Slova
Schizophrenic is pronounced skit-suh-FREN-ik. It has four syllables with the main stress on FREN. The start is skit-suh: sch is SK and the z is a TS sound, as in pizza. American and British English say it the same way.
schizophrenic
adjective and noun · relating to schizophrenia, a serious mental illness; a person who has it
IPA checked in the Cambridge Dictionary and Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries. The recording is American English.
Each sound in the IPA, with a word you already know that has it.
USUK American and British English/ˌskɪt.səˈfren.ɪk/
skit
suh
FRENstressed
ik
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Tip. Start with SKIT, not SHIZ. The z is a TS sound, as in pizza.
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schizophrenic
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What people often say instead, and how to fix it. Say skit-suh-FREN-ik.
Notshiz-uh-FREN-ik
Reading sch as sh and z as z. Cambridge and Oxford give SK and TS: skit-suh.
Notskiz-uh-FREN-ik
Saying a plain z. The sound is ts, as in pizza.
Notskit-suh-FREE-nik
Borrowing the vowel of schizophrenia. In schizophrenic the stressed vowel is the e of bed: FREN.
Hear each one, slow it down, then say it. Words change a little when they join others, so practise them in sentences too.
She works with schizophrenic patients at the hospital.
The new drug may reduce schizophrenic symptoms.
Schizophrenic comes from schizophrenia, a term made by the Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler from the Greek skhizein, to split, and phrēn, mind. Like other Greek sch words, such as school and schema, it starts with SK.
The z is said TS. Bleuler wrote in German, where z sounds like ts, and English kept that sound in this word. That gives skit-suh at the start.
Watch the third syllable. Schizophrenic has FREN, with the e of bed. Schizophrenia has FREE, with the ee of see: skit-suh-FREE-nee-uh. Both accents say these words the same way.
Rhymes and words that share its tricky sound. Open any of them in the checker and say it.
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