30
votes
Accepted
"Extra W" sound in words
This is a so-called “linking semivowel”. It’s typically not perceived as being as strong a sound as “original” syllable-initial /w/, so some linguists don’t like to transcribe it (see this blog post ...
- 84.5k
22
votes
Do "cook the" and "cooked the" get pronounced differently?
The pronunciation can vary with the English accent of the speaker. While many may pronounce "cook" and "cooked" followed by "the" in the same manner, as an EN_AU speaker, ...
- 1,041
16
votes
Do "cook the" and "cooked the" get pronounced differently?
John Lawler in a comment wrote:
In practice, there is no difference in pronunciation and the addressee is expected to infer the tense, if necessary. Tense is not very important in English (there's ...
- 137k
8
votes
Is “not’ve” a valid [𝒔𝒊𝒄] contraction in either of spoken English or written English – or both or neither?
The contracted form not've is valid, especially among native speakers although it is uncommon in formal writing.
In fact, contracted forms are becoming increasingly popular. Just 6 days ago a member ...
- 92.9k
6
votes
Accepted
Is there a term for when the "d'" is dropped in a "not" contraction?
Book-writing [bʊk̚ˈɻʷʌɪʔn̩] versus real speech
What you’re seeing here is the simple reduction of weak syllables in casual connected English under fast speech rules, sometimes called allegro rules. ...
- 137k
5
votes
Do you take a break between words, when pronouncing?
The short answer is "not usually."
Text segmentation--for example, the boundaries between words in print--is a different phenomenon from speech segmentation. Anyone listening to someone speaking a ...
- 3,211
4
votes
Pronunciation of "I" vowel name in fast speech
Welcome to the site! There is no real 'right' way to pronounce I in fast speech, let alone song. I can only say that the allophones you have heard, in the given positions in those sentences, are quite ...
3
votes
Do "cook the" and "cooked the" get pronounced differently?
I'm simplifying here and not using IPA, but basically, some -ed endings have an "id" sound ("planted", pronounced "plantid"), some a "t" ("hiked", ...
3
votes
Is there normally a lexicalized loss of phonemic /d/ in the coda of "depends"?
It's not the mispronunciation /dɪˈpendz/ that the author is highlighting, it's the mispronunciation /deˈpenz/ (or /deˈpendz/).
In English, it doesn't really matter whether you pronounce it /nz/ or /...
- 90.3k
3
votes
does sound th as d makes any difference in fast speech?
In some Irish, Liverpool and West Indian dialects the voiced dental fricative (as in 'that') can sound like 'd'. (A song in Lionel Bart's Maggie May starts, "Dey Don't Do Dat Today Den, Do Dey?&...
- 5,597
3
votes
strange pronunciation of /t/ before the word "the"
The English phoneme /t/ is most often realised as an unvoiced alveolar plosive, [t]. The term plosive is just another way of saying that the consonant is a stop. To make this sound the tip and blade ...
- 48.7k
3
votes
Accepted
How do you pronounce "figure it out" quickly?
Pronunciation varies widely by region. In Canada and the northeast US, your first option, which includes the i sound, would be normal, but with our standard replacement of interior t's by d's. Hence,...
- 131
3
votes
Is hilarious pronounced /hɪˈlɛriəs/?
The difference between /ɪ/ and /ə/ in unaccented syllables is of very little importance in English. There are some people who use /ə/ instead of /ɪ/ in unaccented syllables (this is called the weak ...
- 90.3k
2
votes
Accepted
Does a word that starts with a vowel letter start with a vowel sound?
The best rule in English is that you should ignore spelling for purposes of pronunciation and ignore pronunciation for purposes of spelling, as these two things each have their own separate stories. ...
- 137k
2
votes
Does a word that starts with a vowel letter start with a vowel sound?
No. Need to look each word to verify pronunciation, for example, the o in opossum is silent and pronounced "possom." Per Cambridge Dictionary, Webster, and traditionary sources: /əˈpɑs·əm/ short ...
