and one exception. Today we’re going to practice pronouncing 26 English words with CC. Listen and try to repeat after me.

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Pronounce CC like KS

The first way to pronounce CC is like KS. This happens when the CC is followed by an E or an I. Let’s try some words that have this pronunciation:

success / succeed / successful

accident

accent

access

accessory

eccentric

accelerate

accept

vaccine / vaccinate

Pronounce CC like a hard K sound

Another way to pronounce CC is with a hard “K” sound. This happens when the CC is followed by any other sound (except E or I). Listen and repeat:

account

accuse

accommodate

occur

broccoli

hiccup

impeccable

occasion

accurate

occupy

tobacco

zucchini

Pronounce CC like CH (in a few words borrowed from Italian)

The third way to pronounce CC is really more of an exception – it’s like CH, and it only occurs in words that are borrowed from Italian. Two of the most common are:

cappuccino (a type of coffee)

fettuccine (a type of pasta)

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