Why do we pronounce a long second vowel in “decide”, but a short second vowel in “decision”?

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Sujata Saini

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In the first word the pronunciation is a dipthomg where as in case of decision all are short vowels
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Verb and Noun have their own stage in English Language, They represent the different class when we use them. The reason we pronounce them differently are Cide and Cision - Vowels Number.
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Ielts Trainer With Over 18 Years of Experience

Because English is unphonetic...
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According to the syllable stress rule for words that end with sion ..the stress is on the penultimate syllable. However in the word decide ...i is pronounced as I as in icecream and not I as in Impact. English is a non phonetic language so the difference
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The follows one of the rules of pronunciation in English. According to the rule, in a word if there are two vowels and the word end with an 'e', then the first vowel takes a long sound and the 'e' remains silent. In case of longer words, the vowel which comes before the last 'e' takes the long sound....
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The follows one of the rules of pronunciation in English. According to the rule, in a word if there are two vowels and the word end with an 'e', then the first vowel takes a long sound and the 'e' remains silent. In case of longer words, the vowel which comes before the last 'e' takes the long sound. Eg. take, pale, female, damage etc read less
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The "i" in "decide" is pronounced a?, whereas the first "i" in "decision" is pronounced ?, there are few more words which are pronounced similar like divide & division or collide and collision
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The "i" in "decide" is pronounced , whereas the first "i" in "decision" is pronounced , at least in American English. The same with pairs like collide/collision, divide/division, etc., despite the fact that the stress is on the second syllable in both words. Is there a more general rule this vowel change...
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The "i" in "decide" is pronounced [a?], whereas the first "i" in "decision" is pronounced [?], at least in American English. The same with pairs like collide/collision, divide/division, etc., despite the fact that the stress is on the second syllable in both words. Is there a more general rule this vowel change is following? Does it come from the lengths of the original Latin vowels, or is it rather arbitrary? read less
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Decide - "i" Decision - "e"
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down vote Background info on pronunciation of Latinate words in English Latin vowel length very rarely has a direct effect on the pronunciation of English vowels in Latinate words. (Since Latin vowel length affected the placement of stress, and the placement of stress affects how we pronounce vowels...
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down vote Background info on pronunciation of Latinate words in English Latin vowel length very rarely has a direct effect on the pronunciation of English vowels in Latinate words. (Since Latin vowel length affected the placement of stress, and the placement of stress affects how we pronounce vowels in English, it can have an indirect effect.) Instead, vowel length in English words taken from Latin (by "vowel length" I mean the choice between vowels such as [?] and [a?]) usually depends on the morpho-phonological context (surrounding letters and sounds), and the placement of the stress. Usually, the relevant part of the context is the letters after the vowel. read less
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It's because of the separation of syllables in each of the words. "Decide" has two syllables: "de" and "cide". The "cide" part ends with an "e" and so we pronounce the "i" in this syllable as a long vowel. "Decision" has three syllables: "de", "ci" and "sion". There is no "e" at the end of the second...
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It's because of the separation of syllables in each of the words. "Decide" has two syllables: "de" and "cide". The "cide" part ends with an "e" and so we pronounce the "i" in this syllable as a long vowel. "Decision" has three syllables: "de", "ci" and "sion". There is no "e" at the end of the second syllable in this word (or anything else that would make this vowel a long vowel) and so we pronounce the "i" in this syllable as a short vowel. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule. But generally, if there is a vowel in the middle of any syllable that ends with the letter "e", it's usually pronounced as a long vowel. For example, "re-side", "hide", "con-fide", "bon-a-fide" (i.e., "bonafide" in US pronunciation), etc. (Also note: In most of these cases of pronouncing long vowels, the syllable not only ends with the letter "e", but it is also the final syllable in the word.) read less
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