Questions tagged [pronunciation]
for questions about the sound, stress, or intonation of spoken words.
2,219
questions
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/dʒ/ sound in engineer and job
Why /dʒ/ sound in engineer and job is so different.
The example for engineer, its sound likely /ʒ/ than /dʒ/
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/engineer
The example for job
https:...
0
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0answers
35 views
Derivative form that simplifies or localizes pronunciation
Americans sometimes say boozhy, which I am guessing was coined to simplify the pronunciation of its original, foreign form: bourgeois. There are probably other examples of the same derivative ...
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0answers
23 views
When the word “our” is unstressed, is it pronounced like /ʌɹ/ or /əɹ/?
When the word "our" is unstressed, is it pronounced like /ʌɹ/ or /əɹ/?
For example: https://vocaroo.com/i/s0uXE3Gaahqm
0
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0answers
23 views
When the word “while” is unstressed is it pronounced like “wəl”, “wʌl” or “wɑl”?
When the word "while" is unstressed is it pronounced like "wəl", "wʌl" or "wɑl"?
https://vocaroo.com/i/s0ksGbGNUfyW
1
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1answer
58 views
When you make a glottal stop in English, does the front of your tongue touch the roof of your mouth?
When you make a glottal stop (or a glottalized t/stop t) in English, does the front of your tongue touch the roof of your mouth? For example, the word "hit".
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0answers
28 views
When the word “want” is unstressed, is it pronounced like /wənt/ or /wʌnt/?
When the word "want" is unstressed, is it pronounced like /wənt/ or /wʌnt/?
https://vocaroo.com/i/s1nUhAfWsc9k
4
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1answer
674 views
Was 'help' pronounced starting with a vowel sound?
In The King James Bible, Genesis:
2:20 And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.
I have ...
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1answer
83 views
When pronunciation does not follow etymology [on hold]
Autophagy is defined as:
Biology: Consumption of the body’s own tissue as a metabolic process occurring in starvation and certain diseases. lexico.com
It also provides a pronunciation:
/...
3
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1answer
133 views
Van Gogh goes or Van Gogh coughs? Is there a commonly accepted British English pronunciation?
The question changed during the formulation from
What is the correct 'British English' pronunciation of Van Gogh?
to
Is there such a thing as a 'correct' English pronunciation of a Dutch
...
2
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1answer
107 views
Do Americans pronounce the letter “t” in the end of words like a “d”?
How do Americans pronounce the letter "t" in the end of words? Do they pronounce it like a "d"?
6
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3answers
165 views
Why do English-speaking children mispronounce “spaghetti” as “pasketti”? [closed]
At first glance, this might seem like a very stupid question, and in full honesty, it is. But get this. In Norwegian, spaghetti is the same word, and I don't remember ever hearing any child ever say ...
2
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2answers
100 views
Can an intrusive R appear within one word?
When the word ‘drawing’ is pronounced as /'drɔːrɪŋ/, is that R called intrusive? Is such pronunciation colloquial and unacceptable for formal address?
3
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1answer
98 views
The pronunciation of “protester”
In this press conference held every day by Hong Kong Police, the police officer pronounced "protester" as "PRO-tes-ter". I checked the dictionaries such as the Cambridge Online and Longman Online and ...
1
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0answers
48 views
Do American natives pronounce t of at in “at any …” as FLAP T?
According to the American Accent rules, any T is pronounced as FLAP T when it comes in between two vowels that may be in a word or in between two words like "at any"....
So, Do American natives ...
-1
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0answers
58 views
How are the words “you” and “have” pronounced in this voice recording?
How are the words "you" and "have" pronounced in this voice recording? Yə, yʊ, yu, hæv or həv? https://vocaroo.com/i/s1Uc4Kdnekd2
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44 views
Variations in pronouncing “beloved” and other words ending in “-ed”
I have usually pronounced beloved with three syllables as "BE-lu-ved", but I have also heard it pronounced "be-loved" with only two syllables. I grew up on west coast, but now live in the south, where ...
1
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2answers
76 views
Pronunciation of “only” as “one-ly”
I have been noticing some of my colleagues (primarily from India) pronouncing the word "only" as though it were "one-ly" or "wunly" (/ˈwʌnliː/). Is this a common pronunciation of the word?
I don't ...
1
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2answers
65 views
how to link the phrase “to attend” when pronounced?
