Shadowing Practice: Words with "extra" syllables

One of the error patterns which is common for non-native speakers of English is to say an extra syllable in certain words. This usually occurs because the spelled word looks like it should have additional sounds/syllables, or the root word has a different syllable pattern. Here are some words to work on, written so you can see the syllables: Different DIF rint Difference DIF rinss General GEN rul Groceries GROS(H) reez Vegetables VEG tuh blz Several SEV rul Interest IN trist Interested IN tris tid Interesting IN tris ting Preferable PREF ruh bl Specifically spuh SIF ick lee Basically BAY sick lee Actually ACK shuh lee Practice these repeated phrases: I need a different ____. How may different ___-s do we have? It makes a difference to ___. It doesn't make any difference for the ___. A general ___. In general, they ___. A vegetable ___. We have vegetables ____. We need several ___-s. There are several different ___-s. I have an interest in ____. We're interested in ___. It's an interesting ___. ___ would be preferable to ____. She specifically said ___. I think it's basically about ___. We actually want ___.