What is the correct way to pronounce 'suit'? Is it soot or sweet?
Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com
It's no secret that English is a funny language.
It is full of words that can be infuriatingly hard to pronounce.
Presenting eight such words that are most often mispronounced:
1. Picture
Incorrectly pronounced by a lot of people as pitcher or pikshur, the right way to say it is pic- ch.
2. Specific
The right way to say this word is Speh-si-fik and not sp-si-fik.
3. Suite
Commonly mispronounced as 'soot', the correct way to say it would be 'sweet'.
4. Queue
This word should be pronounced 'cue'.
5. Clothes
When you say clothes the 'th' sound followed by an 's' is very difficult to produce, especially the voiced TH and zz ending.
The word has only one syllable; 'e' is silent and 's' makes a 'zzz' sound.
6. Almond
A lot of people pronounce this word as Al-muh-nd. The syllable 'L' is silent.
The correct way to pronounce it is Ah-muh-nd.
7. Humour
This word is pronounced as hyoo- muh. R is silent.
8. Height
Most people follow the pattern and say 'heighth', with a th at the end of the word. The correct way to pronounce it is 'hait'.
To pronounce words more accurately in English and to improve fluency, one needs to pay attention to stressing on the right syllable.
If you stress on the wrong syllable, the word is going to sound incorrect even if you pronounce every single vowel and consonant correctly.
Manit Parikh is country head, India, Elsa Corp, an edu-tech headquartered in the US. He can be contacted on ga@rediff-inc.com.
