Today we are going to learn the correct pronunciation of common words that English learners, and even some native speakers, often pronounce incorrectly.

Transcript of above video:

The first thing to understand with English pronunciation, is that the words are often not pronounced how they are spelt. This is very different to languages such as Italian and Spanish for example, which have a much more phonetic writing system, and therefore a much higher correlation between how a word is spelt, and how it is pronounced.
So with that in mind, let’s jump in.

O.k., the first word – JEWELLERY.
The correct British pronunciation is jool – reey
So we don’t pronounce every letter, we don’t say jew-el-er-eey
It’s jool-ree.
I don’t wear a lot of jewellery.
Many people find it difficult, because of the W.
But in British English it is basically not pronounced.

Number 2 – RECIPE
Many learners say ress-ip
The correct pronunciation is recipe – ress-ip-eey
Baking a cake isn’t difficult, as long as you follow the recipe.

ETC.
This is a good one, many native speakers say this incorrectly, they say ex-cetera
or ex-cetra
This etc. is an abbreviation, and the word is actually spelt exactly as you say it.
et cetera
et cetera.
On my holiday in Africa, I saw lots of tigers, lions, elephants et cetera

Alright, a bit of an ironic one here.
Number 4 is PRONUNCIATION.
It is incorrect to say PRONOUNCIATION
This one is actually pronounced as it is spelt.
So we say – PRONUNCIATION.
I hope that you are finding this pronunciation video helpful.
The confusion arises because of the verb, which is PRONOUNCE.
This has the OUR sound. – PRONOUNCE.
But the noun PRONUNCIATION has the U sound.
You must practice your PRONUNCIATION if you want to PRONOUNCE English words correctly ☺

Next up, number 5, probably the most famous mispronounced words in English.
I’ve mentioned these before in some of my other videos, because they are super common.
COMFORTABLE AND VEGETABLE.
We don’t say COM-FOR-TA-BLE.
We say COMF-TA-BULL.
If we get rid of the O.R, we will pronounce this word perfectly.
Comfortable.
My bed is very comfortable.
In the same vein, we don’t say VEG-E-TA-BLE
We get rid of the second syllable AIR, and we just say VEGTABLE.
I use my nutri-bullet every day to blend a lot of fruit and vegetables.

And that’s a nice little lead in to another commonly mispronounced word – FRUIT.
We don’t say FRU-IT, and yes, I’m speaking to my Italian and Spanish students out there ☺, It’s not FRU-IT, it’s FRUIT. (froot)
Same with SUIT – When I went for my job interview, I wore my best suit.
It’s not SU-IT – It’s pronounced suit. (soot)
If you don’t know what a suit is, it’s just the very formal clothes that a man wears, often at a wedding, or a funeral, or people who work in banks and hotels often wear a suit.

OK, number 7 – very common. Most of you know the correct way to pronounce this word, but many still say it incorrectly.
ASKED – NOT ASK-ED.
You must pronounce it with the T sound, ASKT –
There is a rule for when to use this T sound, instead of the D, or ED sound.
The rule is: If the verb ends in either K, P, or S sounds, or ks, sh, or ch sounds – then the ED is pronounced T.
For example – walked, NOT walk-ed, walked, I walked to the shop.
Helped – not HELP-ED, but helped. He helped me with my homework.
and danced – not DANCE-ED – danced. They danced beautifully to the song. Danced.
Another one ending with the S sound. He missed the bus. Not MISS-ED…MISSED. With the T sound. He MISSED the bus.
Then with the KS sound. Fixed. My car broke down, but I fixed the problem. So not FIX-ED. FIXED.
Then an example of the SH sound being followed not by the ED, but the T sound.
I have nearly finished this lesson. So not FINISH-ED, but T, I have nearly finished.
And finally after CH, we also use the T sound, as opposed to the vibrating D sound.
I watched a great movie last night. So not WATCH-ED. We say watched. With the T sound.

Alright, so 3 more to go to complete our list of 10. I’ve thrown in quite a few bonus words so there’s a few more than 10, but that’s OK!
A couple of days of the week that people often mispronounce –
Tuesday – Not Tu-es-day – it’s Tuesday.
In British English, it’s very close to a combination of these two words – CHOOSE and DAY, so if you can say both of these correctly, you can say Tuesday.
In American English, they have a much stronger emphasis on the T, and they say Toosday.
But in British English – Tuesday.

OK, number 9, the day after Tuesday is Wednesday.
Get rid of the D, and you will pronounce this perfectly.
Wens-day. NOT WED-NES-DAY. It’s wens-day.

And finally – we have the word VOCABULARY. Again, ironically, this word is often mispronounced, even by native speakers. Many people who pronounce all the rest of their words with the British pronunciation, pronounce this with American pronunciation, which is VOC-AB-U-LARY. But the British pronunciation is Vocabulary. VOCAB-U-LARY.
Russel Brand has a very wide vocabulary. VOCABULARY.
So just a note on that, with the British and American pronunciations, you should choose either American or British, and pronounce all of your words with that pronunciation. If you pronounce some words American, and some words British, you’re going to sound quite funny actually, so avoid doing that if you want to speak like a native English speaker.