Pronunciation: not stressing syllables
All levels

Effective English pronunciation is often about deciding which part of a word is important and which part or parts are not important. If a syllable is not important, we often change the standard vowel sound to something more relaxed. You should try to learn how to do this. 

Try saying these words. The syllables that are not important and relaxed are in italics and the syllables that are most stressed are in bold.

prin–ter    com-pu–ter    Ca-na-da    

gar–den    Par–lia-ment    Ox–ford

a–bout    for–ward    ta-blet

car–pet   cho-co-late   in-for-ma-tion  

The two most common vowel sounds in English are the ones we often use when a syllable is not important. In dictionaries these sounds usually have the phonetic symbols /ə/ and /ɪ/ (both are very relaxed sounds in English). Sometimes the vowel sound is so relaxed or reduced that there is almost no sound at all!

Now try saying the words again.

print-ə    cəm-pu-tə    Ca-nə-də

gar-dn    Par-lə-mənt    Ox-fd

ə-bout    for-wd    ta-blɪt

Understanding English pronunciation takes some time but don’t worry you don’t have to speak like the Queen!