Speaking good English: S’poreans should pay more attention to pronunciation

Speaking good English does not entail just using good grammar but correct pronunciation.

On television, one often hears Singaporean Members of Parliament or artistes mispronouncing words.

It can be more serious when the person holds a national leadership position.

Imagine if he or she were to represent Singapore on an international platform, such as the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, or give an interview to a global television network.

Simple words that are mispronounced include brother (“broder”), government (“garmen”), people (“peoper”), trouble (“trouber”), another (“anoder”) and three (“tree”).

Opportunity (“or-por-tunity”) is another frequently mispronounced word. This has resulted in even people on the street mispronouncing it.

Gradually, more Singaporeans will mispronounce many words because of the negative influence of public figures with poor pronunciation.

I also wish to point out that the typical Singaporean sentence ending in “is it?” reflects how poorly English is spoken, not out of intellectual ignorance but laziness and habit.

Speaking good English requires effort and, in many cases, mere laziness is a major cause of poor English use.

Some people claim these mispronunciations are characteristics of Singlish. This is an invalid reason and a feeble excuse.

Let us make a greater effort to pronounce English words correctly.

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