more than one syllable to students who cope with
unfamiliar consonant clusters by inserting extra vowels
between them.- Similarly, learners whose languages don’t have word-!nal
consonants may add an extra vowel after a consonant at
the end of a word and feel that this is an extra syllable. - Learners may be unsure about when the -s and -ed^
endings add an extra syllable and when they don’t. (See
Chapter 6, “Pronunciation of Some Word Endings.”) - Learners may be fooled by the spelling of words with
“disappearing syllables” that are not usually pronounced.
(See the next paragraph.)
Disappearing syllables
Some words in English are normally pronounced with what
might be called “disappearing syllables”—we see letters in
the spelling of the word, and if we pronounce the words very
slowly and carefully, we might hear a syllable, but in normal
pronunciation a syllable is not pronounced. For example,
chocolate looks like it should have three syllables:
choc•o•late, but in normal spoken English, it has only two
syllables: /ˈʧɑk•lət/. Some other words with similar
“disappearing syllables” are listed in Box 8.2. These
pronunciations should not be thought of as sloppy or careless;
they are normal and acceptable in all types of English.
1018.2 SOME WORDS WITH “DISAPPEARING SYLLABLES”
The syllables written in smaller letters
are not normally pronounced.8.2 SOME WORDS WITH “DISAPPEARING SYLLABLES”
The syllables written in smaller letters
are not normally pronounced.
aspirin naturally
average restaurant
business separate (adjective only)
camera temperature
chocolate vegetable
comfortable
deliberate (adjective only) -ary (These are just a few examples)
desperate elementary
different documentary
environment complimentary
evening
every -ally (These are just a few examples)
family basically
favorable, favorite practically
general accidentally
interest, interesting awfully
laboratory