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    Pronunciation · Famously mispronounced words

    How to pronounce “paradigm”

    PA-ruh-dyme

    3 syllables · stress on “PA”

    PAruhdyme
    Britishˈpærədaɪm
    Americanˈpærədaɪm

    In short

    “paradigm” is pronounced PA-ruh-dyme: 3 syllables, with the stress on “PA”. The g is silent in paradigm but returns in paradigmatic. English keeps silent letters in the base word and revives them in derived forms, which makes the pattern feel arbitrary. The version to avoid is PA-ruh-dig-um — sounding the g.

    Say “paradigm” in 3 steps

    1. 1The g is silent: the ending is just “-dyme”, rhyming with “time”.
    2. 2Stress the first syllable, PA.
    3. 3In paradigmatic the g comes back — pa-ruh-dig-MAT-ic.

    The version to avoid

    Commonly said as: PA-ruh-dig-um — sounding the g

    The g is silent in paradigm but returns in paradigmatic. English keeps silent letters in the base word and revives them in derived forms, which makes the pattern feel arbitrary.

    Hear real people say it

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    Real speakers

    2 human recordings

    Actual people saying “paradigm”, 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 Dvortygirl and Commander Keane, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 / CC BY-SA 4.0. Full credits.

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    Say it yourself

    0/6 practised

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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.

    pp as in penæa as in catrr as in redəa as in about (schwa)dd as in dayaɪi as in mymm as in man

    More famously mispronounced words

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

    epitomeih-PIT-uh-meehyperbolehy-PUR-buh-leecolonelKUR-nulawryuh-RYsegueSEG-waycacheKASH

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    Frequently asked questions

    How do you pronounce paradigm?
    paradigm is pronounced PA-ruh-dyme, written /ˈpærədaɪm/ in IPA. The g is silent: the ending is just “-dyme”, rhyming with “time”.
    How many syllables are in paradigm?
    three: PA-ruh-dyme. The stress falls on “PA”.
    What is the most common mistake with paradigm?
    PA-ruh-dig-um — sounding the g. The g is silent in paradigm but returns in paradigmatic. English keeps silent letters in the base word and revives them in derived forms, which makes the pattern feel arbitrary.

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