You might want to read this title a couple times. It’s some weird wording for a local language learning tool. And yet it is extremely important. It means if you ask someone how to pronounce a word their answer MAY NOT be how they truly pronounce it. Again, what they actually pronounce is not how they will tell you they pronounce a word. This seems to defy logic. How can it be? The simple answer is that they are not aware their pronunciation in the flow of a conversation is different from their pronunciation when asked how to pronounce the word alone.
Examples of this in languages abound. An extremely common example in Spanish is with words ending in –ado. Many countries cut off this ending during normal conversation. Take the word comprado. Asking someone how to pronounce this word will most often generate a response of com-pra-do. But when you here the same word in a conversation you may be more likely to hear comprao where -prao rhymes closely with wow.
So while asking for help is useful, be sure to also listen to how words are pronounced during natural conversation between locals.
The secret is to listen to how natives say a word in the real world, not in a classroom. Because how you are taught to say it in a classroom may not be how it’s pronounced in life.
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