A question regarding pronunciation.?
I asked my sister what time we had to be somewhere. She attempted to pronounce, "1-ish". But here's the thing. She totally pronounced it as "one nish" I called her out on her incorrect pronunciation, and she replied, "what". I snapped back at her, "you said.... ONE NISH!" She defends herself exactly how you would expect a guilty person to, "I said one ish". My memory reassures me, "Well I know what I heard and you said one nish". "Well you're being dumb. Either way it sounds the same. The 'e' in 'one' is silent so the n-sound never stops before 'ish' therefore there is no way that you could know when I was done saying 'one' before I started saying 'ish'.... You're drunk Mike" ------------------------------------- She is claiming victory. I am claiming victory. Who is right?
Where does the pronunciation for English words come from?
There are many different reasons why English words are pronounced the way they are today, and why there often seems no rhyme or reason why words should be pronounced the way they are. There is a different story behind almost every single word.One of the main reasons that many words are not pronounced phonetically, and apparently at random, is because English preserves the spelling of the language as it was many centuries ago. Over time the pronunciation of the words changed, but the spelling did not.That is why some words like "blood" have a short uh sound, while words like "floor" have a long o sound instead. Many centuries ago both words had a long o sound, but the pronunciation of blood changed, however the spelling did not. However the sound of the vowels in "floor" did not change. These changes were due to a vowel shift in English called the Great Vowel Shift which took place between 1350 and 1600. You can read more about it here: Great Vowel Shift Words like thought, brought, knight, night, were once pronounced with the "gh" pronounced, similar to the back of the throat "ch" sound in modern German. Over time the pronunciation changed, but the spelling did not.
Which is a good website for pronunciation of English words?
Pronunciationhttp://howjsay.com/index.php?wor...http://www.fonetiks.org/http://www.fonetiks.org/engsou2....http://youpronounce.it/http://forvo.com/Transcription, Pronunciation and Translation of English WordsImprove Your Writing skills
Help with german pronunciation on a few words?
You can try some of these [pronunciation simplified]: Good= gut [goot] Come= kommen [kaw-men] Come here = hergekommen [hair-geh-kaw-men] Come here girl= herkommen Mächen [hair-kaw-men maid-shen] Yes= ja [yah] No (believe me you'll need it)= nein [nine] Good girl = das gute Mädchen [dahs-gooteh-maid-shen] There's a good girl= der ein gutes Mädchen ist [dare-ine gootehs maid-shen isst] Stay= Aufenthalt [ow-fent-hahlt] Stay there = dort bleiben [dort bly-ben] Back =Zurück [tsoo-rick] Gutes Glück mit deinem Hündchen! Good luck with your pooch!
Pronunciation: How did "gh" at the end of some words become an "eff" sound?
English has a funny relation to its "gh" digraph. It inherits it from the Germanic languages, where it's pronounced as a rasp in the back of the throat (the "voiceless velar fricative"). In modern German it's spelled with a "ch" as in "Bach".It was pronounced that way in Old English and continued that way into Middle English. Chaucer would have pronounced "knight" as the Germans pronounce it today, "knecht", with the "k" sounded.But English changed soon after Chaucer. It's most noted for the changes in its vowels, and it's called the Great Vowel Shift for that reason. Many of the vowels were pushed towards the front of the mouth. Consonants tended to stay the same, but it was at the same time that English dropped the use of the voiceless velar fricative, or pushed it to the front of the mouth. Nobody really knows why. Coincidentally, that was about the same time the printing press developed, and in turn when English orthography began to be regularized. But the standardization was inconsistent, taking different spellings from different places around England. Often, the spelling was preserved but the sound changed.In some places, the "gh" disappeared entirely, such as the "gh" in "knight" and "sigh". In others, it was converted from the voiceless velar fricative (rasp in the back of the throat) to the voiceless labiodental fricative (a rasp between the teeth and lips), the sound usually spelled "f". It even went so far as to become a voiceless labial plosive, as in "hiccough" (pronounced as "hiccup"). The vowels were even more of a mess, and the "-ough" tetragraph has as many as 14 different pronunciations. Dr. Seuss immortalized it as "The tough coughs as he ploughs the dough". Often, the "gh" is silent, but when not, it's usually pushed to the front of the mouth as an "f".(For a nice chapter-length treatment of the subject, see Bill Bryson's Mother Tongue.)
