All Questions
10 questions
13
votes
4
answers
74k
views
Why doesn't "ninth" have an "e", like "ninety"?
Is it just because "ninth" has only one syllable? That wouldn't make sense, though, because saying "NINE-ith" wouldn't be worse than saying "NINE-e-tee". If we were used to "nineth", we would have ...
- 57.8k
11
votes
2
answers
8k
views
Is there any rule for pronouncing words beginning with “re-”?
It’s hard for me to guess how to pronounce words beginning with re- correctly.
Sometimes it is /rɛ/ as in reference, but sometimes it is /ri/ as in report.
Is there any rule about this?
- 213
5
votes
0
answers
209
views
Why do you write "receive" with "ei" but "retrieve" with "ie"? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Why is it true that “I before E, except after C”?
Both words are similar in pronunciation but different in spelling. Why is it that receive is written with ei but retrieve has ...
- 151
4
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Name for letter U in words like 'suede' and 'penguin'
What is the letter U called when it says the /w/ sound in words like suede and penguin? I've read that y and w are semivowels but the U in suede and penguin doesn't really conform to the definition of ...
- 47
3
votes
3
answers
4k
views
Why do "able" and "haste" have long a's?
(There are others, such as table, paste, and baste.) The rule I've heard is that a vowel is made long when succeeded by a consonant and then another vowel. Some words treat double consonants as a ...
- 57.8k
2
votes
2
answers
8k
views
Why does a silent "-e" at the end of a word lengthen vowels?
There's a common pattern in English spelling where "short" vowels are pronounced as "long" vowels with the addition of a silent "e" at the end of the word.
E.g.
bit → bite
mat → mate
pet → pete
Is ...
- 147
2
votes
2
answers
9k
views
Are there words other than "friend" where "ie" is pronounced as /ɛ/ ("short e")?
Are there any words in English other than friend where the spelling "ie" corresponds to the "short e" sound /ɛ/?
- 1,442
2
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Why is the spelling of "company" different from the pronunciation?
My students regularly pronounce the word "company" with [o] in the first syllable.
Why do we pronounce [ʌ] in this syllable? but write "o"?
Thank you.
user292343
2
votes
1
answer
5k
views
Rule for the pronunciation of the letter O as /ʌ/ vs. /ɒ/
If the letter o in a word is pronounced as a monophthong, it will fall
into two types:
pronounced as /ʌ/ as in color ("/kʌlə/")
pronounced as /ɒ/ as in lock ("/lɒk/")
What I would like to ask is ...
- 273
0
votes
1
answer
6k
views
/u/ and /uː/ in pronunciation
What is the regularity of appearance of /uː/ and /u/ (or /ʊ/ in RP)? How can I be most sure deducing from spelling alone, that, say, "ooze" is pronounced /uːz/ and "wool" as /wul/? I know that English ...
