This is the BBC. This podcast is supported by advertising outside the UK. This is a download from BBC Learning English to find out more. Visit our website. Six minutes vocabulary from BBC Learning English dot com. I. Hello and welcome to Six Minute Vocabulary with me, Neal and me, Catherine. And today we're talking about how to pronounce words that begin with the letter S..

We'll look at lots of examples. We'll give you a quiz and we'll leave you with a top tip for, remember, a new English words.

So to start off, let's listen to Maria.

She works in a circus now. Do you like circuses, Katherine? When I was a kid, I think I wanted to join a circus. These days, I'm not so sure performing animals are not my thing, really.

Okay, well, Maria is a circus performer. She's not an animal. And we're going to hear her talking about how she started in the job.

And here's a question to think about while you listen. What didn't Maria do at weekends? Here she is.

I started performing in my family circus when I was nine years old. I loved it at the weekends. Me and my sisters didn't go to cyber cafes or the cinema or hang around the park smoking cigarettes. Like other teenagers. We practiced performing. I celebrated my 16th birthday by learning to ride a cycle that was only 20 centimetres high. My brother's bike was so high it reached the ceiling. So Maria had an interesting childhood, didn't she?

And we asked you what didn't she do? Weekends.

And the answer is she didn't go to the park or the cinema.

Like other kids know, she practiced performing. And cinema is an important word in the show today because we spell it with a letter C, but we pronounce it with a sound so we don't say Kinnamon. It's cinema. A lot of words that start with the letter C all pronounced with a sound like kac crime. Count my name Katherine Chord. Lots of them.

But most words that start with the letters c i r pronounced with a sound words like cinema cigarette circus. That's rule one. Now listen again.

I started performing in my family circus when I was nine years old. I loved it at the weekend. Me and my sisters didn't go to cyber cafes or the cinema or hang around the park smoking cigarettes like other teenagers. Good.

Now let's see how we pronounce words that start with the letters c e. Listen to this clip and see if you can spot those words.

I celebrated my 16th birthday by learning to ride a cycle that was only twenty centimeters high. My brother's bike was so high it reached the ceiling.

So we have three C words there and they were all pronounced with a sound. We had celebrate centimeter and ceiling and that's our second rule.

And perhaps you spotted our third rule in that last clip.

Yes, well done. If you've already noticed that words like Psycho and cybercafe are pronounced with a sound, even though they are spelled with C, Y, and here's the whole clip again.

I started performing in my family circus when I was nine years old. I loved it at the weekends. Me and my sisters didn't go to cyber cafes or the cinema or hang around the park smoking cigarettes like other teenagers. We practiced performing. I celebrated my 16th birthday by learning to ride a cycle that was only 20 centimetres high.

My brother's bike was so high it reached the ceiling six minutes from BBC learning English dot com.

And we're talking about how to spell words that begin with a sound. When a word starts with the letters C, E, C or C, why we usually pronounce it with a sound right.

And it's quiz time. How many words in these sentences are spelled with a letter C? At the beginning, no one listened carefully. I can't see my cycle anywhere.

And there were two words with C at the beginning. Can't and cycle.

Excellent. Number two, Christopher has gone to the cinema, but Colin is coming to the cybercafe. Right?

There were five that time.

Christopher Cinema, Colin Cumming Cybercafé.

OK, and get ready for number three. Ready crazy coloured circus clowns create chaos in cinema circles.

And that was a whopping eight words, beginning with the letter C crazy coloured circus clowns create chaos, cinema circles and congratulations if you got them.

All right, that's the end of the quiz.

And here's a top tip to help you with new vocabulary. When you learn a new group of words, try to put them together in one long, crazy sentence like you heard earlier. It'll help you to remember them talk to you.

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