Pronunciation of iron - I run, I earn or ion?
A comment on my YouTube video today said that my pronunciation AND teaching of 'iron' is WRONG..
Juliana said
"Jesus you are teaching wrongly. Iron = I earn".
It always amazes me that people can have such confidence when they correct me - I never post anything without checking it in at least 3 different places (see below).
This is more evidence of why it's so important to learn the phonemic alphabet - knowledge is power.
Watch the video
What's the difference between "I earn" and "iron"?
💰 I earn
'I earn' has TWO STRESSES and the vowel sound is the long ɜː as in 'bird'. It doesn't matter if it's American or British.
- US ˈaɪ.ˈɝːn (the 'r' is slightly sounded)
- UK ˈaɪ.ɜːn (the 'r' is silent)
👔 iron
With 'iron', the stress is on the first syllable, and the second vowel is the WEAK schwa /ə/ (same for American and British).
US ˈaɪərn
UK ˈaɪən
Cambridge dictionary - iron
- UK /aɪən/
- US /aɪrn/
Many dictionaries agree that 'iron' is a homophone (same sound) for 'ion'.
Learning points
Again, we can see how important it is to learn the phonemic alphabet.
Otherwise, you'll get trapped by the misinformation of people who try to represent the sounds in 'normal spelling'
e.g. 'ay-urn' 'eye-urn' 'igh yern' or 'ay-uhrn' (I saw all of these on YouTube - they can all be pronounced differently depending on how you read them.
Because of my Welsh accent, I ALWAYS check my facts before I post anything.
Here's how you can check too:
1. Youglish
2. Photransedit
3. A good online dictionary
