English is so musical in terms of the pronunciation of words. Each word is so pleasing to listen to. Try to feel how each word has a pleasing sound. It is so ear-candy and melodic. Try to observe and notice it. It will soothe your mind and heart. Develop an urge of learning and enjoying it if you are seriously drawn towards speaking English the way it is done originally.
What you need to do is to pay minute attention to the fact how each of English words is sounded. I am sure you will fall in love with it once you understand the syllabic pattern. You will enjoy speaking English once you know the art of how a word is syllabically pronounced. English words are broken down into pieces, and these appear to be musical pieces. Technically and linguistically speaking, splitting words into units is the formation of syllables.
The Collins dictionary says,
“A syllable is a part of a word that contains a single vowel sound, and that is pronounced as a unit. So, for example, ‘book’ has one syllable, and ‘reading’ has two syllables.”
Music tends to recharge the batteries of our body. So is the case with English pronunciation which elates your mood and generates your interest in the language. Further, your neutral pronunciation places you on international footing and setting. Being sweet-sounding is always advantageous and very rewarding.
Most importantly, the words of more than one vowel sound are not pronounced at one go. They are rather split into segments, and each portion is voiced. However, you need to learn when and where a letter like ‘R’ in a word is muted and where it is sounded. The pronunciation of ‘R’ has special rules which are well-explained at British Lingua classrooms. For example, the letter ‘R’ is sounded only when it is followed by a functional vowel letter as in reading, raining, writing, etc.
Let’s take an example of a small word ‘cup’ which is spoken at one go whereas a bit longer word examination which is divided into five syllables i.e. eg/ja/mi/nei/shun. Hence, it is a pentasyllabic word. However, words like up, cup, tub, pub, tuck, muck, and so on are monosyllabic words. It means they consist of only one syllable.
It must be clear by now that while pronouncing English words, we split them into parts or units with each one having the sound of at least one vowel with or without surrounding consonants.
As opposed to this practice of this fact, in India, most of the people tend to speak the words like ‘beautiful’ at one go, whereas, in reality, it is a trisyllabic word. Hence, it must be pronounced in three units – beau/ti/ful.
Try to listen to the pronunciation of any word on a talking dictionary which is easily available on the internet for free. To avail yourself of pronunciation check, you need to be online and press or touch the icon of sound marked. You’ll be thrilled to find how musical sound coming out of words. Practising them at the same time for assimilation will be the icing on the cake.
We all are blessed to have a smartphone set with a net facility these days. These mobile sets can serve us better for correcting our pronunciation. Regular practice of those will enable you to pronounce the words more like a native speaker.
Indeed, we may not depend much on syllables for writing English words, but a good oral English communication skill demands a thorough grasp over the syllables. So let’s enjoy the beauty of the Queen’s language by learning the concept of the pronunciation of words based on divisions like monosyllabic, disyllabic, trisyllabic, tetrasyllabic, pentasyllabic, hexasyllabic, and so on.
Let your English speech be euphonious (sweet-sounding), not cacophonous.