Pronouncing words correctly helps convince listeners that you know what you\u2019re talking about.<\/p>\n
By correct pronunciation, we mean words as you\u2019d hear them enunciated at formal occasions: a lecture by an English scholar, say, or a first-rate production of a play by George Bernard Shaw or Eugene O\u2019Neill.<\/p>\n
To settle pronunciation disputes, we recommend an old dictionary. New ones are fine, but having access to an old one minimizes the intrusion of trendy (mis)pronunciations.<\/p>\n
Also, those serious about their diction might want to pick up a copy of\u00a0The Big Book of Beastly Mispronunciations<\/em>\u00a0by Charles Harrington Elster, who says in the book\u2019s introduction: \u201cI am not opposed to change. Such a position would be untenable. I am skeptical of ignorant, pompous, and faddish change. I am annoyed when people invent pronunciations for unfamiliar words. I am exasperated when they can\u2019t be bothered to check the pronunciation of a word they look up in a dictionary.\u201d<\/p>\n Here are ten familiar words whose traditional pronunciations may surprise you. Note: capital letters denote a stressed syllable.<\/p>\n Alleged \u00a0<\/strong>It must come as a shock to those in the media, but\u00a0alleged<\/em>\u00a0is a two-syllable word. It is pronounced uh-LEJD, not uh-LEDGE-id.<\/p>\n Envelope \u00a0<\/strong>Though you\u2019d never know it from what you hear over the airwaves, the preferred pronunciation of this word is ENN-va-lope, rather than the pseudo-French AHN-va-lope.<\/p>\n Controversial \u00a0<\/strong>Four syllables, not five. Say Camaraderie \u00a0<\/strong>It\u2019s a five-syllable word, but you usually hear only four. That letter\u00a0a<\/em>\u00a0before the\u00a0r<\/em>\u00a0should be a clue to say comma-ROD-ery, not com-RAD-ery.<\/p>\n Forte \u00a0<\/strong>When the word refers to a specialty or area of expertise (math is his forte<\/em>), this is a one-syllable word pronounced fort. Most people mistakenly say for-tay. That pronunciation is only correct as a musical term. When\u00a0forte<\/em>\u00a0is pronounced FOR-tay it means \u201cloudly.\u201d<\/p>\n Short-lived \u00a0<\/strong>This is not the\u00a0lived<\/em>\u00a0of\u00a0She lived well<\/em>. The\u00a0i\u00a0<\/em>is long;\u00a0short-lived\u00a0<\/em>rhymes with\u00a0thrived<\/em>.<\/p>\n Schism \u00a0<\/strong>It\u2019s pronounced sizzum. The 1968 Random House\u00a0American College Dictionary<\/em>\u00a0lists no alternative pronunciation. You rarely hear this word, but when you do, it\u2019s generally pronounced skizzum, a pronunciation that, in Elster\u2019s words, \u201carose out of ignorance.\u201d<\/p>\n Integral \u00a0<\/strong>Why do so many people say in-tra-gul, despite the spelling? Make it IN-ta-grul.<\/p>\n Homage \u00a0<\/strong>A reviewer called a film \u201ca homage to motherhood.\u201d The critic wisely did not write \u201can homage,\u201d knowing that the\u00a0h<\/em>\u00a0is sounded. This word has spun out of control in the twenty-first century. Its traditional pronunciation is HOMM-ij. But then AHM-ij gained a foothold, and it went downhill from there. Now, just about all one hears is oh-MAHZH, an oh-so-precious pronunciation that was virtually nonexistent in English until late in the twentieth century.<\/p>\n Pronunciation \u00a0<\/strong>As the spelling indicates, it\u2019s pronounced pra-nun-see-AY-shun. Too many careless speakers say pra-nown-see-AY-shun.<\/p>\n Most words have been around longer than any of us have. Pronouncing them properly is showing respect for our elders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Pronouncing words correctly helps convince listeners that you know what you\u2019re talking about. By correct pronunciation, we mean words as you\u2019d hear them enunciated at formal occasions: a lecture by an English scholar, say, or a first-rate production of a play by George Bernard Shaw or Eugene O\u2019Neill. To settle pronunciation disputes, we recommend an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,12,49,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-definitions","category-effective-writing","category-pronunciation","category-spelling"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1845"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1845\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\ncontra-VER-shul, not contra-VER-see-ul.<\/p>\n