41 Rules of Pronunciation of English Words

Knowledge of English is regarded as an index of education, and the ability to speak English correctly is regarded as an index of good schooling. Without knowledge of English, the education of a literate person may seem to be interrogated. Now learning English is an ever-growing demand. And speaking English correctly is a social requirement as well.

While we speak of spoken English, we are afraid of the correct pronunciation of the words coming to our tongue. To help readers learn pronunciation of English words, I made an intensive research; went through lots of dictionaries of international fame, found out some general rules, assembled all them and asked one to follow (illustrative not exhaustive).

First, I would like to make it clear that sound and pronunciation are not the same things. Both are somewhat different things. The sound of a particular word depends on our lung, tongue, larynx and pharynx. It also depends upon climatic condition and geographical spheres. While human mechanism is capable of producing many sounds of a single word, the pronunciation of a particular word is fixed for all and incorporated in almost all dictionaries of international fame.

There exists no single form of pronunciation which alone can be regarded as correct. The pronunciation fixed by Prof. R. K. Bansal of the University of English and Foreign Languages, Hyderabad and Prof. A. C. Gimson of the University of London may differ from that of Collins Dictionary (Primitive/pristine). However, some general rules have been fixed for better learning.