Questions about English consonants.
43
votes
4answers
5k views
Why are there so few English words that begin with the letter X?
If one reads a lot of children's books, it is obvious that X is a real thorn in the side for those authors looking to have each letter of the alphabet represented in their books. Most of them either ...
13
votes
3answers
2k views
Why is the plural form of “life” “lives”, while the plural form of “still life” is “still lifes”?
Why does the plural form of "life" is "lives", while the plural form of "still life" is "still lifes"?
From Wikipedia:
A still life (plural still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly
...
8
votes
2answers
1k views
Why is the “L” silent when pronouncing “salmon”?
Why is the letter l silent when pronouncing salmon properly?
7
votes
4answers
2k views
How to pronounce the “v” sound?
I live in Thailand and we pronounce "w" and "v" the same. When I spoke to American people they told me that the "v" sound was different from "w". They told me to move my lower lip to the upper teeth, ...
6
votes
3answers
2k views
What English word has the most consecutive consonants?
I was driving past the village of Hampsthwaite the other day, and happened to spot the six consecutive consonants in the middle. It set me wondering whether this was the most possible, and if not, ...
6
votes
2answers
140 views
Are there names for consonant-shifts when suffixes are added?
I saw a spelling mistake on an SO question: submittion. That got me wondering, is there a name for the shift of ‑mit‑ to ‑miss‑ in submission, permission, admission and so on? Are there other patterns ...
5
votes
4answers
309 views
Why is “Rosen Plevneliev” pronounced with a /z/?
As I have told you in my previous question, I have heard the CBS news about the Bulgarian president visiting the US here. I don't know why, but the way the reporter has pronounced his name makes me ...
5
votes
1answer
191 views
About pronouncing the 's' in plural nouns
A general rule of English pronunciation states that the 's' in plural nouns is to be pronounced as /z/ if it is preceded by a 'voiced consonant' such as /n/ or /g/, and as /s/ if it is preceded by a ...
4
votes
3answers
233 views
What were the British equivalents of Webster's dictionary and the Simplified Spelling Board that standardized spelling and usage?
I am familiar with questions about when to double 'l' and differences between British and American spellings. However, I stumbled across this image.
As you can see, several words end in the double ...
4
votes
2answers
850 views
Vowel is to diphthong as consonant is to?
While reading about diphthongs in a different question today, I noticed that while the word "diphthong" doesn't seem to contain any actual diphthongs, it does contain 3 sets of consonant groupings.
...
4
votes
2answers
127 views
Does the letter i serve as a consonant in words like “onion” and “view”?
Some more words: union, behavior, Daniel.
And the second i in opinion, familiar, brilliant, California.
I am especially concerned with American English.
4
votes
2answers
473 views
Is there any rhyme or reason to when one should double the last consonant when adding -ed or -ing? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
focussed or focused? The double consonant
Sometimes, final consonants are doubled when adding -ed or -ing to the end of a verb whose penultimate letter is a vowel.
...
3
votes
2answers
158 views
Palatalization of the initial “s” in words starting with “st-”
Sometimes I hear native speakers pronounce the s at the beginning of a word as [ʃ]. For example, straight as [ʃtreɪt], or struggle as [ʃtrʌɡl]. It sounds like German words.
Is it a certain English ...
2
votes
3answers
162 views
th followed by an s sound [duplicate]
What is the correct way to pronounce such complicated combination of sounds when not pausing for breath? As an example, how would one pronounce something like "The Eighteenth century"?
2
votes
1answer
244 views
T-glottalization in West Country accents — is it a south-eastern influence?
English speakers from the West Country seem to glottalize their tees just like Estuary English speakers do. I can't find a word about T-glottalization in the West Country accents on the internet. I'm ...
1
vote
3answers
344 views
How do I pronounce “wrong” correctly instead of “long”?
When I say "wrong" people always mishear as "long". Pronouncing "r" and "l" correctly is always a big challenge for me. In Chinese we also have a syllable pronounced like "r" and a syllable pronounced ...
1
vote
1answer
634 views
Usage of sound /ʒ/ in English (not /dʒ/) [closed]
I'm trying to explain to an English speaker how to pronounce the letter j in French, and was looking for cases where it appears in English. It seems that j is almost always pronounced /dʒ/. Examples ...
1
vote
0answers
27 views
Words using all possible vowels [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Is there a word that contains all the vowels?
Is there a word in English that contains the 5 letters that are exclusively vowels (a, e, i, o, u) as well as the 3 letters ...
1
vote
0answers
25 views
Using `an` before consonants [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Why shouldn't we say “an user”?
I've personally seen the indefinite article an coming before consonants in many places whereas I think that should be a ...
0
votes
1answer
152 views
How to pronounce the final “s” in plural nouns
Could you please help find which word below is pronounced differently from the rest with regard to the final s?
caves
marks
exams
days
I choose number 2, marks.
0
votes
3answers
1k views
“Extensible” vs. “extendible”
Where does the adjective form extensible come from and does it connote anything different than extendible? What's the difference, if any, between the two?
0
votes
0answers
24 views
Why isn't “training” spelled “trainning”? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Is there any rhyme or reason to when one should double the last consonant when adding -ed or -ing?
Focussed or focused? The double consonant
Why isn't "training" spelled ...
-2
votes
2answers
143 views
What are the most common letters used in pairs after others in the English alphabet? [closed]
I have a question which is somewhat similar to What are the most common consonants used in English? (on wikiHow). What are the most common seven letters that come second in pairs after consonants and ...
