Knowing how to correctly pronounce English words every time is not easy! I commonly hear words like “dude”, “shop”, “hippo”, “refrigerator”, and yes, even mispronounced “pronunciation”.
In order to correctly pronounce English words, you need to take into account four important factors:
1. Syllables
How many syllables (times) does the word have? Where are the syllable breaks?
For example:
cabbage league (two)
buy.chase (2)
hip.po.pot.a.mus (5)
re.fri.ger.a.tor (5)
pro.nun.ci.a.tion (5)
2. Word stress
Once you’ve determined how many syllables a word has, you’ll need to decide which syllable should be emphasized more than the others. Word stress is extremely important in the correct pronunciation of words because incorrect word stress is one of the main reasons why you will not be understood.
For example:
Colleague
Purchase
hippo
refrigerator
pronunciation
3. Sound production
To pronounce words correctly, of course, you must be able to produce the sounds that make up words! At the same time, you need to remember that when individual sounds are put together into words and words are put together into sentences, the individual sounds can easily change.
One of the most common changes is called “vowel reduction.” Vowel reduction is what happens to many vowels when they are not part of the stressed syllable of a word. The normal vowel sound changes (reduces) to something that sounds like “uh.” This sound is called “schwa” in phonetics and its phonetic symbol is a lowercase letter “E” upside down.
Here are some examples of vowel reduction. Notice how the schwa sound appears in unstressed syllables:
PUR.chuhs
hip.puh.POT.uh.muhs
re.FRI.guhr.a.tuhr
pruh.nun.ci.A.shuhn
4. Repetition
In the case of pronunciation, practice does not necessarily make perfect. If you mispronounce the word every time you say it, you will only make your mispronunciation more pronounced (no pun intended). Before you start practicing saying the word, make sure you find out the correct pronunciation. Check online dictionaries, a good pronunciation audio course, or ask a trusted speaker to say the word for you.
Once you are 100% sure of the correct pronunciation, it is time to practice. Try repeating the word while looking in a mirror and recording the audio. Notice the way your mouth moves to make the different sounds. Listen to the recording and compare it with the pronunciation of the model. So, keep working on it.
If you put an effort into how you pronounce words, you will notice an immediate decrease in the amount of misunderstandings you have with others. You will also notice your increased awareness and attention to the pronunciation of words around you, whether it be from friends and colleagues, or the pronunciations you hear on the radio or television.
When you hear words pronounced differently than you normally would, write them down and follow these four steps to learn how to correctly pronounce English words.