Better has how many syllables

It doesn't seem to be a regional thing, but maybe it is where you grew up. Years ago, there was an orange juice commercial on TV with a song that started, "Ar-ent ju smart for drinking ar-enj juice," matching "aren't" with that fairly common pronunciation of orange, "ar-anj" I say Orange with a long o and closer to one syllable than two.

Anyway, I remember being irritated by that commercial because of that drawn-out "aren't". I only ever hear them as one-syllable words. I think it is a regional thing. I come from New York City and have always pronounced aren't and weren't with two distinct syllables.

The one syllable pronunciation sounds to me like the vast regional dialect that stretches to the horizon on the far side of the Hudson River. Non - rhotic "aren't" has one syllable. I consider it a one-syllable word but I know that many people pronounce two syllables I've heard some Irish people do this. In my opinion you're adding a syllable where it doesn't exist - are and were have only one syllable, why give them an extra one when they are added to not?

On the other hand, why not? Outsider said:. Click to expand But it's not wherever you feel like it. Understanding syllables helps a lot with pronunciation. As we speak, if we miss or add a syllable to a word, people may not be able to understand us. When we say a word, the sounds we create naturally divide the word into parts.

The number of syllables in a word is decided by its number of vowel sounds. The English language has up to 20 vowel sounds, so we will not talk about all of them today. But an easy way to identify vowels is that we make them with the letters a, e, i, o, u and sometimes y. It is important to know that one syllable can have more than one vowel letter. But together, they make only one vowel sound: u:. We decide syllables by sound, not spelling. One that I like is the chin method.

Here is how to do it: Rest your hand under your chin and say a word slowly. We'll explain. What is a syllable? How to count syllables. How to divide into syllables. Parents, Teachers, Students Do you have a grammar question? Need help finding a syllable count? Want to say thank you? Thread starter grace Start date Apr 29, Dictionaries give you careful pronunciation.

I suppose if you are syllabifying for a song, it is not usually possible to turn the first bit of serious ser- into two syllables, whereas it is not unusual to set the second bit -ious as two syllables. Click to expand Last edited: May 1, English - South-East England.