Words commonly mispronounced

A.

The letters below in bold are silent in the examples:

p    psychic/ˈsaɪkɪk/   psychiatry/saɪˈkaɪətri/   pneumatic/nuːˈmæţɪk/   receipt/rɪˈsiːt/   pseudonym/ˈsuːdənɪm/   psychology/saɪˈkɒlədʒi/

b   comb/koʊm/   dumb/dʌm/   numb/nʌm/   tomb/tuːm/   climb/klaɪm/   womb/wuːm/   lamb/læm/

b   doubt/daʊt/    subtle/ˈsʌţəļ/   debtor/ˈdeţɚ/

l   could/kʊd/   should/ʃʊd/   calm/kɑːm/   half/hæf/   talk/tɑːk/   palm/pɑːm/   walk/wɑːk/   salmon/ˈsæmən/   chalk/tʃɑːk/

h  honor/ˈɑːnɚ/   honorable/ˈɑːnɚbļ/   honest/ˈɑːnɪst/   hour/aʊr/   hourly/ˈaʊrli/   heir/er/   heiress/ˈeres/

t  whistle/ˈwɪsļ/   castle/ˈkæsļ/   listen/ˈlɪs^ən/   fasten/ˈfæs^ən/   soften/ˈsɒf^ən/   Christmas/ˈkrɪsməs/

k  knee/niː/   knife/naɪf/   know/noʊ/   knob/nɒb/   knowledge/ˈnɒl.ɪdʒ/   knot/nɒt/   knit/nɪt/

r    card/kɑːd/   park/pɑːk/   farm/fɑːm/   burn/bɜːn/   work/wɜːk/   storm/stɔːm/   tart/tɑːt/

r  (unless followed by a vowel) mother/ˈmʌðə/   sister/ˈsɪstə/   teacher/ˈtiːtʃə/   water/ˈwɔːtə/

Note:

/r/ is not silent in some varieties of English, for example American, Irish, Scottish.

B.

Some two-syllable words in English have the same form for the noun and the verb. The stress is on the first syllable of the word when it is a noun and the second when it is a verb, e.g. Wool is a major Scottish export. Scotland exports a lot of wool. Here are some other words like this.

C.

Here are a number of other words which are often mispronounced.

Suffixes

A. Common noun suffixes

-er /ɚ/ is used for the person who does an activity, e.g. writer, painter, worker, shopper, teacher.

You can use -er with a wide range of verbs to make them into nouns.

Sometimes the -er suffix is written as -or (it is still pronounced /ɚ/).   It is worth making a special list of these as you meet the, e.g. actor, operator, sailor, supervisor.

-er/-or are also used for things which do a particular job, e.g. pencil-sharpener, bottle-opener, grater, projector.

-er and -ee /iː/ can contrast(=differ completely from) with each other meaning ‘person who does sth’ (-er) and ‘person who receives or experiences the action’ (-ee)

employer/employee, sender/addressee, payee (e.g. of a check)

-(t)ion/-sion/-ion are use to form nouns from verbs, e.g.

complication   pollution   reduction   alteration   donation   promotion   admission

-ist [a person] and -ism [an activity or ideology]: used for people’s politics, beliefs and ideologies, and sometimes their profession (compare with -er/-or professions above). e.g.

Buddhism, journalism, Marxist, typist, physicist, terrorist.

-ist is also often use for people who play musical instruments, e.g. pianist, violinist, cellist

-ness is used to make nouns from adjectives: goodness, readiness, forgetfulness, happiness, sadness, weakness. Note what happens to adjectives that end in -y.

B. Adjective suffixes

-able/-ible /əbl/ with verbs, means ‘can be done’:

drinkable   washable   readable   forgivable   edible [can be eaten]   flexible [can be bent]

Note that edible(=suitable or safe for eating) differs from eatable(=in a good enough condition to be eaten).

C. Verb suffixes

-ize (or -ise) forms verbs from adjectives, e.g. modernize [make modern], commercialize, industrialize.

D. Other suffixes that can help you recognize the word-class

-ment: (nouns)  excitement   enjoyment   replacement

-ity: (nouns)  flexibility   productivity   scarcity

-hood: (abstract nouns especially family terms)  childhood   motherhood

-ship: (abstract nouns especially status)  friendship   partnership   membership

-ive: (adjectives)  passive productive active

-al: (adjectives)  brutal   legal     (nouns)  refusal   arrival

-ous: (adjectives)  delicious   outrageous   furious

-ful: (adjectives)  forgetful   hopeful   useful

-less: (adjectives)  useless   harmless   homeless

-ify: (verbs)  beautify   purify   terrify

Note:

The informal suffix –ish can be added to most common adjectives, ages, and times to make them less precise(=exact), e.g.

She’s thirtyish(=about thirty).

He has reddish(=slightly red) hair.

Come about eightish.

She was youngish(=not very young, but not old either)

Countries, nationalities and languages

A. Using ‘The’

Most names of countries are without ‘the’, but some countries and other names have ‘the’ before them, e.g. The United States / US(A), The United Kingdom / UK, The Netherlands, The Philippines, The Commonwealth.

Some countries may be referred to with or without ‘the’, (the) Lebanon, (the) Gambia, (the) Ukraine, (the) Sudan. The forms without ‘the’ are more common.

B. Adjectives referring to countries

With -ish: British  Danish  Flemish  Irish  Polish  Spanish  Turkish

With -(i)an: American  Australian  Brazilian  Canadian  Korean  Russian

With -ese: Chinese  Japanese  Maltese  Portuguese  Taiwanese  Vietnamese

With -ic: Arabic  Icelandic  Slavonic

Some adjectives are worth learning separately, e.g. Cypriot, Dutch, Greek, Swiss, Thai.

C. Nationalities

Some nationalities and cultural identities have nouns for referring to people, e.g. a Finn, a Turk, a Spaniard, a Dane, a Briton, an Arab. In most cases we can use the adjective as a noun, e.g. a German, an Italian, a Belgian, a Catalan, a Greek, an African, a European. Some need woman/man/person added to them (you can’t say ‘a Dutch’), so if in doubt, use them, e.g. a Dutch man, a French woman, an Irish person, an Icelandic man.

D. World regions

E. People and races

People belong to ethnic groups and regional groups such as Afro-Caribbeans, Asians and Latin Americans. What are you? (e.g. North African, Southern African, European, Melanesian)

They speak dialects as well as languages. Everyone has a native language or first language; many have second and third languages. Some people are expert in more than one language and are bilingual or multilingual.