A syllable is a part of a word that is pronounced as a unit.
A word can have one, two or more syllables.
Sometimes not all the syllables in a word should be pronounced. Those syllables are said to be ‘dropped’. And it is termed syncope.
Many words have dropped syllables, especially Ad you do American pronunciation. Usually the syllables that are dropped have the unstressed vowel or weak vowel. For those who prefer British pronunciation, you’ll find that younger generations of speakers often drop the syllable in -ary, -ery, and -ory.
Some words with dropped syllables are:
1) Favourite fav rit
2) Vegetable – veg te ble
3) Camera – cam ra
4) Memory – mem ry
5) Business – biz nes
6) Family – fam- li
7) Different – diff rent
8) General gen ral
9) Evening – eve – ning
10) comfortable – comf te ble
11) Chocolate – choc late
12) several – sev ral
13) Comparable – comp rable
14) Difficult –
15) restaurant – res trant
16) Happening- hap ning
17) Federal- fed ral
Words with -ary, -ery, -ory
1) Secretary -Secret ry
2) territory – terri try
3) blackberry – black bry or black bery
4) library – lib ry
5) elementary ele men try
6) dictionary – diction ry
7) history – histry
8) carefully – care fly
9) finally – fin ly
10) Dr
Some contractions are;
1) Cannot. – can’t
2) Didn’t. – din’t
3) Wouldn’t – won’t
Do you love football?
Then say….
1) Leicester – Les – tuh
2) Gloucester – Glos – tuh
3) Worcester – Woo – stuh
4) Norwich – Nor – ich
5) Greenwich – Green – ich
6) Woolwich – Wool – ich