syllable dropping: eliminación de sílabas;
QUESTION: I’m Herbert from Germany. Throughout my whole life speaking English, I did not realize that some vowels in words are “swallowed”, like in the words “vegetable,” “family” and “difference”. Could you give a lecture on this topic? Thanks a lot, Herbert.
throughout my whole life: a lo largo de mi vida; I did not realize: no me di cuenta, no comprendí; are "swallowed": son "tragadas o "comidas"; like the words: como las palabras; give a lecture: dar una explicación detallada; topic: tema;
ANSWER: Hi Herbert, This is an interesting question! We do not “swallow” the vowels. That would be a little strange, but it creates a great image! So, why does it happen in English?
we do not "swallow" the vowels: no nos "comemos" o "tragamos" las vocales;
SYLLABLES AND VOWELS
First, let’s talk about "syllables and
vowels". A syllable is part of a word that contains one vowel sound. For example,
“cat” is a one-syllable word that contains one vowel sound. And “swallow”, with
two vowel sounds, has two syllables -swa(l)
and -lo.
that contains a
vowel sound: que contiene un sonido vocálico;
WORD STRESS AND UNSTRESSED VOWELS
Every word in English has one stressed
syllable. This is called word stress. The stressed syllable is longer, louder
and clearer than the other syllables. The unstressed syllables then become
shorter, softer, and less clear.
one stressed
syllable: una única sílaba acentuada; word stress: sonid enfático o
resaltado; longer, louder and clearer than: más largo, más fuerte y más
claro que; the unstressed syllables: las sílabas sin acentuar; then
become shorter: por lo tanto se transforman en; shorter, softer and less
clear: más cortas, más suaves y menos claras;
Now, let’s look at the word “family” with its three vowels of
a, i and
y. The stress is on the first syllable
-fam. Over time the
vowel i relaxes so much
that we dropped the whole syllable and turned it into
-fam-ly.
over time:
con el transcurso del tiempo; relaxes so much that: se suaviza tanto que;
we dropped the whole syllable: hemos dejado de pronunciar la sílaba completa;
We say some of these words so often that we skip over the less important,
unstressed vowels. As you said, “vegetable” becomes
vej-tə-bəl and “difference”
becomes di-f(ə-)rən(t)s.
Let’s look at a few more examples of words that lose unstressed vowels.
we say these words
so often: (los norteamericanos) repetimos estas palabras con tanta
frecuencia; that we skip over: que salteamos; the unstressed vowels:
las vocales no acentuadas;
“Business” is pronounced with two syllables,
biz-nəs, instead of
three. The
i vowel sound is dropped.
“Evening” is pronounced with two
syllables instead of three - ev-ning
not e-ven-ing. And
lastly, we have “Wednesday,” the third day of the work week as
wenz-day not
wed-nes-day.
and lastly:
y por último; the third day of the work week: el tercer día de la semana
laboral;
SPEAKING LIKE A NATIVE
You can speak fast like a native
speaker of American English by dropping syllables. But
remember to center more on the stressed vowel, rather than the dropping of the
unstressed one. In this exercise, I will pronounce all the syllables first, then
drop the unstressed vowel.
by dropping
syllables: no pronunciando algunas sílabas; remember to center more on
the stressed vowel: recuerda concentrarte más en la vocal acentuada;
rather than: que en.
Family (3 vowels) /
Family (2 vowels)
Difference (3 vowels) /
Difference (2 vowels)
Vegetable (4 vowels) /
Vegetable (3 vowels)
And that’s Ask a Teacher. I’m Faith Pirlo.