 English pronunciation practice, 25 words with X from EspressoEnglish.net. One of my students asked me about how to pronounce the letter X in English. The answer is that there are several different ways, so today I'm going to explain all about the letter X in English and how to pronounce it, with lots of examples for you to repeat after me. Let's get started. In most cases, X is pronounced like K-S, X. As in the following words, listen and repeat. Taxi Mexico Explain Next Fox Mix Extra You can see that in all of these words, X is pronounced X. Be careful in words like explain to include the K sound. Sometimes students pronounce it like explain, but that's not correct. It should be EXPLANE, EXPLANE. The other way to pronounce X is like GZ, GZ. As in the following words, listen and repeat. Exactly Example Exam Exhibit Exotic Exult Executive You can see that in these words, the X is pronounced like GZ. Exactly Executive So what's the difference between the words on the left and the words on the right? Well, for X to be pronounced like GZ, then two conditions need to be true. The X must be followed by a vowel sound, and the syllable after the X must be the strong one. You can see this in all of the examples on the right. In all of those words, the X is followed by a vowel sound, and the syllable immediately after the X is the strong one. If an X is followed by a consonant sound, then it's pronounced like X. As in the examples of explain, next, and extra. If the X is at the end of a word, then it's also pronounced X, as in the words Fox and Mix. And if the X is followed by a vowel sound, but not followed by the stressed syllable, then the X is still pronounced X, as in the words Taxi and Mexico. Both of these have the X being followed by a vowel sound. However, it's the first syllable that's the strong one, not the syllable immediately after the X. Here are a couple more words where the X is followed by a vowel, but the strong syllable is not immediately after the X, so the X is pronounced X. Those words are exercise and execute. There's one word that doesn't seem to follow the rule, and that is the word exit. The X is followed by a vowel sound, but the first syllable is the strong one, exit. But we still pronounce the X like GZ, exit. This word appears to be an exception to the general rule. X is also pronounced like X when used as a prefix with a hyphen, as in the words X boyfriend, X girlfriend, X husband, and X wife. These words refer to a person who previously was your romantic partner, but now is not. Sometimes people refer to their former romantic partners simply with the word X. They'll say My X to mean their X boyfriend, X girlfriend, X husband, or X wife. When X starts a word, then it's pronounced like Z. There are very few of these words in English, but a couple of them are xenophobia, xylophone, and Xerox. Xenophobia means fear of strangers, being afraid of people who you don't know or people who are different from you. A xylophone is a type of musical instrument, and the word Xerox refers to a particular type of copy machine. There are two words where the X is followed by a U and has a bit of a special sound. Those are the words sexual and luxury, as well as luxurious. In the word sexual, the X sounds like KSH, sexual. And in luxury and luxurious, it sounds like G-Z-H, GZ, luxury, luxurious. I often hear students mispronounce these words, so I hope now you understand how to say them. If you want to speak English better, it's important to improve your pronunciation, and I have two courses that can help you train and improve your English pronunciation. The American English Pronunciation course will teach you all the sounds of the English language, with lots of examples and exercises for you to listen and repeat the words. It also includes an evaluation of your pronunciation at the end of the course. The other course, Shadowing with Shana, involves repeating full phrases and sentences so that you can improve your pronunciation, rhythm and intonation, and learn to talk more like a native speaker. If you buy both courses together, there's a discount, so click on the link in the video for more information.