The weak form of to is /tə/ and attend starts with /ə/.
According to the rule of linking vowel to vowel, we have to add "w" glide consonant to link two words preceding one ending with a back vowel ...
0
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0answers
26 views
Question about the pronunciation of “governance” [duplicate]
I looked the work governance up in the dictionary and all dictionaries state its pronunciation is [ˈgʌvənəns] or [ˈgʌvərnəns]. However, I have several dictionaries that have audio and I can clearly ...
1
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0answers
75 views
Pronunciation of /b/ before /t/ as in 'obtain'
According to dictionaries, there is a sound /b/ before /t/ in the word 'obtain': /əbˈteɪn/. To me it seems impossible to pronounce /b/ in this position. To my ear obtain sounds as /əpˈteɪn/ where /p/ ...
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0answers
54 views
A learned scholar and the pronunciation of learned
Source: Cambridge Dictionary
learned
adjective fml US /ˈlɜr·nɪd/
having or showing much knowledge:
a learned scholar
I was checking the word learned and the example sentence made ...
4
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2answers
105 views
Why is the “A” in some adverbs silenced?
I'm an English learner, and I have had this question troubling me for a really long time.
In the word "magically", we do not pronounce the "a", so it is pronounced just "magicly," like most adverbs ...
0
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0answers
56 views
Is there a rule? The pronunciation of a word changes if the following word is a vowel sound or a constant sound?
I use "eye-ther" before words beginning with a consonant sound and "ee-ther" before words beginning with a vowel sound. The same applies when I use neither. E.g. "eye-ther this or that", "eye-ther him ...
20
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3answers
4k views
What is the meaning of “you has the wind of me”?
I ran into this excerpt from the book Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson:
I can see, can't I? I've tried my fling, I have, and I've lost, and it's you has the wind of me.
Source: Google ...
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0answers
31 views
Either Pronuciation is OK? or not OK? [duplicate]
Either Pronunciation is OK? or not OK? My wife is learning English and she came up with the “either problem”. What to reply? I had always used both pronunciations but in a specific way and seem to ...
1
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1answer
57 views
Pronounciation of Detritus
I had thought that detritus would be pronounced like detriment, but apparently not.
Why not?
Is there something in the etymology?
Are there any other words of English origin written "-trit-" ...
0
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1answer
61 views
How to pronounce -MENT as in moment and environment? [closed]
Do we pronounce ment as MUNT or MENT ?
2
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3answers
482 views
Is “repository” pronounced /rɪˈpɒzɪt(ə)ri/ or \ri-ˈpä-zə-ˌtȯr-ē\ or /rəˈpäzəˌtôrē/?
Is it /rɪˈpɒzɪt(ə)ri/ or \ri-ˈpä-zə-ˌtȯr-ē\?
I'm confused, I've seen it pronounced both ways and I'm not not sure if it's an American/British thing or do people just use different pronunciations ...
0
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0answers
48 views
Areas where the residents pronounce their locations differently than non-residents
When listening to residents of Baltimore Maryland say the name of their city, they drop the "t" altogether and the name of their city is pronounced with 2 syllables. It sounds more like: "Bal-mer". ...
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0answers
50 views
Are “one” and “won” homophones in Australian English?
My friend and I are both native speakers of Australian English.
He thinks "one" and "won" sound different and feels "a one-liner" sounds wrong and should be "an one-liner". He does think the two ...
3
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1answer
87 views
Was the Queen's English as we know it artificially created? [closed]
There is a theory that American English is in fact a great deal closer in terms of pronunciation to the language Shakespeare spoke than the official British version, a.k.a. the Queen's English.
...
1
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0answers
93 views
How to pronounce the '/100 km'?
Hi, there!
When we describe the fuel consumption, how should we pronounce the '/100km'?
e.g: This car has a fuel consumption of 100 gal/100km.
Is it pronounced as 'per one hundred kilometers' or '...
3
votes
2answers
206 views
Where in Ireland, if anywhere, at the time of James Joyce, would “hoe” and “whore” sound similar enough to pun?
Where in Ireland, if anywhere, at the time of James Joyce (1882 – 1941), would "hoe" and "whore" sound similar enough to pun?
This question pertains to Does Joyce, in Finnegans Wake or Ulysses, ...
0
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1answer
72 views
Why is pianist usually stressed on the /pi/?
