Ask an American or British speaker how many syllables are in "comfortable" and most will say three: KUMF-ter-bul. Ask many Indian speakers and the answer is four: com-for-ta-ble. Neither is wrong. What you will learn: • Why the count is different • Kept syllables: the words you compress • Added syllables: beats that are not in the spelling • The count as a decoding tool • Long technical words, beat by beat • Short words that gain or lose a beat • When syllables are lost in indian english • Practice: decode the sentence • Listening strategies • Self-check questions to test your ear Level: B1–B2. Self-study: listen, then take the quizzes. Audio voiced with AI from an original script by Dr. Rashmi R Nair.