| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8] > | Off topic: Pronunciation that makes you cringe (inwardly) Thread poster: Cilian O'Tuama
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Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 20:35
Member (2008)
Italian to English
| If you only put a full stop . in the title, nobody will bother to read the email notification | Dec 15, 2022 |
A friend of mine heard an English woman telling her friends about her marvellous holiday in France when she stayed in a gateau.
| | | | Heinrich Pesch 
Finland
Local time: 22:35
Member (2003)
Finnish to German
+ ...
Kay Denney wrote:
For reasons I can't begin to fathom, the French always say "low" for "law". As a teacher I used to repeat endlessly "it rhymes with door" but to no avail. They have no problem with "jaw" or "paw" or "saw", so "low" is a complete mystery to me.
Another one is "idea", they never seem to get that the a is not purely decorative. Trouble is, I'm then left wondering why they're mentioning "ID".
That reminds me of my English teacher, Frau Engel, back in 1962. We would pronounce cow like low or row, until she told as it should be cou (?), or KAU in the German way. Of course we knew how to pronounce cowboy (kaubeu), but nonetheless we used to pronounce cow as low. How about Whow?
| | | | Lieven Malaise
Belgium
Local time: 21:35
Member (2020)
French to Dutch
+ ...
Tom in London wrote:
A friend of mine heard an English woman telling her friends about her marvellous holiday in France when she stayed in a gateau.
Sweet!
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Tom in London wrote:
If you only put a full stop . in the title, nobody will bother to read the email notification
In this day and age, Tom, you may be the only person who gets email notifications. And anyway, what happened to your campaign against having to write a title for your replies?
Some common mispronunciations in Wales: feasty for feisty, Mitsibushi for Mitsubishi, and the Valleys classic yer for ear
[Edited at 2022-12-15 11:40 GMT]
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Heinrich Pesch
Finland
Local time: 22:35
Member (2003)
Finnish to German
+ ...
Kay Denney wrote:
For reasons I can't begin to fathom, the French always say "low" for "law". As a teacher I used to repeat endlessly "it rhymes with door" but to no avail. They have no problem with "jaw" or "paw" or "saw", so "low" is a complete mystery to me.
Another one is "idea", they never seem to get that the a is not purely decorative. Trouble is, I'm then left wondering why they're mentioning "ID".
Well, in French idea is idée and in German Idee. So if one pronounces it as ID it just shows the person does not remember how idea is written in English.
| | | | Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 21:35
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
Heinrich Pesch wrote: Kay Denney wrote:
For reasons I can't begin to fathom, the French always say "low" for "law". As a teacher I used to repeat endlessly "it rhymes with door" but to no avail. They have no problem with "jaw" or "paw" or "saw", so "low" is a complete mystery to me.
Another one is "idea", they never seem to get that the a is not purely decorative. Trouble is, I'm then left wondering why they're mentioning "ID". Well, in French idea is idée and in German Idee. So if one pronounces it as ID it just shows the person does not remember how idea is written in English.
German and French pronunciation is not close to ID. It’s / ee-deh /.
Maybe their analogy is with words such as pea, that idea is pronounced the same way. Or as in East, ea is pronounced /ee /. Or words such as please, grease, sleazy, would give someone idea that ea is always / ee / in English.
| | | | Metin Demirel
Türkiye
Local time: 22:35
Member (2018)
Italian to Turkish
+ ...
Denis Fesik wrote:
Or is English super-optimised for borrowing all sorts of words and making them sound natural?
I am happy to be a non-native who doesn't have to use the word "forte" when speaking English. If I had to, I would avoid going with the prolonged "fortay" and stick with the original pronunciation. Of course that would cause some miscommunication but I wouldn't feel responsible.
| | | | Baran Keki
Türkiye
Local time: 22:35
Member
English to Turkish
| Vets and Veterinarians | Dec 16, 2022 |
Not being a native English speaker, I must say I've always found this a bit confusing. Perhaps native English speakers could offer some perspective?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWDP_ew8HqQ
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Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 20:35
Member (2008)
Italian to English
The usual British term used to be "ex-serviceman" - until somebody, somewhere, decided to adopt the American expression "veteran". This immediately created confusion with the word "vet" (veterinary surgeon). If people would just think what they're doing, perhaps these problems would not arise. People! Don't you just hate 'em?
