English Pronunciation Tip of the Day
Tip 69
Category:
Spelling to sound
Author: JAM
Fruit juice and biscuits
There is a small group of words containing the sequence <ui> where the <i> is silent and the sequence is pronounced /u:/ or in one case /ju:/:
| bruise | /bru:z/ | cruise | /kru:z/ | fruit | /fru:t/ |
| juice | /dZu:s/ | nuisance | /"nju:s@ns/ | sluice | /slu:s/ |
| suit | /su:t/ |
On the other hand there are a few words with <ui> in the spelling where it is the <u> which is silent and the sequence is pronounced /I/: build = /bIld/, biscuit = /"bIskIt/, circuit = /"s3:kIt/, guild = /gIld/, guilt = /gIlt/.Notice that the adjective derived from circuit word is circuitous and this does not have a silent <u>. It is pronounced /s@"kju:It@s/.
In other words <ui> is pronounced /u:I/. Examples: druid fluid ruin