Hi, students.
Hope you're well.
In this lesson, and I'm going to talk generally
about whether there is a correct pronunciation of a word
or a standard pronunciation.
Well, on one level, of course, we
know that there is such a thing because that's what you see
when you look in a dictionary.
But then we have the question of, well,
does it depend on the dictionary that you're looking in?
And yes, it does because we have different varieties of English.
We've got British English.
We've got American English.
The name, too, obviously slightly different varieties
of English that have different pronunciations of words.
But also, different publishers of dictionaries
within the same variety of English--
British English, for example-- can quite often
have different pronunciations.
So if you check a word in the Oxford dictionary,
I usually use the online versions of these,
and then after checking the Cambridge dictionary,
in some cases, you will see different pronunciations which
can leave you thinking, oh, what's
the right pronunciation here?
And then there's a third thing which can sometimes happen,
which is you check a word in those dictionaries
and sometimes some other dictionaries,
and you realize, hmm, that's not how I pronounce that word.
I say it in blah, blah, blah way.
So when that sort of thing happens,
when the dictionary says the word is pronounced this way
but you've always said it some other way the people around you
have pronounce that word as, does that mean it's incorrect?
Well, I think it depends on the situation
and what your needs are regarding English.
As a teacher, I do like there being--
I do like the notion of there being
a standard correct pronunciation of a word.
We should strive towards an ideal form of a word.
That's a different question he picks the ideal form,
but let's say if a few dictionaries agree that this is
the correct pronunciation of a word, nine times out of 10,
I'm going to go with what they say and maybe even adapt my own
pronunciation or do something a little bit more complicated,
which is depending on the situation that I'm in-- and I
don't advice this for everyone, I'm just a pronunciation geek--
you may adapt your pronunciation according to the contexts.
So if you're in a posh situation or formal situation, a business
situation, maybe you do want to use the ideal form of word,
the dictionary form.
But, otherwise, in a relaxed context,
where you're just being yourself or speaking
in your normal, relaxed manner or mode of speaking,
maybe you pronounce a word in a different way, which is just
normal for you in your accent.
This is why the question I'm answering now in this video
is somewhat--
let's call it like hot potato, if that's the right idiom.
People have strong opinions on this
because they will say this shouldn't
be an ideal form of how a word is pronounced because there are
many, many different accents.
The way a person says a word is going
to depend on their accent.
So, yes, OK, I understand that.
And that's true to a point, but I
think there is such a thing as an ideal form of language.
Knowing the rules and using the rules is a kind of discipline,
so it takes a lot of training to get there.
It's a skill, and you have to work for it.
So my opinion is, yes, there is what we can call a standard
or correct form.
And usually, that's a good form for students to pronounce.
But if for any other reason, they don't have that accent
or they're not interested in the specifics of pronunciation
or saying word in a particular way, it doesn't really matter.
But my view is, as a lover of language,
reading, words, I like to say it in its ideal form.
So thank you for watching.
I hope you found this video interesting.
Click the Like button if you enjoyed,
and I hope you come back again soon for a future lesson.
I'll see you then.
Bye.