Tagged Questions
5
votes
0answers
212 views
How are Japanese words spelt in English? [closed]
When they are writing material in English, I sometimes see native speakers of Japanese misspell English words that were derived from Japanese.
For example, I've seen "tunami" written instead of ...
0
votes
1answer
246 views
How do I spell a word that sounds like “reh-par-tay” and often used with “witty”? [closed]
Clever conversation, aka "witty [reh-par-tay]" ... can't for the life of me remember how to spell that loan word, though I use it in spoken English from time to time.
I am pretty sure it's not ...
12
votes
3answers
9k views
Why is the word 'bologna' pronounced like 'baloney'?
Why is the word 'bologna' (as in a bologna sandwich) pronounced so differently from the way it's spelled? The word 'lasagna' isn't pronounced 'lasagney'...
The American sausage is derived from a ...
11
votes
6answers
989 views
How would you spell “Tehran” in English for it to be pronounced “correctly” (i.e. as in Persian)?
Native English speakers do not pronounce the h in Tehran so it is pronounced like "Teran". But in the original pronunciation in Persian the h is pronounced, resulting in /tehˈɾɒːn/.
Is there any ...
2
votes
4answers
842 views
What's up with the hyphen in “orang-utan”?
For most of my life 'till about a couple of years ago, I had only seen the spelling orangutan written to describe those delightful red-headed apes from the tropical forests of Borneo. Lately, though, ...
10
votes
1answer
5k views
Why is the “a” in “cocoa” silent?
Not being a native speaker of English, one of those words that tripped me up is “cocoa”. Besides having its vowels inverted from “cacao”; it also is pronounced exactly the same as “coco”, whereas ...
21
votes
5answers
2k views
How do you spell Muammar Qaddafi?
This name, which is spelled القذافي in Arabic, is spelled in so many different ways in the Latin alphabet:
Gadafi, Gadaffi, Gaddafi, Gaddaffi, Gadhafi, Gadhaffi, Ghadafi, Ghadaffi, Ghaddafi, ...
