For anyone who is just starting to learn English as a second language (ESL), including Ukrainian speakers, perhaps, one of the most difficult things within the process is to understand the oral speech of natives. In addition to the fact that English and Ukrainian are separate independent languages, belonging to different language families and functioning within different systems, there are a number of factors that complicate the understanding of English by ear, in particular, the way native speakers “swallow” some sounds, syllables, parts of words, and even individual words in a sentence.
In this paper, I single out and analyze the main reasons for omitting and/or silencing sounds or full syllables in English, which directly act as pitfalls for Ukrainian speaking students to just learn English. Below, I suggest considering each of them separately.
First of all, it is necessary to pay attention to consonants that may disappear from the pronunciation of a word depending on such factors as:
1) contrast between the established form of spelling of a word and its relatively newer pronunciation, e.g. daughter VS [ˈdɔː.tə];
2) peculiarities of the place and method of articulation of the sound, which make it impossible to pronounce a specific consonant in a cluster with others in a quick and convenient way, for instance write VS [raɪt];
3) phonological dialectal features, e.g. bottle as [ˈbɒt.əl] or [ˈbo:əl] etc.
The shortening or reduction of individual vowels can also have the effect of leaving out part of the information in a word, phrase, or longer message. To understand why this is the case, it is worth remembering that English is a prime example of a language with a Stress-timed rhythm [3] that requires alternating stressed and unstressed syllables, which are distinguished by vowel sounds. In order to understand the mechanism behind this tendency, let’s consider the effects on vowels caused by:
1) lexical (word) stress,
2) post-lexical (sentence) stress.
In individual words, a similar effect will only occur with unstressed vowels, which, in the absence of stress, will be less significant in the word and will have to be pronounced faster and therefore with less clarity. For example, let’s consider the word probably, in which a Ukrainian speaker without a good command of English would try to pronounce each vowel clearly, thereby delaying pronunciation, while a native English speaker would mostly emphasize only the first vowel /o/ with the help of their voice [1, p. 67; 2, p. 260–265], while it is almost impossible to clearly distinguish the next two vowels aurally in everyday speech.
As in the case of consonants, we also should not forget about completely silent vowels, such as letter E at the end of words that have ceased to be pronounced over time, with the exception of a few words, because of a number of phonological changes in the language as in monosyllabic verbs make, bake, praise and others, which contradicts the Ukrainian specifics in the vowel pronunciation.
The distribution of post-lexical stress in a sentence can also cause misunderstandings among Ukrainian speakers who are learning ESL. Stressing and clearly pronouncing only strong (vocally emphasized) syllables in independent parts of speech, although partially found in Ukrainian speech, as well as completely omitting syllables or entire words can be misleading and require speakers to be more attentive and quick in analyzing the message with subsequent cognitive processing. For instance, a one-syllable article a has a stress if considered separately; however, it almost or even fully disappears in the sentence among other words, reduced to schwa.
In addition to all of the above-mentioned, the clarity of the message and its subsequent understanding is significantly affected by the pace and volume of speech, which may depend on the context of communication, the intentions of the addresser of the message, time and spatial constraints, the speech characteristics of the linguistic and social group to which the speaker belongs, and the characteristics of their articulatory apparatus. These features create a unique pattern inherent to a particular native speaker or a group of English speakers that Ukrainians who learn ESL have to take into consideration while communicating, listening and processing information.
To draw a conclusion, given the number of patterns and rules in the English language that come into play during oral speech, it becomes clear why students whose first language is Ukrainian and who are learning English as a second language may initially get confused, ask multiple questions, clarify, or not understand part or all of what is being said at all. As a process of learning anything and developing skills in any sphere that comes to mind, learning English cannot occur without the mentioned higher pitfalls. However, being aware of their presence and understanding the nature of their origin can help and greatly facilitate the learning of a foreign language, directing students' attention to potentially difficult aspects and accustoming them to a better perception of spoken English.
References
1. Burzio L. Principles of English Stress. Cambridge University Press, 1994. 388 p.
2. Cutler A., Jesse A. Word Stress in Speech Perception. The Handbook of Speech Perception: survey / Pardo J. S., Nygaard L. C., Remez R. E., Pisoni D. B. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2021. P. 239–265. DOI: 10.1002/9781119184096.ch9.
3. Syllable & Stress-Timed Languages - INLP Linguistic Glossary. URL: https://inlpglossary.ca/syllable-stress-timed-languages/. (Last accessed: 26.08.2026).
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