Tagged Questions
2
votes
2answers
92 views
Character vs Charm - Pronunciation
Is there a rule to understand how the group "Cha" has to be pronounced?
"Character" sounds with a hard first syllable, while "Charm" sound softer, but I don't find how to tell which sound to use ...
1
vote
1answer
129 views
How to guess the pronunciation of some inconsistencies in English?
I’m not a native English speaker, and I have a lot of problems when is comes to pronouncing words like archive, archon, zealot, heal, health.
Why is the ch sometime pronounced like a k?
Why is the ...
0
votes
3answers
762 views
When the plural ends in “-ies”, how do I know whether the singular ends in “-y” or “-ie”? [closed]
my question is how am I supposed to recognize a singular form of a noun which plural form ends with "ies"? As you can see "cookies" are a "cookie" when singular, but at the same time "flies" stand for ...
0
votes
3answers
223 views
Guardrail vs Guard rail
I'm at odds with a colleague of mine over the correct spelling of the above title words.
My stance is that they could BOTH possibly be correct. My question specifically is....
Could one spelling be ...
12
votes
2answers
756 views
Why does the 'b' in absorb change to a 'p' in absorption?
The question pretty much says it all. Why is "absorbtion" an incorrect spelling?
19
votes
2answers
2k views
Why is it true that “I before E, except after C”?
I almost hesitate to ask this, because it is hard to believe no one else asked it; but it isn't showing up in the "similar titles" list.
What is special about 'C' that switches the 'IE' immediately ...
0
votes
3answers
1k views
What are the words where “-ei-” (except in “-cei-”) is pronounced as [i:]?
The rule is that "ei" is pronounced as [i:] only after letter c (or what is pronounced as [i:] is written as "ei" after letter "c" only).
There are exceptions, that I could find so far, like
...
6
votes
2answers
907 views
Problem with -ance/-ence
OK, so I'm ashamed to admit that as a native speaker I think I've missed something somewhere. I was typing up some documentation and spellchecker kept bugging me. So I looked up some words and found ...
8
votes
1answer
2k views
When should a singular word ending in “y” end in “ies” plurally?
Words like "sky" and "money" have "ies" as a plural suffix (i.e. "skies" and "monies") but other words like "monkey" and "Emmy" do not ("monkeys" and "Emmys"). Is there a rule dictating the use of ...