What are some pirate words, phrases & pronunciations I should keep in mind for Talk Like a Pirate Day?
"Thar she blows!" - The pirate equivalent of "Whoop, there it is!". [Arrgh...that be Whaler talk, and no respectable pirate would speak like a blubber lubber!] "ARRRGHHHH" - this phrase shows general discontent. or it can also mean that someone is about to get wild- a.k.a. a battle cry. "Ahoy, me hearties!" - Equivalent of "Hello, my friends!" "Dogs ahoy!" - Equivalent of "Things to kill, straight ahead." "Shiver me timbers!" - Like saying "Oh My!" like my legs are shaking "Skuttle me Skippers" - Making a mistake and being judged for/by it. "Avast ye varmint" - Stop right there young man because you're in big trouble. "Weigh anchor!" - Let's go! "Yarr." - I agree. "Yarr!" - I see your point, and agree wholeheartedly. "Yarr-ha-harr!" - You're right! "Yarr?" - Excuse me, what did you say? "Yarrgh" - I respectfully acknowledge that you are right and I am wrong "Yaharr..." - a filler word. "Blow me down!" - You don't say? How surprising. "Savvy?" - Is that okay with you? Do you understand? "Ahoy" - Call to attract attention, something akin to 'Hello, there!' "Jack" - A flag or a sailor; showing how sailors would refer to their ship's colors as one of the crew. Hence Jack Tar for sailor and the Union Jack flag. "Salmagundi" - A dish of chopped meat, eggs, anchovies, onions and anything else the cook can throw in; A piratical delicacy "Weigh anchor! Hoist the mizzen!!!" - Basically adds on to Let's go! "A merry yarn" - A good story "arrrrgh shocked to the very boney" "Where be the treasure?" - Where is the treasure? "Land Ahoy" - I see land "Hoist the Colors!!" - Raise the flags.
How do I improve my pronunciation in english?
Ok, I think It's enough what I learnt about grammar, so I should improve the pronunciation. Tell me tips to do it because it's been a little hard to me to practice pronunciation for the differences in vowells and stuff. Where to start? Is phonetics a good alternative? thanx in advance
How can I find pronunciation of every single word in English? (including names, places)
There are some free, online dictionaries that provide a phonetic transcription and /or an audio clip to help you pronounce the words.Dictionary.com - The world's favorite online English dictionary!Dictionary and Thesaurus | Merriam-WebsterCambridge Free English Dictionary and ThesaurusMacmillan Dictionary | Free English Dictionary and Thesaurus OnlineIt is not possible to find the pronunciation of every single proper name for people and places. Some parents like to get creative with naming their children, and they make up new names, new spellings for existing names, or new pronunciations for existing names. Surnames in the US are from many different languages, and some of them have been modified to have a more English-like spelling or pronunciation, but not all of them. In my family tree, for example, I found one surname with two different spellings and another with three different spellings. My grandfather and his brother pronounced their last name differently, so now, several generations later, there are two different pronunciations for that name. I've lived in the US my entire life and still meet people whose names I don't know how to pronounce until they tell me.Please see the answers to this question for more about names: Why doesn't the USA force immigrants to Americanize their name?Place names are almost as bad. I can't assume that I will know how to pronounce the name of every city and street on the map just because I'm a native English speaker. Here are a few place names that non-locals always get wrong: Fort Gratiot, Duquesne, Carnegie, Mt. Lebanon, Hurricane, Stroschein Road.There are many more; these are just the ones that I could think of off the top of my head.