Do you sometimes ask yourself if you are pronouncing names from books and movies correctly? Well, you’re not alone. As a matter of fact, the audio book retailer ‘Audible’ carried out a survey with 2000 participants and discovered that 39% of people have incorrectly pronounced the names of well-known fictional characters.
Today we thought we’d enlighten you on how to say 10 Star Wars words, and at the same time provide you with some more general pronunciation tips so that you can sound more natural in English conversation.
Let’s start with the title of the movie itself!
MISPRONOUNCED WORDS FROM STAR WARS:
1. Star Wars
As will can hear, the stress is on the first noun STAR , and not on the second noun WARS
Therefore, the correct pronunciation of this compound noun is STARwars (starWARS).
Compound nouns
Compound nouns are generally pronounced with the emphasis on the first part of the word. The following are only some in a long list of English compound nouns.
- Cowboy
- Super market
- Deadline
- Grandmother
2. Skywalker
Again, the first part of the compound noun is emphasised.
In addition, the ‘L’ is not pronounced (silent ‘l’). As a result, the pronunciation is:
SKYwawkə
Silent ‘l’
Words with a silent ‘l’ are very common in English. Other examples include:
- Talk = tawk
- Walk = wawk
- Could = kud
- Would = wud
- Half = hahf
3. Palpatine
Here we have the stress on the first syllable: PALpateen
Can you also hear that the final ‘e‘ on palpatine is not pronounced?
This is an example of a silent ‘e’ in English.
The silent ‘e’
The silent ‘e‘ is common in many English words. It is also known as ‘Magic E‘
As a general rule, silent ‘e’ occurs when words end with a single vowel and single consonant + e
Compare these two words:
- mad – vowel + consonant
- made – vowel + consonant + silent e = ‘e’ is silent
In addition, magic e changes the sound of the first vowel, so made is said with the alphabet sound ‘A’ /meid/
The same is not true of mad.
Here are some more examples:
- bit bite ( The final e makes us say ‘I’)
- con cone ( The final e makes us say ‘O’)
- plan plane ( The final e makes us say ‘A’)
- cut cute. ( The final e makes us say ‘U’)
4. Empire
Here the stress is on the first syllable of the noun: EMpire. Not emPIRE
Syllable stress
In fact, the general syllable stress rule for 2-syllable nouns, adjectives, and adverbs is as follows:
- 2-syllable nouns, adjectives, and adverbs are usually stressed on the first syllable
The word present for instance is a 2-syllable word. If we stress the first syllable (PREsent), it is a noun (gift) or an adjective (opposite of absent).
However, if we stress the second syllable (preSENT), it becomes a verb (to offer).
Other examples include:
| NOUN | VERB |
| PROject | proJECT |
| RECord | reCORD |
| PROtest | proTEST |
| CONtract | conTRACT |
| OBject | obJECT |
Now that we’ve briefly explored compound nouns, silent letters, and 2-syllable word stress in English, let’s quickly proceed down the list with some more Star Wars names:
4. R2D2
Here, the first part of the word is emphasised: ARtoo-DEEtoo
5. Han
Just in case you have been saying Hans all this time, we now know that the correct pronunciation is HAHN
6. Leia
The pronunciation here is LEYa, and not LIa
7. Chewbacca
Chewbacca can do it
Note the stress on the second part chewBAKA
9. Jedi
Notice the pronunciation JEdai
10. Darth Vader
This legendary Star Wars character is pronounced : VEydə
We trust you will now start pronouncing Star Wars words correctly. Of course, it doesn’t help that English is not a phonetic language, so you’ll just have to rely on the sounds rather than the spelling. And in case it makes you feel any better, even the star actors of Star Wars are unsure about the correct pronunciation of some words!
