There are lots of little tricks to next level English pronunciation. One of them is to know when the silent ‘e’ isn’t silent, and when it’s used as a ‘buffer vowel’.
A buffer vowel is a vowel that isn’t normally pronounced, but that does get pronounced in certain situations. So silent ‘e’ is normally silent, but when used as a buffer vowel it isn’t silent any more.
To take your speech to next level English pronunciation, you need to know that the ‘e’ is pronounced when it’s used to separate 2 identical or very similar sounds. . For example it is pronounced in the plural words such as roses, hoses, noses etc. Whereas in the words rose, hose and nose, the ‘e’ is silent. (It does have a job though, even though it’s silent. It makes the vowel before it say it’s name- otherwise it would be ros, hos, and nos).
In fact in this case to take your English pronunciation to an even higher level, the ‘e’ between the 2 identical or similar sounds is said as the schwa or weak form of vowel. It’s said as a short ‘uh’ sound.
Have a listen to the following audio lesson to practise your next level English pronunciation:
Plurals:
roses, hoses, races, noses, horses, couches, pouches, beaches
Verbs
poses, praises, phrases, amazes, traces, freezes, closes, washes, loses
Sentence:
The roses were on the couches, and they took their pouches to the beach.
Best wishes, Esther
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