Speak English Naturally: Silent Syllables

Do you know what a 'silent syllable' is? It's actually one of the topics you have to master in order to sound more like a native English speaker. In this video, you'll learn what syllables are, which words have silent ones, and how to correctly pronounce some common words with silent syllables. You'll also learn to count syllables, so you know how many syllables are in a word. Practice these words by taking our quiz at the end of the video, and start speaking English more naturally today.

TRANSCRIPT

Hello. My name is Emma, and in today's video, I am going to teach you about some pronunciation mistakes that you're probably making. So, if you look beside me, I have a bunch of words. These are some of the most commonly mispronounced words in English by English... By students who are learning English. So today, I'm going to teach you how we actually pronounce these words.

So, the title of this video is "Silent Syllables". All of these words have a silent syllable in them. Now, you may be wondering: "What is a syllable?" Well, a syllable is usually a vowel sound, sometimes it can also be a consonant-vowel sound. So, if that's a little bit confusing, let's look at some examples.

Here is the word "cat". It has one syllable. If I clap my hand, "cat". Okay? Now, compare this to the word "student", which has two syllables. Compare this to the word "beautiful", which has three, and we have here the word "incredible" which has four. Okay? So each of these has a different number of syllables. You'll also notice that the length of the word is different. "Incredible" is longer than "beautiful", "beautiful" is longer than "student", and "student" is longer than "cat". Okay?

So, a silent syllable is a syllable that people believe we're supposed to pronounce, but we don't actually pronounce it. Let's start with this one, because this is the most common mistake I hear in my classrooms. Many students pronounce this word as "com-for-ta-ble", they believe it has four syllables. This is not true. I want you to listen carefully to how I pronounce this word: "comfterble", "comfortable". How many syllables did you hear? "Comfortable". If you said three syllables, you are correct. So we do not pronounce "com-for-ta-ble", mm-mm, we say: "comfterble". Okay? So if I wrote this how it's almost pronounced, it almost looks like: "comfterble". Okay?

The next word that I hear a lot of students making a mistake with... This is one of my favourite types of food, I hear a lot of students say: "choc-o-late", where they pronounce this "o". In English, we don't pronounce that. We usually say... So we don't say "choc-o-late", which is three syllables; we actually say: "choclate", "chocolate", "chocolate". How many syllables does that have? If you said two, you are correct. It's almost like this "o" doesn't exist. So I want you to repeat after me: "chocolate", "comfortable". Okay, good.

Now, the next sound, or... The next word many students mispronounce is this one. First off, they often miss... Mispronounce the "v" sound, which is "veg", "vegetable". Many students say: "veg-e-ta-ble". Okay? So many students think it has four... Four syllables, but in fact, it doesn't. Tell me: How many sounds does this have: "vegetable", "vegetable"? It has three. Okay?

So I'm actually going to start writing this. "Comfortable" has two, "chocolate" has two. "Comfortable"... Sorry, "comfortable" has three. Okay? "Vegetable" has three.

The next word is another word a lot of students make a mistake with, similar to "chocolate", we have here an "o". We don't pronounce this "o". Okay? So many students say "brocc-o-li", but we don't say "broccoli", we say: "broccli". Okay? So, in this case, it only has two syllables: "brocc-li". Okay? And we will go over these one more time at the end of the video.

Okay, very common word here, how many syllables do you think it has? If you said: "in-trest-ing", you are correct, it has three syllables. Many students say: "in-ter-est-ing". "That is very interesting." We don't say it like that. We say: "in-trest-ing". Okay? "In-trest-ing", so this one has three syllables also.

Okay, another very common word... Okay, I've used the Canadian/British spelling. If you're an American or an... A speaker of American English, there will be no "u" here. How many syllables do you think this word has? Okay? Let's say it together: "Favourite", "favourite". How many did you hear? If you said: "fav-rite", and you heard two syllables, you are correct. We do not say: "fav-our-ite", mm-mm, we say: "fav-rite". Okay?

