A phenomenon we often encounter when pronouncing English is pronouncing too many unnecessary sounds.
The reason is often because you saw how it was written first and read it without hearing the foreigner pronounce it correctly. If you are worried about this issue, read the article below and see if we are making a mistake!
- comfortable [‘kʌmfətəbl]
With this word, most Vietnamese people will read it as "com - fo - ter - ble" and especially emphasize the "fo" sound. However, the second sound is pronounced very softly and is almost not pronounced. Because this word has stress on the 1st syllable, most native speakers will only skim read it. In American English, they are often just read as "comf-ta-ble".
- vegetable [‘vedʒtəbl]
This word is also one of the most commonly incorrect phrases among Vietnamese people. For some reason, we always read "ve-get-ta-ble" with exactly 4 syllables as it is written. However this word should be read as /‘vedʒtəbl/ as transliterated, means there are only 3 main syllables. The "get" part in the spelling is not pronounced "g" as we mistakenly think.
- interesting [‘intristiη]
Look at the transcription, what do you see? This word is not read as ”in-ter-res-ting” but as [‘intristiη]. The phrase "teres" in the word cannot be separated into 2 sounds but only 1 sound! This word has 3 syllables, not 4 like we often mispronounce!
Immediately remove unnecessary sounds when pronouncing English
- restaurant [‘restrɔnt]
Similar to "interesting", this word actually only includes 2 syllables, not 3 as it is written. If you look at the spelling and see that there are 3 separate sounds ”res-tau-rant”, it will be easy to mispronounce it. And the correct pronunciation of the word must be as transcribed above.
- business [‘biznis]
Do you pronounce this word “bi-zi-nis”? Or worse, some people still pronounce it as "bu-zi-nis" or "bju-zi-nis"... Either way, it's still pronouncing unnecessary sounds. This word has only two syllables: [‘biznis]. The "si" part is only pronounced as "z" so read it very quickly!
If you have read the above section and find yourself pronouncing it wrong, then you definitely need some advice! The reason we are wrong is because you look at the spelling of the word first. Because you listen to people who "pronounce it wrong" like you do. Because everyone pronounces it like that. Or simply you think so, and you're used to it? Many reasons for creativity lead to mistakes.
In my opinion, the most accurate reason for all this is the brain's perspective and incorrect separation of syllables. Because you are Vietnamese and you will be used to separating rhymes. For example, with the word "restaurant", your brain when encountering this word will automatically think that it is 3 rhymes next to each other. Is that what you think? You are often familiar with such "rhyming" phrases, including 1 consonant first, 1 vowel and then 1 final consonant. But in English they don't rhyme like that!
Immediately remove unnecessary sounds when pronouncing English
English doesn't rhyme! That is the most important thing. So they have the sounds "vetge", "redge" for example and still read it as 1 syllable. If we continue to follow the habit of rhyming and apply it here, we will definitely be wrong!
So my advice to you is to get rid of that Vietnamese way of thinking about rhyming! Simply think that we are learning a completely new language. Their linguistic tendencies are different from ours. And always remember to listen first, speak later, don't look at the characters before reading! Good luck!