2
votes
Is there a term for when the "d'" is dropped in a "not" contraction?
I'd say what you're talking about here is actually the glottal stop (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glottal_stop).
The "d" doesn't just disappear; it's replaced with a shorter stoppage of airflow from ...
- 21
2
votes
Can the /t/ and /v/ sounds be dropped in "what," "that" and "of"?
Summary answer: Sort of but not really.
Details: In articulate speech, the ends of 'what', 'that', and 'of' are never dropped, and are pronounced distinctly. In BrE (standard or RP), the word final '...
- 72.1k
2
votes
Accepted
Pronouncing the final "‑ing" inflection as [əŋ] instead of as [ɪŋ]
Yes, I agree with your observations, except that (1) I would identify the second vowel of your [ˈiɾɪŋ] as barred i, a high central-to-back vowel produced by assimilation to the following velar n, and (...
- 17.5k
2
votes
Pronunciation of "of" in connected speech: Can /v/ ever be pronounced as /f/ in some cases?
There is a difference between the pronunciation of the "v" in have and the "f" in of.
The two sentences
I have two fine dogs,
I have to fine dogs,
mean different things. (I possess two ...
- 90.3k
2
votes
Do "cook the" and "cooked the" get pronounced differently?
Here are some opinions voiced on WordReference by native speakers about this difficulty of English pronunciation; it appears to be a matter of how careful the speakers like to be, and, apparently ...
- 23.9k
2
votes
Is there normally a lexicalized loss of phonemic /d/ in the coda of "depends"?
This is a case of a more general merger between /nz/ and /ndz/ found in some speakers. As Wikipedia explains, this can make bans and pens sound like bands and pends. This is usually because the /d/ is ...
- 19.6k
2
votes
How to pronounce "TH" quickly?
First, here are some general things about 'th' (a voiced or unvoiced dental fricative).
Among all languages of the world, 'th-' is relatively rare at between 4 and 7 percent (depending on sources). ...
- 72.1k
2
votes
Accepted
Is there a difference between the pronunciation of long-ass and long gas?
Yes there is a difference; one has a /ɡ/ after the /ŋ/, and the other doesn't.
English has a set of velar phonemes (produced way back in the mouth, using the back of the tongue and the soft palate as ...
- 109k
2
votes
Accepted
Is there a term for when people speak words with sounds connected together?
This is known as connected speech or fast speech processes and involves a series of phenomena including allophonic variation, reduced syllables, elision, assimilation, and coalescence amongst others. ...
- 48.7k
2
votes
Is the /jʊɹ/ phoneme being streamlined to /jɚ/ in General American?
I also noticed that many words like POOR and TOUR have the /ʊɹ/ phoneme increasingly streamlined to /ɔɹ/.
The situation with "pour," at least, is the straightforward result of of the pour-...
- 19.6k
1
vote
Is there a difference between the pronunciation of long-ass and long gas?
Broadly, yes.
I know nothing of phonetics but the difference is between 'long ass' and 'long gas' with the emphasis for some reason on 'long' in the first case and 'gas' in the second.
Does that not ...
- 2,490
1
vote
How often does assimilation take place?
The one to speak is the one which is most clear and pronounces all of the letters. Regardless of which accent a native speaker uses on a daily basis, they will be able to understand English spoken as ...
- 7,180
1
vote
What is the trend in pronouncing the word "strength"?
My apologies. I read the question too quickly, and did not notice the question was about the pronunciation of the "k". My previous answer was in regards to the "sh" sound in your ...
- 107
1
vote
Why is chocolate pronounced as CHOK-LATE and not CHO-KO-LATE?
The pronunciation of words and how many syllables has is not a constant. It varies greatly with region, dialect, accent, time period, eduction, etc. Every example you have given is said in a variety ...
- 440
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible