Thread: Help with English pronounciation

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GCSE English: Confusions - there, their and they're

I explains a few of the things that often trip non-natives up.

Originally Posted by Jimbo

I also think he meant "hear" things like i before e except after c...

Somebody spank me! Ohhhhhhhhh Validator ...

I never realized how freakin' complicated our language is. I agree with X- grab that dictionary. There are many words that even native English speakers have trouble with, which is why I visit dictionary.com often, as well as keep my large collegiate dictionary close.

I've always found English to be a very easy language to learn. And it is, as long as you don't look too much for rules, but instead just accept that the grammar is inconsistent and learn it by rote.

Back in the good old days, computer games were all in English only: Space quest, kings quest, zelda, ... so I played those games with a English - dutch dictionary by my side, and learned the language as an added bonus.
What also helps is reading only English books. I prefer fantasy and SF, and most of it is written in English and never translated into Dutch.

I've always heard that Dutch can be a very hard language to learn, because of the ways in which we chain verbs together in a sentence. I wouldn't know of course

French... now there is a difficult language. With all the different accents, and gender of words. I am convinced they invented al those things just to make their language posh

Another helpful tool...If you search a word on dictionary.com, they provide you with a sound clip of how to pronounce a word.

Originally Posted by Bruno

I've always found English to be a very easy language to learn. And it is, as long as you don't look too much for rules, but instead just accept that the grammar is inconsistent and learn it by rote.

Back in the good old days, computer games were all in English only: Space quest, kings quest, zelda, ... so I played those games with a English - dutch dictionary by my side, and learned the language as an added bonus.
What also helps is reading only English books. I prefer fantasy and SF, and most of it is written in English and never translated into Dutch.

I've always heard that Dutch can be a very hard language to learn, because of the ways in which we chain verbs together in a sentence. I wouldn't know of course

French... now there is a difficult language. With all the different accents, and gender of words. I am convinced they invented al those things just to make their language posh

Try Arabic. They engender EVERYTHING.

That's a cool way to learn though, via video games and science fiction books.

Found this on slashdot:

Originally Posted by Original Source Unknown

We'll begin with box, and the plural is boxes.
But the plural of ox should be oxen, not oxes.
Then one fowl is goose, but two are called geese.
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.

You may find a lone mouse or a whole lot of mice,
But the plural of house is houses, not hice.
If the plural of man is always called men,
When couldn't the plural of pan be called pen?

The cow in the plural may be cows or kine,
But the plural of vow is vows, not vine.
And I speak of a foot, and you show me your feet,
But I give a boot - would a pair be called beet?

If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth?
If the singular is this and plural is these,
Why shouldn't the plural of kiss be nicknamed kese?

Then one may be that, and three may be those,
Yet the plural of hat would never be hose.
We speak of a brother, and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.

The masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine she, shis, and shim!
So our English, I think you will all agree,
Is the trickiest language you ever did see. I take it you already know
Of tough and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble, but not you
On hiccough, thorough, slough, and through?

Well done! And now you wish, perhaps,
To learn of less familiar traps?
Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird.

And dead; it's said like bed, not bead;
For goodness sake, don't call it deed!
Watch out for meat and great and threat,
(they rhyme with suite and straight and debt).

A moth is not a moth in mother.
Nor both in bother, broth in brother.
And here is not a match for there.
And dear and fear for bear and pear.

And then there's dose and rose and lose --
Just look them up -- and goose and choose.
And cork and work and card and ward,
And font and front and word and sword.

And do and go, then thwart and cart.
Come, come, I've hardly made a start.
A dreadful language? Why, man alive,
I'd learned to talk it when I was five.

And yet to write it, the more I tried,
I hadn't learned it at fifty-five!

As a teacher of English to foreigners I wish there was an easy answer.
I have to say that pronunciation in English is a pain and depending on your nationality you will have a problem with different aspects.
I would advise you to look at the phonetic spelling in dictionaries
I can be prounced in many ways but the most common are - /I/, /aI/ and /3:/
pin would be written /pIn/
lie would be /laI/
and bird would be /b3:d/

Learn the patterns that the groups of letters make - many unvoiced consonants preceding 'I' create the /I/ sound, but it depends on the word. There are always exceptions and even British and American English approach it differently.

I am trying to find my reference book for phonemes but can't put my hands on it now.

Here in Poland the problem is differentiating between long and short vowels like ship and sheep(which obviously causes hilarity when beach and sheet come along)
My funniest moment though was when a student tried to directly translate from Polish to English.
The verb to ask in Polish is the same word they use as please(like our plead but not in a begging way!)
My student told me - 'My computer was broken so I pleased the man next door and he fixed it for me'
I tried very hard to keep a straight face.

Oh, and of course what is this word?
GHOTI

it is fish.

'gh' in enough is 'f'
'o' in women is 'i'
'ti' in words ending in 'tion makes sh

therefore logically it is a valid spelling of fish

Technically, the "ough" in enough makes the "uff" sound since "ou" by itself can't say "uhh". In English, "ough" can make (in order of most used to least): oh, oo, uff, off, aw, ow. Damn phonetics!