Hi again and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy's American English pronunciation podcast.

My name is Mandy, and this is our 104th episode. Today's topic may surprise some of you.

It may seem too elementary of a topic.

Many of you may think that anyone who has listened to any number of the 102 episodes

that have come before this one would be very much aware of how to say the words,

pronunciation, and pronounce.

Trust me, I wouldn't be doing this topic if it weren't still a common error among non-native

speakers, even ones who have listened to many, many of my previous shows.

As a bonus, even if you are already correctly saying, pronounce, and

pronunciation, this show is full of little pronunciation patterns and tips that are always good

to review. First, let's examine the word pronounce. Pronounce is a two-syllable verb.

Like most two-syllable verbs, it is stressed on the second syllable.

The vowel sound of the stressed syllable is spelled OU

and is pronounced as the O-W sound.

Ow.

The letters O-U are usually pronounced as the O-W sound, so there are no surprises here.

Since the second syllable is stressed, the vowel sound of the first syllable is reduced to schwa.

It is pronounced as a quick a pronounce.

The word pronounce is a lovely example of English being phonetic and following the rules of pronunciation.

There is a weird thing that I've heard a lot of non-native speakers do to the verb pronounce.

They add to the suffix A-T-E to it, creating pronunciate.

Pronunciate is not a word.

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