ESL Blogs

6) Multi-syllable words which have an “r” should not necessarily be assumed to be pronounced phonetically. For example, the word, “tired”. Native English speakers pronounce this word as, “ti-erd”. But non-native speakers often mistakenly pronounce the word phonetically: “ti-red”.
Another example is “iron”, which is correctly pronounced “i-ern”. Non-native speakers invariably pronounce this word phonetically: “i-ron”. (A good example of this is how the Swedish rock group, The Cardigans, covered the Black Sabbath song, “Iron Man”: the female singer begins the song with, “Oh, I-ron Man!” and this mispronunciation of “iron” repeats throughout the song. It’s a great cover song, but the pronunciation of “iron” here sounds very odd and funny to native English speakers!)