English Pronunciation: Four Words With Silent Syllables 0
Hi, this is Fred. My name’s Fred, spelled F-R-E-D. I’m an American teaching English in Vietnam.
Today I have a pronunciation lesson for you; I want to talk about silent syllables.
“Syllables.” Do you know what syllables are? Let’s see, it’s spelled s y l l a b l e…
It’s very important when you’re learning English to listen for and think about how many syllables does a word have.
For example: ham-bur-ger. This word “hamburger” has three syllables. But sometimes one syllable is taken out. There’s one syllable that’s silent. And I have some examples of this.
One example is the word “interesting”. Interesting, you know? If something is interesting, you want to know about it, it’s exciting. This word, when you look at it written- the writing- it’s in-ter-es-ting.
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So, writing, it has four syllables. In-ter-es-ting. But speaking, it has only three syllables, you take one out. Take out this one, here. When you… when people say this word, they say it with only three syllables: “intresting”.
Spelling: in ter es ting, but speaking: intresting.
This word, interesting, sometimes a person will say it with four syllables. This one, I think, would be okay both ways.
Like if somebody wanted to empasize this word, they would say, “Hmm, very in-ter-es-ting…” It’s also okay, four syllables, in ter es ting. Three syllables more normal in fast speech. Interesting. That’s very interesting.
Another one is a very common word: restaurant. You know the word “restaurant”? You go to a restaurant to eat food. When you want to eat out. Restaurant.
This one also: res-tau-rant. Spelling, writing, it’s res tau rant; it has three. But when you say this word: restraunt. Only two, take one out. One silent syllable: restraunt. People… no, you’d never say res-tau-rant. Restraunt- okay.
And another one is this word here: com-for-ta-ble. This one looks like com-for-ta-ble. Writing, four syllables. But speaking, three syllables: comfterble. It’s very comfterble: it feels good. It’s not too big, like when talking about clothes. My shirt is very comfortable, it’s not too big, not too small, it’s very cool, it feels good. It’s comfortable.
Okay? And how ’bout one more? Do you know this word: chocolate.
This one, writing: choc-o-late. It looks like three but speaking, only two: choclate.
Do you like chocolate? I like chocolate.
So I hope that’s useful for you, that’s four examples of words with silent syllables.
Shall we say them again? First one: interesting. Very interesting! This one, also, sometimes in-ter-es-ting. Both okay.
Next one: restaurant. Restaurant. Let’s go to the restaurant. Okay? I like eating in restaurants, do you?
And another one: comfortable. This shirt is very comfortable. A silk shirt made in Vietnam, hmm. Comfortable, and cheap as well.
And the last one: chocolate. Do you like chocolate? I like chocolate.
Okay, I hope that’s helpful for you. It’s a little pronunciation lesson. Come by my website! EnglishTeacherFred.com
I can help you with pronunciation, grammar, conversation… anything you need to work on, okay?
Hope to see you soon! Okay, thanks. Bye-bye, have a nice day.
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