Questions tagged [pronunciation]
for questions about the sound, stress, or intonation of spoken words.
2,313
questions
1
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0answers
26 views
Is there any well-known British accent which aʊ is pronounced like əʊ in?
I think I've heard the word "about" pronounced with əʊ (as in "Poland"). Is it just me or there's indeed such an accent in Great Britain or, more specifically, in England?
0
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0answers
24 views
How to pronounce “read” in different situation? ie Reed or Red?
English learner here, so my question is how to read, read?
For example, how should I pronounce "read" here?
How many times did you read about xxx?
or
How many times have you read about xxx?
On ...
0
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0answers
17 views
Good materials for young children to practice oral English [closed]
What would be the good materials for young children (5-10 years old) to read out loud, taking English as a second language (in addition to his/her mother tongue).
Would that be the famous poems, ...
2
votes
1answer
63 views
Pronunciation of -wic in place names
In the TV series The Last Kingdom a number of place names appear. The series typically shows the Ænglisc spelling of place names, followed by the modern one. E.g. the name old name Wintanceaster ...
0
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0answers
43 views
Pronunciation of “intermediate” as /ɪntə(ɹ)ˈmiːdʒɪt/?
I've heard both "intermediate" and "immediate" pronounced /ɪntə(ɹ)ˈmiːdʒɪt/ and /ɪˈmiːdʒɪt/ respectively in Indian English. Wiktionary has /ɪˈmiːdʒɪt/ as an alternative pronunciation for immediate for ...
1
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0answers
45 views
Enforce NOT to pronounce sh in a word
I have a word in the Arabic language that is transliterated into Mushib in English. It means Verbose. I need to enforce the pronunciation of this word to be Mus-Hib (Without pronouncing the sh sound)
...
4
votes
1answer
74 views
How would you transcribe and/or describe this vowel?
I'm analyzing the /æ/ vowel sound (also known as 'short A') found in words like cat, dad, or man. I am particularly interested in how that sound is realized in different dialects of American English ...
0
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0answers
39 views
Why is the ī sound in -ice words different from other words? [duplicate]
I'm thinking about words like "dice", "mice", "lyse", "thrice" etc. that all have the same phonetic pattern at the end of the word. Thinking about these words phonetically, I would imagine that the "i"...
1
vote
2answers
146 views
Why is the 'cy' in cycle and cynic pronounced differently
Consider the following example:
Cynic → /ˈsɪn.ɪk/
Cylinder → /ˈsɪl.ɪn.də(r)/
Cycle → /ˈsʌɪk(ə)l/
Cynic and cylinider are stressed on first syllables yet the cy is pronounced /sɪ/ and not /saɪ/ (as ...
0
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0answers
52 views
Does the pronunciation of “either” change with meaning?
I was watching a video on YouTube and the host of the video said:
We don't say either of these either.
She pronounced the first either as EYEther and pronounced the second one as EEther. The ...
0
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0answers
37 views
How to pronounce various names in Robert Jordan's “The Eye of The World”?
I am currently reading the first book, "The Eye of The World", from the series "The Wheel of Time". In this high fantasy novel, Jordan uses a lot of strange spellings for names that I have a hard time ...
2
votes
1answer
69 views
Pronunciation: Lunch vs Lunge
The pronunciations are stated /lʌntʃ/ and /lʌndʒ/ on Cambridge dictionary, by hearing the audios provided the only difference I can spot is that they tend to drag the first syllable of Lunge a bit ...
1
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0answers
68 views
Is there a word that has the same -er sound pronunciation in all both British and American accents
Most words with -er ending, sound different in British and American accent. In British it’s “a”, in American it’s “e”(don’t know how to correctly write transcription ).
But is there word, that has ...
3
votes
3answers
59 views
Dilemma of pronunciation
As a non native speaker of English, I am often confused about pronouncing words. Is there any standard of pronunciation in English language? As in if I give a completely new word to some random people ...
22
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2answers
4k views
Why does “signature” have a “g” sound but “sign” doesn't?
The following words don't have /g/ sound: sign, resign, design.
But why is there a "g" sound in the following derived words? Signature, resignation, designate.
I searched their etymologies because I ...
1
vote
2answers
117 views
Reduction of diphthongs to short vowels (/waɪz/ -> /'wɪz.əd/)
I've noticed this phenomenon / process in many words where a diphthong (or a long vowel as well?) reduces to a short vowel when it's inflected.
