www.yasi-kouyu.com.cn  

Updated Aug. 5, 2008

COMMON PRONUNCIATION ERRORS

•   'ed' after t and d

When a verb that ends with a 't' or 'd' sound has 'ed' added to it, the last syllable is pronounced as a distinct ‘id' sound. Most English speakers from England pronounce it as in ‘did’ but other native English speakers (e.g., U.S., Australia, Canada, NZ) tend to pronounce it as somewhere between ‘did’ and ‘dead’. Nevertheless, it is still clearly heard.  

Some examples:

“I graduated last year.”    9

“I've always wanted to own a motor cycle.”    9

“She hopes to be admitted to Harvard University.”    9

“He sounded out the word.”    9

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

• ‘es’ after ‘s’, ‘tʃ’, ‘dʒ’, ‘z’, ‘ʃ’ and ‘ʒ’

After these sounds, ‘es’ is pronounced as a distinct ‘Iz’ sound. The same pronunciation variation as with ‘ed’ (see above) also applies here.

Some examples:

“He has three businesses.”    9

“She exercises every morning.”   9

“She washes her clothes every weekend.”   9

“He fixes bicycles for a living.”   9

“She usually watches TV before going to bed.”   9

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

• When ‘o’ is pronounced as ‘ʌ’

There are several words in English that are spelled with an ‘o’ but pronounced as ‘ʌ’ as in ‘cup’. 

Here is a list of some of these.  9

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

• ‘Clothes’ 

    Make sure that you can pronounce 'clothes' correctly. Do not pronounce it as “clo-this”. There are two correct pronunciations. The pronunciation that most English speakers use is “kləʊðz”. This is hard for many Chinese to pronounce and is even hard for some English speakers and that is why there is a second acceptable pronunciation. The second pronunciation is “kləʊz”, just as in the first but you leave out the ‘ð’ sound. It sounds the same as ‘close’ in “Please close the door.” 9

    Similarly, if you can't say ‘months’ as “mʌnθs”, just change the ‘θ’ sound to ‘t’. Strictly speaking, that pronunciation is not correct but it sounds much better than saying “mʌn- θəs”. 9

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

• ‘Modern’

    ‘Modern’ is not pronounced as ‘morden’.  9

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

• ‘Woman’ and ‘women’

    Many people mispronounce ‘women’ – they confuse it with ‘woman’. Here are the two pronunciations:

    woman =  'wʊmən   “One woman”   9

     women =  'wImIn   “Two women”    9

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

• ‘Graduated’

    ‘Graduated’ is pronounced with the word stress (重音) on the first syllable: 

      'ɡræ/dʒʊ/еI/ tId   (not   ɡræ/dʒʊ/'еI/tId) .  9

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

• ‘Industry’

    ‘Industry’ is pronounced with the word stress on the first syllable: 'In/də/strI. Notice that the second syllable is pronounced as ‘də’, not ‘dʌ’. However, the adjective, ‘industrial’ is pronounced as In/'dʌ/strI/əl .  9

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

• ‘Economy’

    Many people make mistakes, both in writing and speaking, when they try to use any of the words that are related to the word, “economy”. You should spend some time studying these words. 

    The recordings shown by the cassette icon are British English. For the American pronunciation, click on  . Alternatively, you can go to the page 'MW' (for Merriam Webster Dictionary), read the information about the word and then click the icon on that page to hear the American pronunciation. I am including the American pronunciation here for some words where there is a difference between the standard British English and the American because many Australians and people from England do tend to use the American pronunciation for some words. In the case of words related to 'economy', I'm referring to speaking the first sound as 'е' instead of 'I' – both are possible and both are equally suitable, in my opinion. That is, both pronunciations are suitable for the IELTS test. (In fact, speaking 100% American pronunciation is not considered 'wrong' for the IELTS Speaking test.)

     The syllable (音节) that has word stress (重音) is highlighted in yellow.

Word	中文	Examples	Pronunciation	Recording
economy	(国家的) 经济管理; 经济制度	a) China's economy is growing very fast at the moment. b) The economy is strong.	I/'kɒ/nə/mI or е/'kɒ/nə/mI	9 MW
economist	经济学研究者; 经济学家	She works as an economist with the People's Bank of China.	I/'kɒ/nə/mIst   or е/'kɒ/nə/mIst	9 MW
to economize	节省	I really need to economize because I'm spending money faster than I should.	I/'kɒ/nə/maIz or е/'kɒ/nə/maIz	9 MW
economics	经济学	I'm studying economics, which I find quite interesting.	I/kɒ/'nɒ/mIks or е/kɒ/'nɒ/mIks	9 MW
economic	经济的; 经济学的	I'd say it's both a political and an economic problem.	I/kɒ/'nɒ/mIk or е/kɒ/'nɒ/mIk	9 MW
economical	节约的; 节俭的	People who live in the desert need to be very economical with water.	I/kɒ/'nɒ/mI/kəl or е/kɒ/'nɒ /mI/kl	9 MW

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

• ‘Technical’

     Another common mistake is to say, “technique” when you really mean, “technical”. Although these two words come from the same ancient Greek word ('techne' = art, craft, skill), they are now quite different in meaning and in pronunciation.

     A ‘technique’ (tеk /'ni :k  9 ) is a method of doing or performing something, especially in the arts and sciences. (尤指艺术或科学方面的) 技法，手法， 技巧。Example: applying modern techniques to a traditional craft 将现代技术用于传统手工业。 Another example: High jumpers adopted a new technique in the 1960's, which allowed them to jump much higher than they used to when they used the old technique.    

    On the other hand, ‘technology’ and the words derived from it are all related to the idea of 科技 or 技术, as shown in the table below.

Word	中文	Examples	Pronunciation	Listen
technology	科技; 共艺及应用科学 (如工程技术); 工艺学; 工程学	I think one reason why people are living longer nowadays is the fact that medical technology has advanced a lot in the last few decades.	tеk /'nɒ/lə/dʒI	9
technological	技术 (上) 的	a) a major technological breakthrough (主要的技术 性突破) b) technological changes (技术上的改变)	tеk /nə/'lɒ/dʒI/kl	9
technical	技术的，专科的，艺术的，工艺的，技艺的，技巧的	a) He's a musician with great technical skill but he doesn't play with much feeling. b)  I don't really understand the technical language in this report.	'tеk /nI/kl	9
technician	技术人员，技师，工艺师	There's one research student working in this laboratory and he's supported by three lab technicians who help him with the equipment.	tеk /'nI/ʃən        or  tеk /'nI/ʃn	9
hi-tech (= high-tech)	高技术的	He's got many of the latest hi-tech devices such as an ipod and a new type of cellphone that allows him to watch films on the internet.	haI/'tеk	9 MW