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Metin Demirel wrote:
I am happy to be a non-native who doesn't have to use the word "forte" when speaking English. If I had to, I would avoid going with the prolonged "fortay" and stick with the original pronunciation. Of course that would cause some miscommunication but I wouldn't feel responsible.
Does the pronunciation "fortay" sound like some other word in Turkish? The original Italian is certainly a two-syllable word. I believe English started truncating the final -e in pronunciation as an evolutionary step that occurred well into the history of the language. Indians seem fond of vocalizing the final -e: I heard Gillette pronounced as a three-syllable word with the stress on the first syllable, and I definitely heard more examples of this, even from Indians who spoke English at a very high level with hardly any accent. Overall, Indians have some charming ways of using English. Some of them have a thickkk accent, almost painful for me to hear (I had to abandon some interesting math channels where the narrators spoke with such an accent), but then I'd notice that UK people would readily understand even the worst cases of it and were able to maintain an effortless conversation with the speaker, some of them sounding as if they were mesmerized by the rhythm of the speaker's voice (I used to be a verifier and coordinator at a call center targeting the UK market, and I guess some people are going to hate me for that even though it's a thing of the past)
[Edited at 2022-12-16 08:23 GMT]
[Edited at 2022-12-16 08:24 GMT]
| | | | Baran Keki
Türkiye
Local time: 22:35
Member
English to Turkish
| Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 20:35
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Metin Demirel wrote:
....a non-native who doesn't have to use the word "forte" when speaking English...
That's probably because "forte" is not an English word. It's usually used in combination with other words , such as "chess is not my forte" (usually pronounced, rightly or wrongly, as "forty")
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Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 20:35
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Denis Fesik wrote:
..... I'd notice that UK people would readily understand ..... and were able to maintain an effortless conversation with the speaker....
That may be because there have been so many migrants from the Indian subcontinent to the UK; they have been very successful and continue to make a very significant contribution to British life. So we're used to various kinds of Indian/Pakistani accents. I don't think that is the case in other European countries.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQClnut6Zp4
[Edited at 2022-12-16 13:53 GMT]
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Tom in London wrote:
That's probably because "forte" is not an English word. It's usually used in combination with other words , such as "chess is not my forte" (usually pronounced, rightly or wrongly, as "forty")
I've never heard it pronounced in any way other than fortay, and with the stress on the first syllable
| | | | Sadek_A
Local time: 23:35
English to Arabic
+ ...
Lingua 5B wrote:
Am I the only one who thinks this topic is slightly politically incorrect?
Why?
Let them have a few good laughs at the silly foreigners who can't pronounce English correctly.
Then, We can have similar few good laughs at the silly foreigners who can't pronounce our languages correctly.
For example, Arabic has a few characters that are a bit** to pronounce by non Arabic speakers, especially English speakers.
Tom in London wrote:
To those for whom English is not a first language, the very strange pronunciation of some English people must be a constant problem.
Roughly fifteen years ago, I had a lengthy (over an hour long), almost one-sided (by him) conversation with an Australian; I swear that till this very moment I still don't know what he was saying 😝 (I mean, who, in their sane mind, would take the British accent and think "let's make this baby even harder to understand"?).
Conversation was supposed to be a minute or two, so I thought "be polite and just nod, he will be done soon, he must have things to do". Apparently, he thought "by god, he's such a great listener, why can't my wife and kids be like that?"
And, of course, another Australian introducing himself: "Muk". Me: "Mark?". Him: "Noooo. Muk!". Me (inwardly): "What the truck, Muk!😝"
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