How are you meant to pronounce marshmallow?

Answer 1

This a very interesting question!

marshmallow

There are four vowel sounds in the word marshmallow! And certain parts of the word require different emphasis. In fact three different volume/stress levels are required in order to say marshmallow correctly.

Also, US (North American) and GB (British English) pronounciations and syllable stress patterns differ significantly from each other!

---- North American English (US)

Vowel sounds:

* The first a is pronounced like the a in arm: = 'marsh' (rhymes with 'harsh') * The middle vowel, a, is pronounced like the e in wet: = 'meh' * The o is pronounced like the o in go, and the w is pronounced like the uin glue. * The o and u vowel sounds are joined together, so the final syllable is pronounced with a sliding 'oh-oo' sound, just like end of the word = 'low' Emphasis/Stress:

For breaks and stress, the word has two parts: marsh-mehlow

Both syllables must begin with a stronger or stressed sound, and in North American English (US), the first syllable is stressed more strongly than the stress required at tghe beginning of the second syllable: marsh-mehlow

---- British English (GB)

Vowel sounds:

* The first a is pronounced like the a in arm: = 'marsh' (rhymes with 'harsh') * In Received Pronunciation (RP), the r is not pronounced, it is a silent letter, though in some regional dialects/accents it is pronounced. In RP, mar is pronounced with the vowel sound of tah, Ra, etc. = 'mah', -->'mahsh'

* The middle vowel, a, is pronounced like the a in cat, mat, sat: = 'ma' * The o is pronounced like the o in go, and the w is pronounced like the u in glue. * The o and u vowel sounds are joined together, so the final syllable is pronounced as it is written: = 'low' Emphasis/Stress:

For breaks and stress, the word has two parts: mahsh-malow

Both syllables must begin with a stronger or stressed sound, but in British English (GB), it is the second syllable that is stressed more strongly than the stress on the first syllable: mahsh-malow

---- For phonetic spellings of this word, an American English dictionary will show US pronunciation, and a British English dictionary will show GB pronunciation.

---- For more information and sound-samples of US pronunciation, see Related links below.