How many of you know that when you buy a DICTIONARY (yes, the one in book form), YOU ALSO PAY for the DICTIONARY to TELL YOU the PRONUNCIATION of EVERY SINGLE WORD listed in it?

The page shown below was taken from the "Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary (International Student's Edition) - 8th Edition". There is a string of SYMBOLS in a pair of slashes after each word. (I've highlighted them in red boxes for you!) For example, let's look at the first word which is "aghast". Now, do you see /əˈɡɑːst/ next to the word? That's the PRONUNCIATION of the word "aghast". It's called the pronunciation spelling or phonetic spelling
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English is a non-phonetic language. Thus, it's not easy to tell the pronunciation of a word simply by looking at the spelling of the word. Similarly, it's not easy to write down a word (or spell it) when we hear the word, especially a new one that we have neither seen nor heard before. Thus, we should have known the pronunciation of the word earlier in order to pronounce it at any time later. This is how exactly we learned to pronounce the English words - we heard from someone for the first time. It could be your teacher, a person you were talking to or while listening to news, watching videos, etc. In short, someone has to "teach" us directly or indirectly how to pronounce a word. Unfortunately, we cannot depend on those people to tell us the pronunciation of words at any time we want or needed. The ONLY PERSON who can come to your rescue at anytime (day or night) and anywhere is your DICTIONARY. Yes, if you know how to read the PRONUNCIATION SPELLINGS printed in the dictionary, you can easily tell the pronunciation of ANY WORD whose pronunciation is not known to you.

You may ask "Who can teach me how to read the pronunciation spellings?". Guess what! I CAN HELP YOU. Talk to me on Skype. This is my Skype ID live:gabrielsowrian

Note: Every now and then, I'll post words where it's even hard to guess their pronunciations. This is merely to raise awarness among our club members the importance of knowing how to read the phonetic spellings and that it's the ONLY SOLUTION for all our PRONUNCIATION PROBLEMS.

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  • Written Word .... rendezvous
    Pronunciation ... /ˈrɒndeɪvuː/
    Definition ......... (noun) an arrangement to meet someone, especially secretly, at a particular place and time or the place itself
    Sentence .......... The cafe is a popular rendezvous for young lovers.

    Image result for couples at a cafe

  • Written Word .... gobbledegook
    Pronunciation ... /ˈɡɒbldiɡuːk/
    Definition .......... (noun) language that is meaningless or is made unintelligible by excessive use of technical terms
    Sentence .......... The congressman was speaking English, but it was all gobbledygook to others.

    Image result for gobbledegook examples

  • Written Word .... saccharine
    Pronunciation ... /ˈsækəriːn/
    Definition ......... (adjective) overly sweet and sentimental
    Sentence .......... I don't trust her, with her saccharine smiles.

    Image result for exaggerated smile

  • Written Word .... strychnine
    Pronunciation ... /ˈstrɪkniːn/ 
    Definition .......... (noun) a poisonous drug which is sometimes used in very small amounts as a medicine
    Sentence .......... Strychnine is used as a remedy for heart and respiratory complaints and as a stimulant.

    Image result for strychnine

  • Written Word .... doppelgänger
    Pronunciation ... /ˈdɒplɡæŋə/ 
    Definition .......... (noun) someone who looks exactly like someone else but who is not related to that person
    Sentence .......... They say that everyone has a doppelgänger in the world somewhere that looks exactly like them.

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  • Written Word .... amour propre
    Pronunciation ... /ˌæmʊə ˈprɒprə/
    Definition .......... (noun) a feeling of pride in your own character and abilities
    Sentence .......... "Is it for reasons of amour propre; is it for the money; or for what?" the reporter asked rhetorically. 

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  • Written Word .... convalescence
    Pronunciation ... /ˌkɒnvəˈlesns/
    Definition ......... (noun) the period or process of become healthy and well again after an illness or operation.
    Sentence .......... The veteran actress received bouquets of flowers from celebrities during her convalescence in the hospital.3202383596?profile=RESIZE_930x

     

  • Written Word .... haemorrhage
    Pronunciation ... /ˈhemərɪdʒ/
    Definition ......... (noun) profuse bleeding from ruptured blood vessels
    ......................... (verb) to lose blood heavily, especially from the inside of the body
    Sentence .......... He died of a massive brain haemorrhage.

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  • Written Word .... decoupage
    Pronunciation ... /ˌdeɪkuːˈpɑːʒ/
    Definition ......... (verb) to decorate the surface of something with paper and then lacquer the paper on
    Sentence .......... Monica has the amazing skill to decoupage an ordinary box into an elegant one.  

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  • Written Word .... chiaroscuro

    Pronunciation ... /kiˌɑːrəˈskʊərəʊ 

    Definition .......... (noun) the use of areas of light and darkness in a painting

    Sentence .......... It’s believed that the ancient Greek and Roman artists were first to use the chiaroscuro technique in paintings.

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