Okay, here's another one a lot of students make mistakes with, many students will say: "temp-er-a-ture", but we don't say it this way. I want you to listen carefully, and choose: How many syllables are there in this word? "Tem-pra-ture", "temperature". "Tem-pra-ture". Okay, so there are three syllables in this one.

[nastasiaponomarva]

Hi, I'm from Russia and I can tell you that we pronounce this words with mistakes because in this case it is easier to remember their spelling. We're trying to learn the correct spelling by repeating each syllable and then we make this mistake in pronunciation.
Thanks for your lessons, it's always great!

[teacher.javier.ovalles]

This lesson and "Silent Letters: When NOT to pronounce B, D, and L in English" make my day. Thanks Emma!

[aimeepark]

OMG
I have learned English for many years, but for the first time, I know how to pronounce 'comfortable' correctly. Thanks!

[irenemax]

Easy on, Emma! Dropping syllables is ok in casual conversation, but there is nothing wrong with fully pronouncing them. I enjoy listening to non native English speakers when they speak correctly.

[danyoda]

Thank you, English is not my first language and I have been butchering all these words for over 10 years now. Thank you for coming to the rescue. Your videos are helping me to speak better.

[sanjanasingh]

I saw many videos but I like you most because URS tone is very clear & slow 😊thank you

[josedelacruz]

I took English lessons 36 years ago and I really must to REFRESH from A to Z. So thanks once again for your time and for being so sweet to us!!!👸🏻🌻👍⚘💎❤🙏🏼🍾🥂🍷🌷😎✌👌💋

[quynhdangnguyennhu]

Thank you so much for this video. I want to improve my English speaking, so I watch this .
thanks again( from Vietnam)

[iiaqatali]

Thanks Emma I am a kid I will be in year 4 now and I already learned about syllables but I did not learned about silent syllables. I just wanted to say thank you to you. I have just watched this channel today. A very big thanks. What a magic! I like all the videos in YouTube but this is my first favourite fantastic video that I watch. Keep up the good work.welldone Emma. Before I finish this comment there's a thing I would like you to know. I am a girl and I love to write and type. So that's why this comment is that much long. At the end of the comment I want to say that keep up your fantastic work

[divyanshkhandelwal]

You're my favorite English teacher

[igorfranca]

Hello teacherI am Brazilian, and I am starting my studies to learn you English. and rather see native teachers of videos as well have a better learningI am really enjoying their required classes.

[Gerald]

There are 3 syllables in broccoli. The o isn't silent, it' is a schwa (ə) sound and is pronounced. In both British and American English. Source: Oxford dictionary, Google and every dictionary in the world. ps: still the best Youtube channel!

[bassammosa]

The engvid is a greatest site to learn and improve our English study, specially with the teacher Emma. I'm very proud to be one of your members.

[maajovaldez]

Very interesting! I'm study english in Argentina (i live here) and i'm going to practice this! Thank u😄😄

[afolabiolayemi]

It's so lovely to finally put a face to the name "Emma" - i'm a trainee on radio in Nigeria and i check your page all the time for authority on pronunciations.

[vicentemorales]

Also The word "Different" is pronounced as Di - Frent

[jeffeloso]

As a native UK English (North London) speaker of 70 years plus, I do not agree that Broccoli has only 2 syllables. The 'o' is almost but not quite silent, and for us is pronounced as a very short "er" sound. Well done for the rest of the examples. Oddly we pronounce Chocolate with 2 or 3 syllables depending on how we feel!

[stunninglad]

It is only in pronunciation when we can say a word has less syllables. If we were playing charades, we'd say the words have the amount of syllables the written word suggests. I would prefer to say that we drop emphasize on certain syllables rather than the word has fewer syllables than it actually does. It is NOT incorrect to read these words out as they are written as we are not referring to silent letters here.

[e.cinema]

God bless you Emma  ! You guys help us a lot . "comfortable" was the most difficult  word  to be pronounced . You saved my life.

[alisoliman]

You amazing me and super star you really make the English very easy and I love it with you?.
.I look forward to see you