Consider the following examples:
Pronounce /...
0
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0answers
21 views
Allophones and Intonation transcripts [migrated]
I bump into this website on Google, and it has pretty good examples of IPA transcripts with allophones and intonation; however, I could not find such elsewhere.
I am grateful for the recommendations ...
8
votes
5answers
3k views
Why do words that end with “gue” sound different? [closed]
Why do some words ending with "gue" sound different from other similar words?
Examples: rogue and argue.
Rogue -> /'rəʊɡ/
Argue -> /ˈɑːɡjuː/
They both sound different. What's the reason?
2
votes
1answer
81 views
Pronouncing “warrior” to rhyme with “lawyer” … is this a feature of any dialect of English?
I've been listening to a section of The Great Courses: Medieval History, an audiobook narrated by Kenneth W. Harl. From his accent, Prof. Harl is clearly American, with what I would describe as a ...
4
votes
1answer
93 views
What accent did 'kewl' (cool) originate from
I've been hearing 'kewl' for a long time excessively on social media (mostly used by Americans).
I wondered what accent it came from. I searched, but only found the following information about it:
...
0
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0answers
48 views
“…” pronunciation
I saw something like this, but everyone answered "and so on" or "et cetera." However, I am using it to omit words from a quotation. For example:
Joe said "foo ... bar"
How would I pronounce this?
2
votes
2answers
87 views
Pronunciation of endings “-tin” and “-tine”
I am trying to figure out if there is a (kind of) 'correct' rule regarding the pronunciation of endings -tin and -tine.
I always thought that endings with -tin are pronounced as /tɪn/, like for ...
1
vote
1answer
66 views
Do native speakers pronounce all words with æ always in a similar way?
In online dictionaries, I can hear different pronunciations for different words with æ. Does a specific person pronounce all words with æ in a similar way or there can be a difference in pronunciation ...
2
votes
0answers
37 views
rhotic sound in received pronunciation?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcaWkR4ydeY
Hi, This is a British pronunciation according to the title. I can hear a rhotic /ɝ/ in the second syllable, however.
In the pronunciation of this word, ...
1
vote
1answer
99 views
How to infer the pronunciation of words starting with “co”?
I'm particularly interested in the British pronunciation.
Take the following two words as an example:
Context (kɒntɛkst)
Control (kənˈtrəʊl)
The first one's pronunciation starts as kɒ whereas the ...
1
vote
1answer
95 views
Pronunciation of bath and maths in British English
In Southern standard British English, bath is pronounced as /bɑːθ/ with a long a while maths is pronounced as /mæθs/ with a short ae sound. Why does that happen?
Both maths and bath end with θ. Even ...
2
votes
1answer
84 views
Is “ Princesses' ” correct and how would it be pronounced? [duplicate]
From my understanding:
" Princess " is the singular form
" Princess' " is the possessive form pronounced with an -es in the end
" Princesses " is the plural form which is pronounced in a similar ...
0
votes
2answers
42 views
Do these audio files sound natural to you? [closed]
I would like to know if the audio in these files sounds similar to a native speaker in terms of pronunciation. If not, please tell me why. Also, would you use audio like this to train your English ...
6
votes
1answer
598 views
What is the correct pronunciation of “elytra”?
The word elytra refers to
one of the anterior wings in beetles and some other insects that serve
to protect the posterior pair of functional wings
according to Merriam-Webster. The word is also ...
0
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0answers
52 views
English word to best represent the Dutch double A / [a] sound
My Dutch name is Maarten which has a double A inside of it, pronounced simply as [a]. It is often misspelled as Marteen. I guess that most persons will remember my name as Martin but with a double ...
5
votes
2answers
450 views
Solve and resolve pronunciation
Solve starts with /s/ sound and when a prefix re- is added to it, it is pronounced with /z/ sound. Why does it happen?
Solve -> /sɒlv/
Resolve -> /rɪˈzɒlv/
0
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0answers
44 views
“an JSON object”, why “n”?
I found many examples
https://www.google.com/search?q=%22an+json+object%22
but how can a "j" sound like a vowel?
0
votes
0answers
65 views
Find an English word having its pronunciation
I speak a persian language. I watch English video lessons about chess and I am not familiar with lots of the words and there are not any subtitles available. I wonder is there any way that I can ...
