It's a-so-ci-a-tion NOT as-so-ci-a-tion

MANY of us do not realise that some words should not be pronounced as they are spelt.
George Bernard Shaw had wanted to revamp the English alphabet, but his project failed.

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.



this is taken from here