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Wheel of Fortune Contestant Mispronounces "Achilles," a Lesson in English Phonics

This weekend a viral video of a Wheel of Fortune contestant made its rounds online.  Growing up watching the show, I have to admit it was painful to watch.

I would like to bring attention to the importance of learning phonics.  Phonics?  I know, many might look at this situation as the perfect time to argue that phonics is useless and teaching sight words is more useful, but I beg to differ. 

The Indiana student was obviously unfamiliar with Greek mythology so he relied on his phonetic knowledge in an attempt to sound out the unfamiliar word.  In his attempt he pronounced Achilles, /ā-chil-es/, however the correct pronunciation is \ə-ˈki-lēz\.





Two lessons here, first in the name Achilles, the A makes the /ə/ sound.  The /ə/ is referred to as schwa and sounds like this:
  • 'a', as in about [əˈbaʊt]
  • 'e', as in taken [ˈtʰeɪkən]
  • 'i', as in pencil [ˈpʰɛnsəl]
  • 'o', as in eloquent [ˈɛləkʰwənt]
  • 'u', as in supply [səˈpʰlaɪ]
  • 'y', as in sibyl [ˈsɪbəl]

Second lesson, "ch" can make the "k" sound.  Here are 50 words in which "ch" sounds like "k" 


ache

anchor

archeology

architect

archive

backache

bronchitis

chameleon

chaos

character

charisma

charismatic

chasm

chemical

chemistry

chemotherapy

chlorine

choir

chord

choreography

chorus

Christ

Christian

Christmas

chrome

chronic

chronological

echo

earache

headache

mechanic

monarchy

orchestra

orchid

psychiatrist

psychiatry

psycho

psychologist

psychology

schedule

scheme

scholar

school

stomach

synchronize

toothache

technician

technique

technology

zucchini

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