Page 250 - English Vocabulary in Use (Pre & Intermediate)

Pronunciation problems

when ‘a’ is /e1/ when ‘uw’ is /a/ when ‘i’ is /at/ when ‘o’ or ‘oo’ is /A/
patient punctual pilot gloves
Asia luggage virus oven
dangerous hungry dial month
pavement discuss hepatitis front
bacon function minus monkey
phrase publish licence government
engaged customs diet worry
sunbathe luck striped flood
lately bankrupt tiny blood

When ow is /au/ e.g. row (= line), throw, blow, show, know, elbow
When ou or ow is /av/ e.g. lounge, drought, row (= argument), towel, allowed, blouse,

shower
When ou is /u:/ e.g. soup, group, through, wound, souvenir, routine
When ou is /a/ e.g. cousin, couple, trouble, tough, rough, enough
When a, au or aw is /9:/ e.g. draw, raw, law, stall, fall, cause, audience, launch, exhausted

When a or au is /a:/ e.g. vase, calm, laugh, draughty, half
When a or u is /1/ e.g. busy, business, minute, lettuce, purchase, surface, orange, damage
When o is /u:/ e.g. move, prove, improve, lose
When or or ur is /3:/ e.g. purple, burn, burglary, worth, work, curtain
When ea is /e/ e.g. dreadful, jealous, health, dead, bread, instead, pleasant, weather, weapon
Silent letters (the underlined letters are silent):
island, knee, knife, know, knock, knowledge, wrong, wrist, muscle, castle, whistle, fasten,
listen, bomb, lamb, thumb, comb, scissors, psychology, honest, hour, cupboard, answer,
guess, handsome, aisle, half, calm, christmas, mortgage
Short syllables (the underlined letters often disappear or are only a /a/):
fattening; miserable; comfortable; fashionable; restaurant; strawberry, eventually, parliament,
actually occasionally, prisoner, medicine, favourite, temperature, literature
Problem pairs:
quite /kwait/ and quiet /‘kwatat/ desert /‘dezat/ and dessert /da'za:t/
soup /su:p/ and soap /saup/
Note: The pronunciation of these letters at the end of words is often like this:
-ous /as/ e.g. famous, dangerous, unconscious, ambitious, cautious, jealous
-age /1d3/ e.g. luggage, baggage, village, damage, cabbage, bandage, message, manage, garage
-able /abl/ e.g. comfortable, reliable, suitable, unbreakable, vegetable, fashionable, miserable
-are /ea/ e.g. care, spare, square, beware, stare, fare, aware, rare(ly), barely
-ile /ail/ e.g. fragile, mobile, file, while
-tory/tary /tari/ e.g. directory, history, secretary, documentary
-ture /t{a/ e.g. picture, signature, departure, capture, temperature, literature, feature
-ate /eit/ at the end of verbs e.g. educate, operate, communicate
-ate /at/ at the end of nouns and adjectives e.g. graduate, approximate, certificate

English Vocabulary in Use (pre-intermediate & intermediate) 247