suh-JESTS
/səˈdʒɛsts/
suggests is pronounced suh-JESTS (/səˈdʒɛsts/). Suggests is a present-tense verb meaning to put forward an idea or plan for consideration. It often functions to imply a recommendation or hint, without asserting certainty. The pronunciation emphasizes a crisp /dʒ/ onset followed by a short, unstressed vowel and a final /ts/ or /s/ cluster, typical of English verbs ending in -s.
Suggests is a present-tense verb meaning to put forward an idea or plan for consideration. It often functions to imply a recommendation or hint, without asserting certainty. The pronunciation emphasizes a crisp /dʒ/ onset followed by a short, unstressed vowel and a final /ts/ or /s/ cluster, typical of English verbs ending in -s.
- You: You might obscure the /dʒ/ by substituting a /d/ or /j/ sound; ensure the affricate release is crisp: /dʒ/ as in 'judge'. - You: The final cluster /ts/ often blends; practice with a clean release, not a general /s/ or /st/. - You: The first syllable /sə/ can reduce too much; keep a light schwa to preserve rhythm; don't overemphasize the initial /s/.
"She suggests we try a different approach."
"The manager suggests scheduling a follow-up meeting next week."
"What do you think he’s suggesting with that remark?"
Pronounce as /səˈdʒɛsts/ in US/UK/AU. Start with a schwa syllable /sə/; the stressed syllable is /dʒɛsts/, where /dʒ/ is the j sound as in 'judge,' followed by the final /ts/ or /st/ cluster. Tip: keep the /dʒ/ short and crisp, then release into /ɛ/ before a final voiceless /ts/ for a clean stop. If your speech is rapid, the final cluster can sound like /s/; aim for a crisp /ts/ release.
Common mistakes: 1) Stress misplacement, saying /ˈsə.gɛsts/ with wrong emphasis. 2) Confusing /dʒ/ with /j/ or /tʃ/ leading to /səˈjɛsts/ or /səˈtʃɛsts/. 3) Weakening the final /t/ so it sounds like /s/ or /z/; keep the voiceless stop /t/ clearly released as /ts/. Correction: practice the /dʒ/ as a single affricate, and finish with a clean /t/ + small release into /s/.
Across accents, the main differences are vowel quality and r-coloring around neighboring sounds. In US and AU, /ə/ in the first syllable tends to be a more central schwa; the /dʒ/ onset remains the same. UK may have a slightly more clipped /t/ release in the final cluster and less rhoticity if followed by non-rhotic consonants nearby. Overall, the nucleus /ɛ/ stays stable; the final /ts/ in UK/US is often realized as a crisp alveolar affricate. IPA: US/UK/AU /səˈdʒɛsts/.
The difficulty comes from the combination of an initial unstressed syllable with a strong, palatal onset /dʒ/ and a final voiceless /ts/ cluster. The /dʒ/ requires precise articulation to avoid sounding like /j/; the adjacent vowels must remain lax in the first syllable while the second syllable carries primary stress and ends with an abrupt /ts/ release. Mastery comes from balancing mouth position: relaxed tongue with front constriction for /dʒ/ and a brisk, crisp stop for /t/ followed by /s/.
No, suggests has all audible sounds. There are no silent letters in its standard pronunciation. The word includes three phonetic elements: the unstressed /sə/, the stressed /dʒɛst/ sequence, and the final /s/ as the plural/third-person ending. In rapid speech, you may hear a subtle assimilation, but the letters s-u-g-g-e-s-t-s always map to sounds: s + ə + dʒ + ɛ + s + ts.
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- US: Expect rhoticity in surrounding phrases; keep /z/ or /s/ endings consistent. Focus on a clear /ə/ and crisp /dʒ/; use minimal pairs like 'suggest' vs 'suggests'. - UK: Slightly more clipped final cluster; keep relaxation but emphasize quickly into /ts/. - AU: Often similar to US; may have a slightly fuller vowel in /ə/ due to Australian English vowel shifts. IPA guide: /səˈdʒɛsts/ across dialects; maintain non-rhoticity in contexts where it applies.
Suggest stems from Latin suggerere, literally ‘to bring under, bring up from below,’ formed from sub- ‘under’ + gergere ‘to bear, to bring.’ The Latin root suggerere evolved in Late Latin as suggerere and passed into Old French as suggerer before entering Middle English. Its semantic development traces a shift from ‘to bring forth a thought’ to the modern sense of proposing or hinting something for consideration. By Middle English, suggest took on nuanced meanings of implying or proposing ideas rather than stating them outright. The word’s phonology adapted through standard English sound changes, with the Latin gibriding into English /dʒ/ via assimilation and Spanish-influenced English spellings later aligning the pronunciation with contemporary -g(-)gest endings, though not always fixed. The earliest English attestations appear in the 14th–15th centuries, in legal and scholastic contexts, where “to suggest” carried the sense of hinting at implications rather than asserting conclusions. Over time, its usage expanded into everyday discourse as both transitive and intransitive, connoting recommended actions, possibilities, or inferences. The noun/sense evolve parallelly in phrases like “suggestion” still rooted in the same Latin lineage; the verb “suggests” as third-person singular remains a standard utility across registers.
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Words that rhyme with "suggests"
-sts sounds
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