Did you ever notice somebody always answers “ How do you say this word” in ENGLISH?
Isn’t it ridiculous now that a Brazilian did THE RULE…
THE UNIVERSAL RULE OF THE ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION?
Memorizing all of 400.000 sounds of the English dictionary words would you take centuries
I’d love to see my English teacher’s face when he finds my English pronunciation’s been improved.
original title in portuguese : A REGRA UNIVERSAL DA PRONÚNCIA INGLESA, printed in Brazil – copyright 2008 – Fábio Braga de Alencar. publisher EDITORA CIÊNCIA MODERNA, Rio de Janeiro. www.lcm.com..br. E-MAIL: lcm@lcm.com.br. Buy it now for R$ 26,40 ( US$ 15 ). Use your credit card.
THIS IS A FOOL-PROOF RULE.
LETTERS
A . This vowel may represent an english prefix. LOOK: About, Around, Amass, Aware, Away, Afire. In this case A sounds uh. If you tear A apart, the word appears to be the same. OUT/ROUND/MASS/WARE/WAY/FIRE.
A. as an indefinite article. Sounding ay or uh, depending on the speed of reading it.
Fast sounds uh : He is A burglar / It A cat
A . Is a latin prefix sounding ay. LOOK : Apolitical/Apetalous/Asynchronous/Amoral
I . Vowel i in the end sounds igh. TEST YOURSELF: ANTHROPOPHAGi/ NUCLEi/Pi/RADIi/PAPYRi
U . vowel u sounds oo after J/ L/R/S/ and ew after the other consonants. But if one consonant is ending the word or two consonants come after u, vowel u sounds uh. TEST YOURSELF: PRuDENCE/JuNIOR/JuPITER/SuPER/ILLuSION// RuBBER/PLuMBER/uS
X . this consonant has two sounds. In the beginning it sounds like z of zebra. After the beginning it sounds eks. TEST YOURSELF: Xerox/Xenophobia/ Xystus////relaX/boX/anneX
GROUPS
you maintain the same sound in all words
dIET / varIETy / anxIETy / ebrIETy / notorIETy / ubIETy( ight )
Exceptions are: MOIETY maw-yet-ee and GAIETY gay-at-ee
halitOSIS / cirrhOSIS / mitOSIS / ( owe-sis )
NOTE: MITOSIS sounds my-tow-zis because when vowel O comes after I or Y, 75% of the cases letters I and Y will sound igh. IT IS NOT GREAT? IT WILL BE A CINCH TO MEMORIZE 25% REMAINING, ISN’T IT? EXAMPLES OF THIS RULE: MiCRO/HyPO/HORiZON/PiLOT/MyOPIA/BiOLOGY/…
dAY / arrAY / bAY / strAY / hAY / mAYflower / ( ay )
SOME OF ITS EXCEPTIONS: PAPAYA( pah-pie-ah )/QUAY ( key )
continUITY / ingenUITY / congrUITY ( ooit-ee )
contigUITY/ exigUITY / annUITY (you-it-ee )
GROUP ABOVE IS DIVIDED
spontanEITy / decEIT / homogenEITy / ( eet ) ( loud )
sQUAsh / QUAlity / sQUAd / QUArtz / QUAntity / ( kwaw )
deFY / magniFY / uniFY / simpliFY / ( figh )
cAEsar / tracheAE / AEdis AEgypti / antennAE / ( ee ) ( low )
CHEMistry / CHEMicals / CHEMist / ( kem )
hierARCHy / patriARCH / ARCHeology / ( ark )
DYNamite / DYNamics / ( dying )
PUTRid / PUTRify / ( pewtr )
bEE / referEE / tEEming / sEEr / scrEEn / ( ee ) ( loud )
IDEntical / IDEal / IDEntify / IDEa / ( eyed )
( in the beginning )
desIGN / sIGN, er / malIGN / benIGN / ( ign )
( last syllable )
imAGE / advantAGE / mortgAGE / rampAGE /
( group AGE you pronounce ij – in the end of words, over 1 syllable )
bronchITIS / arthrITIS / bursITIS / meningITIS / ( igh-tis )
VOCal / VOCative / VOCalist / ( vowek )
MOVies / reMOVe / MOVement / MOVing / ( moov )
lOVE / cOVEr / dOVE / cOVErage / discOVEry / sOVEreign / ( uv )
PSalm / PSeudo / PSychology / PSeudonym
( P is unpronounced )
synONYM / anthONYM / pseudONYM / homONYM /
( group ONYM you pronounce a low in-im – words are proparoxitonics )
ORTHOGRAPHIC PLACES ( also known as SYSTEMS )
A E I O U + CONSONANT 1 + VOWELS 2,3
A – r A dio / herb A ceous / st A dium / ( ay )
E – pr E mium / m E dia / schizophr E nia / ( ee ) ( loud )
I – L I nea,r,age / v I sion / trad I tion / ( ee ) ( loud )
O – s O cial / mel O dious / my O pia ( owe ) ( long )
A E I O U + ………………AL ( IN THE END ) words are proparoxitonic
anim AL / biologic AL / eletric AL / feder AL / psychologic AL
group ENTAL will change the word to paroxitonic : continENTAL / instrumENTAL / enviromENTAL/ elemENTAL
A E I O U + R + CONSONANT……….AL ( words are paroxitonics )
univ ERS al /et ERN al / inf ERN al and others
Diphthongs are pronounced according to the place of the second vowel
BIOLOGIC ( bye-uh-lodge-ic ) ( paroxitonic are the words ending in IC )
BIOLOGY ( bye-ah-led-gee ) ( proparoxitonic are the words ending in Y )
REALITY ( ree-yell-it-ee ) REALISM ( real-ism )
MYOPIA ( my-owe-pea-uh ) MYOPIC ( my-ah-pick )
group EA sounds ee low in the general. EXAMPLES: disEAse/ fEAt/EAsy/bEAm/Ear/
But when EA enters in a place like EA+ R + CONSONANT, EA will obey the sound of the SYSTEM that is uh. EXAMPLES: pEARl/EArl/sEArch/EArn/
Rules you’ll repeat 1 million times each week, if you read 10 magazines or 5 journals in that period. GOOD LUCK!
CONGRATULATIONS Fábio Braga de Alencar, author of THE UNIVERSAL RULE OF ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION