Alternatives

Much of what I do in class and write about on the blog is corrective feedback, in which there is a pretty objectively correct way to use English, but sometimes you have alternatives.


Take a word like "caramel," as in caramel popcorn. Caramel can be pronounced with either 2 or 3 syllables. You can hear it pronounced here.


Other times, some sounds can be dropped. It seems to me that Japanese people like to say the "t" in "often," but you don't have to say it. I pronounce it "offen" without the "t" in my normal accent. You can hear it here.


So sometimes you can drop a syllable or a sound, and the pronunciation will still be perfectly acceptable.


Please speak English well!