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    Pronunciation · Academic and IELTS words

    How to pronounce “anonymous”

    uh-NON-ih-mus

    4 syllables · stress on “NON”

    uhNONihmus
    Britishəˈnɒnɪməs
    Americanəˈnɑːnɪməs

    In short

    “anonymous” is pronounced uh-NON-ih-mus: 4 syllables, with the stress on “NON”. The related noun anonymity moves the stress to a different syllable (an-uh-NIM-ih-tee), so learners hear two patterns and pick the wrong one for each word. The version to avoid is a-no-NY-mus — stressing the third syllable.

    Say “anonymous” in 3 steps

    1. 1Stress syllable two: uh-NON-ih-mus.
    2. 2The first syllable is a weak schwa, not a full “a”.
    3. 3Anonymity shifts the stress: an-uh-NIM-ih-tee.

    The version to avoid

    Commonly said as: a-no-NY-mus — stressing the third syllable

    The related noun anonymity moves the stress to a different syllable (an-uh-NIM-ih-tee), so learners hear two patterns and pick the wrong one for each word.

    Hear real people say it

    Model audio is consistent; real speech is not. Hearing several actual speakers is what makes a word recognisable when someone says it at full speed.

    Real speakers

    1 human recording

    Actual people saying “anonymous”, not a synthetic voice. Real speech varies — that variation is what you need to recognise, and what a single model voice cannot show you.

    Recordings from Wikimedia Commons by Sylvanmoon, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Full credits.

    Practise it out loud

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    0/6 practised

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    Three speakers per accent

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    The sounds inside this word

    Each links to a full guide with mouth position, audio and drills. If a word keeps failing, the problem is usually one of these.

    əa as in about (schwa)nn as in noɒo as in hotɪi as in sitmm as in manss as in see

    More academic and ielts words

    Same pattern, same fix. Learning them as a group is far faster than one at a time.

    entrepreneuron-truh-pruh-NURquestionnairekwes-chuh-NAIRenvironmentin-VY-run-muntphenomenonfuh-NOM-ih-nunhierarchyHY-uh-rar-keegenreZHON-ruh

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    Frequently asked questions

    How do you pronounce anonymous?
    anonymous is pronounced uh-NON-ih-mus, written /əˈnɒnɪməs/ in IPA. Stress syllable two: uh-NON-ih-mus.
    How many syllables are in anonymous?
    four: uh-NON-ih-mus. The stress falls on “NON”.
    What is the most common mistake with anonymous?
    a-no-NY-mus — stressing the third syllable. The related noun anonymity moves the stress to a different syllable (an-uh-NIM-ih-tee), so learners hear two patterns and pick the wrong one for each word.

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