Dropped Syllable

DROPPED SYLLABLE

The linguistic term for the loss of a syllable in spoken word is syncope, but I simply refer to it as dropped syllables.

Dropping syllables occurs mostly on high-frequency words, and dictionaries are pretty good about showing both options when two choices of pronunciation are available.

The syllable that can be dropped, not surprisingly, follows a pattern. The syllables before or after a stressed syllable in a word are often unstressed. (This is opposed to a secondary stress that can occur two syllables apart from a stressed syllable.) Only the vowel sounds of unstressed syllables can get dropped, and usually the original word needed to have at least three syllables to begin with.

 

Words with Dropped Syllables

In many common 3-syllable words, the second syllable is dropped in spoken American English. Most American speakers do not pronounce these syllables when they speak

Read the words in the chart below and drop the syllable as indicated in the second column. If you can remember to drop these syllables when you speak, your speech will sound much more natural.

Practice saying these words aloud.

 

Word	Dropped syllable
aspirin	as-prin
average	av-rage
Barbara	Bar-bra
business	bus-ness
camera	cam-ra
different	dif-rent
evening	eve-ning
every	ev-ry
family	fam-ly
favorite	fav-rite
federal	fed-ral
general	gen-ral
interest	in-trest
Margaret	Mar-gret

                                                                

Ellipsis

Sometimes native English speakers will entirely drop the sound of an unstressed syllable altogether, and not just reduce the pronunciation to the schwa sound. This is called an ellipsis. This in effect reduces the number of syllables that a listener may hear. Both pronunciations are correct. Examples of two such words are probably and temperature.

                  Note: Ellipsis's are very common, but not all speakers will do this.

Some people will pronounce probably with three syllables (prob-a-bly), others will    pronounce it with two syllables (prob-bly).
Some people will pronounce temperature with four syllables (tem-per-a-ture), others will   pronounce it with three syllables (tem-per-ture).
Another  examples:
general (gen-e-ral, gen-ral)
business (bus-i-ness, bus-ness)
vegetable (veg-e-ta-ble, veg-ta-ble)
margarine (mar-gar-ine, mar-grine)
evening (e-ven-ing, ev-ning)

 An ellipsis can also occur (usually in very casual speak) when native speakers drop the beginning of a word that has

a schwa sound in it.

(remember, 'mem-ber)   Remember when we went to the beach last year?
(another, 'nother)    Another drink, Mr. Thompson?