Is it acceptable that 'fuel' is pronounced as 'fju:ə'

Question

One of my colleague have kept pronouncing 'fuel' as 'fju:ə'.

There is omission of the 'L' sound. In the dictionary, phonetic transcription of 'fuel' is 'fju:əl'

I'm not a native speaker (living in Korea speak of which), but I can say that sounds very weird, so I told him that it doesn't sound natural. And I let him listen to the standard pronunciation from an electronic dictionary. The 'L' sound is weak but can be heard.

He kept saying that he has been praised on his pronunciation by a native speaker.
I'm not trying to judge, but the pronunciation is still awkward.

Is it correct to pronounce 'fuel' as 'fju:ə'?

Max Williams · Accepted Answer

Yes, there is someone - your friend.  All variations I've encountered have the "L", though the strength of it may vary.  I dare say there is some dialect where you can barely hear it.
Generally speaking, it's not a good argument for the pronunciation of a word to say "I've heard it said like that once".  The aim of language is communication, and it will aid communication if you pronounce words in a standard way, i.e. a way spoken by a large number of people.

Lightness Races in Orbit · Answer

Is it "acceptable"? Strictly speaking, if the people he's talking to understand him, then it's acceptable. That's how language evolves.

Is it commonplace and likely to be understood around the world? No.

Certainly personally I've never heard that before and would consider it quite strange. And I'm a native speaker so I don't know what kind of native speaker your colleague was listening to.

Is it acceptable that 'fuel' is pronounced as 'fju:ə'

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