How to Pronounce 'Singer' and 'direction'

by abdou
(Algeria)

Hello Charles,

I would like to ask you how to pronounce the letter 'G' in the word 'Singer' and how to pronounce the letter 'I' in the word 'direction'.

Many thanks in advance.

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Comments for How to Pronounce 'Singer' and 'direction'

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Aug 08, 2013
 singer
by: fabianmani

the word singer is pronouced just as you pronounce 'thing, ring' etc. it's pronounced with a less stressed "g" and adding an "er" at the end of it
Apr 14, 2013
 Pronunciation of Singer
by: Dianne

Pronounce .. Singer like this sing, like ring, or thing then just say.. er. Don't say sing and then ger ...which sounds like grr. Say sing-er.
Nov 18, 2011
 Dialects
by: Contessa di Napoli

I'm wondering where these commentators live! I live in the 'Black Country', in the West Midlands if you haven't heard of it. We pronounce singer with a hard 'g'.

My other half is a southerner, he puts an 'r' in a lot of words such as grass, and agrees with the almost silent 'g'. Surely people in different parts of the country pronounce words in different ways. Just a thought....!
Jan 05, 2010
 Singer
by: Anonymous

Hi
I wanna just help who ask about the pronunciation of the word Singer.

You should pronounce it like siner without G

best regards
Jun 19, 2009
 Pronunciation of Singer and Direction
by: Anonymous

Hello Abdou,

The word direction actually has two acceptable pronunciations. Ordinarily, if the letter falls on an unstressed syllable, it's pronounced /I/ as in the words "sit" or "big." This is known as vowel reduction.

The first letter in "direction" falls on an unstressed syllable so we can reduce it to /I/.
However, some Americans pronounce this word with the /aI/ sound we find in the words "die"or "time".

For some random, indeterminate reason this word offers you a choice of reducing the vowel or not. Another similar word with two possible pronunciations is "digestion".

In case you're wondering, the ambiguity is not because of the prefix "di". For example the word "diffusion" has only one pronunciation with the unstressed reduced to /I/.

If you want to learn more about vowel reduction there is a mp3 lesson on it, in my English pronunciation: Best Accent Training mp3s. You can download the course at www.bestaccenttraining.com

As for the word "singer", don't pronounce the with a hard aspirated /g/ sound like in the word "good" or "begin."
The combination is a separate consonant and is pronounced as follows:
Simply raise the back of your tongue to press against the soft palette(soft part of the back of the roof of your mouth) and release without the clicking, aspirated sound we usually make on /g/.

Many American especially from the New York City region pronounce the with a hard, aspirated /g/ and few people really seem to mind or even notice.
If you want to hear how to pronounce this consonant you'll also find a chapter on it in Best Accent Training mp3s.

Very observant questions Abdou!
Thanks for the question!!
Charles Becker
www.bestaccenttraining.com
Jun 16, 2009
 A Talking Dictionary of English Pronunciation
by: Pablo

I think this can help:

http://www.howjsay.com

Thank you.

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