How to Pronounce PRONUNCIATION

It seems fitting to begin a blog on pronunciation with a note on the proper pronunciation of the topic.

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‘Pronunciation‘ is ironically one of the most commonly mispronounced words I hear. People seem to confuse ‘pronunciation‘ with its root word ‘pronounce‘. In this case, the spelling of the two words should make the pronunciation clear.

proNOUNce – proNUNciation

Notice that ‘pronunciation‘ is spelled with ‘n-u-n’ in the middle, whereas ‘pronounce‘ is spelled ‘n-o-U-n’. That ‘OU’ creates the ‘ow‘ sound that we hear in ‘pronounce‘.

We should not, however, hear an ‘ow‘ sound in ‘pronunciation‘. The spelling ‘n-u-n’ should be pronounced just as it’s spelled, with with an ‘uh‘ sound, exactly as you would pronounce the word ‘nun‘.

It is quite common for vowel sounds in root words to change when we add a suffix (endings that are added onto root words, in this case we added the suffix ‘tion’). In most cases, you’ll see a change in the spelling of the root word:

extreme – extremity, explain – explanatory, divide – division

But in other cases, the root word’s spelling will remain the same, but the pronunciation of the vowel will change anyway:

nation – national, know – knowledge, sign – signature

We’ll be taking a closer look at some of the reasons for these changes (and many others) in this blog and it’s corresponding pronunciation course. I hope you’ll stay tuned!

In the meantime, please feel free to post your questions about how to pronounce certain words, or post examples of words that you commonly hear mispronounced.