作者：新航道留学-郭涛

与中文不同，英语单词的发音是由音节组成的。每个音节中都会有一个元音，而音节之间往往以辅音连接。一个单词可以包含一个或多个辅音。换句话说，在说一个单词的时候，你需要在不同音节之间过度。例如banana这个单词就有三个音节。

Unlike Chinese, the pronunciation of English words are made of syllables. In each syllable, there is a vowel sound. Different syllables are often connected with consonants. Each word may contain one or more syllables. In another word, to say a word, you need to transition between the syllables. For example, there are three syllables in ‘ba-na-na’.

正是因为英语发音的这个特点，弄清每个单词中的音节数就变得非常重要。这里有些例词来帮你理解音节数的概念。

Due to this feature, it is very important to be clear about the number of syllables in each word. Here are some examples of words with one or more syllables to help you understand.

弄清音节数不仅能让你口齿清楚地表达、避免一些错误，比如说‘‘colleague’‘/kɔliːg/，而不是让它听起来像colleague-r” /kɔliːgə/，还能帮你搞清复杂词汇的发音，比如medicine看起来复杂，但其实和banana一样，也只有三个音节。

Remembering the number of syllables will not only help you speak clearly and avoid common mistakes such as making “colleague” /kɔliːg/ sound like “colleague-r” /kɔliːgə/, can also help you learn the correct pronunciation of difficult words. For example, ‘medicine’ seems to be quite difficult but it should be as easy as ‘banana’ as it has only three syllables, too!

这里有个简单易学的视觉音节分割法。你可以在音节之间画竖线用来分隔。

Here are the steps to help you divide the syllables in a visual way.

1. 首先看单词是否有前缀，如果有，在前缀后画条竖线。如果没有，跳过此步。

Check if the word has a prefix. If there is one, draw a vertical line after the prefix. If not, skip this step.

2. 再看单词是否有后缀，如果有，在后缀前画条竖线。如果没有，跳过此步。

Check if the word has a suffix. If there is one, draw a vertical line before the suffix. If not, skip this step.

3. 然后看这个单词是否是合成词，如果是，在组成该合成词的单词之间画条竖线。如果没有，跳过此步。

Check if the word is a compound word. If it is, draw vertical tines between the sub-words that form it. If not, skip this step.

4. 最后通过元音的位置在单词剩余的部分画竖线分割。如果你愿意，可以先标出元音再画线。

Then divide the rest part of the word (or the word itself) by drawing vertical line(s) between the chunks of it according to the placement of the vowels. If you would like to, you can mark the vowels out before drawing the lines.

好处：可视化、有章可循、有助于自学

Benefits: visualised, follow the rules, practical for self-study

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