English - When ‘as’ is ‘a’

Many of us do not realise that some words should not be pronounced as they are spelt.

May I share with you the following:

1) “as” is not always pronounced as “ass” but as ”a”

association: a-so-ci-a-tion (not as-so-ci-a-tion, i.e. without the “ass” sound)

astonish: a-ston-ish (not ass-ton-ish)

Other words of similar bent - assign, assistant, assume, assess, assertive.

Asset, however, is pronounced ass-set.

2) “em” is not always pronounced as “am” but as “im”

embargo: im-bar-go (not am-bar-go)

empower: im-pow-er (not am-pow-er)

Other words - embarrass, embrace, employment, emporium.

Embassy, however, is am-bas-sy

3) “en” is not always pronounced as ”an”

encourage: in-cou-rage (not an-cou-rage)

engage: in-gage (not an-gage)

Other words - encyclopaedia, enforce, entitle, environment.

Entity, however, is an-ti-ty and entertain is an-ter-tain.

Entrepreneur is on-tre-pre-neur.

4) “es” is not always pronounced as “as” but as ”is”

especially: is-pe-cial-ly (not as-pe-cial-ly)

establish: is-ta-blish (not as-sta-blish)

Other words - estate, escape.

Escort, however, is as-cort, essence is as-sence, and espresso is as-pres-so.

If you beg to differ, I stand corrected. Please refer to the dictionary for more examples.