0
votes
1answer
79 views
Why are river and sliver pronounced with a short vowel, but rover and slider pronounced with long vowels?
Why are river and sliver pronounced with a short vowel, but rover and slider pronounced with long vowels? Is it because the latter two examples are words made by attaching the -er suffix to an ...
2
votes
1answer
77 views
Want to vs One two
When pronounced at normal speech speed, do the words "want to" and "one two" have any difference in the sound they produce?
0
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0answers
71 views
Length these (/θ/ + /ð/) pronunciation
I saw a sentence in which there were two consonant sounds I couldn't pronounce. The sentence is below:
"I read at length these days".
In this sentence I was unable to pronounce length and these ...
0
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0answers
39 views
Changed pronunciation
How do you pronounce changed?
Its pronunciation is /tʃeɪndʒd/ but I often notice that people don't pronounce dʒ in it. Is it acceptable not to do so?
I often hear tʃeɪn_d without the dʒ sound. Also ...
0
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0answers
60 views
Pronunciation of words
I have problems with the pronouciation of some words ending in with 'w'. Words like follow, saw, sow, paw etc. I know 'w' at the end of words has a vowel sound of short 'u' and I know that most people ...
6
votes
1answer
540 views
How is the name of the town Hingham, Massachusetts, pronounced?
In the UK, place names ending in "ham" are typically pronounced with a final /əm/. For example, Birmingham, Buckingham, Clapham, Sandringham and Tottenham. (I haven't been able to find any ...
0
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0answers
29 views
Do native speakers palatalize these sounds
Do native speakers palatalize sounds like /t/ in front of /ɜ/ and /ɝ/
turn /tɝn/
torn /tɔɹn/
Is /t/ here the same sound?
1
vote
1answer
47 views
Intonation in interrogative sentence
I would like to know what kind of intonation the following sentences have:
Does it hurt?
Doesn't it hurt?
I pronounce both with the same rising intonation but my friend told me I was wrong.
...
0
votes
0answers
65 views
Omission of “a” or “one” in a number for spoken English
Does "a" or "one" always necessary when saying a number?
For example, is the following valid in spoken English?
1,034 = thousand thirty-four
Also what if 1 is in the middle of a number?
I know the ...
0
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0answers
44 views
Use of “a” or “an” in a fraction for spoken English
Can you use the word "a" in the denominator in place of "one"?
For example, if you have a number like: 103/105 ... is the following valid in spoken English?
"a hundred three over a hundred five"
0
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3answers
85 views
How is the 'ng' in any word pronounced?
I am familiar with the phonetic sound of 'ng' together ( I am sorry I don't have a phonetic keyboard) and that there is a special way to pronounce it but some, including me, pronounce both letters and ...
0
votes
1answer
49 views
What is the proper way to spell and pronounce the name Yoanna or some certain names?
My name is "Yoanna" but I am not sure of how to pronounce or spell it properly in English. It is derived from "Joanna". Should I write it "Joanna" and pronounce it "Yoanna" or do I stick with "Yoanna" ...
0
votes
1answer
73 views
Difference between “greater than” and “greater then”? [closed]
What are there a difference between the following sentences?
They are pronounced the same or? Maybe it depends on the dialect?
A: Are you sure 'x' is "greater than" 'y'.
B: Are you sure 'x' is "...
1
vote
1answer
49 views
(How) should redacted years be read aloud?
Related to but different from this question about the purpose of such redactions.
How should a passage such as this from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein be read aloud?
St. Petersburgh, Dec. 11th, 17--
...
14
votes
2answers
3k views
Why is the J in “hallelujah” not pronounced as /dʒ/, but as /j/?
Here are some similar words in that they are spelled with <י> in the Hebrew they come from, and which are pronounced as /j/ in Hebrew, and which are pronounced as /dʒ/ in English:
Jehovah
Jah
...
2
votes
1answer
173 views
Pronunciation: /sɪksθ/ /t/
How do you pronounce sixth time?
For example: Lionel Messi has won the Ballon d'Or for the sixth time.
It's quite difficult to pronounce the /ksθ t/.
Do you skip any sound in /ksθ/ /t/? If so, ...
0
votes
2answers
76 views
Pronunciation of “lever”
You can hear different pronunciations of the mechanical component lever. Sometimes it is pronounced with an i-sound, similar as in "leave", and other times you hear it with a clear e-sound almost as ...
