Dropped Syllable

The number of vowel = the number of syllables 

to        / tə /     1v = 1s
today  / tə'deɪ /      2v = 2s
vanity   / 'vænIti /   3v = 3s

But sometimes vowels disappear giving as a consequense a reduction in the number of syllables Ex.:

basic            / 'beɪsIk /
basically       / 'beɪsɪkli /
practice        / 'præktɪs /
practically     / 'præktɪkli /
dramatic       / drə'mætɪk /
dramatically  / drə'mætɪkli /

Dropped syllables are syllables which are not pronounced. For example the word "chocolate" would appear to have 3 syllables but in fact the middle syllable is dropped and we only pronounce the first and the last.

example; choc -late

Word	Dropped syllable
aspirin	as-prin
average	av-rage
Barbara	Bar-bra
business	bus-ness
camera	cam-ra
different	dif-rent
evening	eve-ning
every	ev-ry
family	fam-ly
favorite	fav-rite
federal	fed-ral
general	gen-ral
interest	in-trest
Margaret	Mar-gret

LINKS

Seattle Learning Academy - Bro - dropped syllables, syncope mp3
http://www.pronuncian.com/materials/podcasts/Episode_71.aspx