"Pianist" is usually pronounced /ˈpiənɪst/, with /piˈænɪst/ as an acceptable variant only in the US and Canada, according to Wiktionary.
I'm not sure why the pronunciation /ˈpiənɪst/ would be more ...
2
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1answer
64 views
schwa before /r/
Right now, Wikipedia gives the pronunciation of Sirius as /ˈsɪriəs/, but in the past I've seen editors insist on /ˈsɪəriəs/. I take this to mean that it should sound like seer, which I at least ...
2
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0answers
93 views
Is [ʌ] a back vowel or a central vowel in GA English?
The IPA symbol /ʌ/ name is "open-mid back unrounded vowel" and the IPA vowel trapezoid shows it as the unrounded version of /ɔ/, but its sound in English sounds very different from [ɔ] to me. It ...
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0answers
115 views
Pronunciation of antifa?
I'm hearing all kinds of pronunciations for antifa :
ən'ti:fə
æn'ti:fə
'æntɪfɑ:
æntɪ'fɑ:
The word has recently become more prominent. Do fascists and antifascists say it in the same way? Any ...
2
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0answers
57 views
Pronunciation of Los Angeles with /g/ and not /dʒ/, /lɒs'æŋgələs/ as opposed to /lɒs'ændʒələs/ [on hold]
I remember reading in an early Michael Connelly novel from the late nineties a remark about how one of the characters pronounced Los Angeles with a /g/ sound, making it /lɒs'æŋgələs/.
So far as I ...
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0answers
31 views
Pronunciation of the word antisemitic [duplicate]
There seems to be two ways to pronounce antisemitic. I have always pronounced the syllable "sem" to rhyme with "them". I notice that many Americans make it rhyme with "him" and the following syllable "...
2
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1answer
83 views
On the velar nasal /ŋ/ sound followed by /k/
I'm a non-native speaker and I have always pronounced all words with syllables ending in 'n' followed by a /k/ sound with the velar nasal /ŋ/. For example:
think / increase (v+n) / income / ...
1
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1answer
72 views
How do you pronounce this phrase, “as for me”? [closed]
How do you pronounce this phrase, "as for me"?:
/æz fɔr mi/
/æz fər mi/
/əz fɔr mi/
/əz fər mi/
10
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4answers
3k views
Spicket or spigot?
I recently was making a list and for the first time using a digital device, typed in what I grew up referring to an outdoor faucet 'spicket' as into my iPad.
My mother grew up in Utah and my father ...
4
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2answers
131 views
Can you link the [ʃ] sound and [s] sound?
How do you pronounce "English Speakers"? Do you treat sh and s as similar consonants?
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0answers
26 views
'Direction' Pronunciation [duplicate]
There are two ways to pronounce the word 'direction'.
dɪˈrɛkʃ(ə)n and dʌɪˈrɛkʃ(ə)n
Is one American and one British? If yes, please confirm which is which.
If not, what's the difference in usage?
5
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1answer
338 views
How do you pronounce the letter “t” before “h”?
How do you pronounce the letter "t" before "h"? For example how do you pronounce "What happened?"? Is it like "whadappened?"
-2
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2answers
66 views
What is it saying? [closed]
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kUhRiycleuqZOHp2kxiY4AU22fZKS_t1/view?usp=sharing
After "bunch of people", what does it sound like?
What's the way for me to fully understand what it's said? I can ...
0
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0answers
47 views
How do you pronounce the word “married”? [duplicate]
How do you pronounce the word "married"? Why do most people pronounce it like "mɛrid" or "mɛərid" even though IPA for it is "mærid"?
2
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0answers
107 views
“Sixty tray, all day” — what does that mean?
I've stumbled upon a very peculiar phrase in a comic I'm currently reading; here's the screenshot.
As can be seen, just before exiting the train some gangsta guy quips "Sixty tray, all day" to a ...
0
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2answers
139 views
Why is there a word for 'H'? [duplicate]
Why is there a word for the letter H, but not for the other letters?
In Lexico–formerly Oxford Dictionaries–for example, H = aitch, as in
‘drop one's aitches’
10
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1answer
2k views
Why do American speakers pronounce “the” as “/ðə/” before vowels?
I learned that we have to pronounce /ðə/ before consonants & /ði/ before vowels.
For example, the /ðə/ car, but the /ði/ earth.
But it seems that a lot of American people pronounce the /ðə/ ...
