Search results for 'tag:Accents tag:Vowels' matching tags 'Accents' and 'Vowels'

Re: Easy as Pie, Almost!

Anonymous — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 12:30:12 GMT

Frequently listen to English spoken by native speakers and repeat them.
Watch English movies, listen to music, audio clips, BBC news and presentations.
Control your rate of speech to get the correct intonation and rhythm of English.
Use your dictionary.Familiarize yourself with the phonetic symbols used for different words in the dictionary and look up the correct pronunciation.This method helps in neutralizing an accent tremendously.
Make a list of commonly used words that are difficult to pronounce.
Record your own voice and listen for pronunciation mistakes.
Read English newspaper regularly.
Work on how to pronounce the vowel and consonant sounds.Mostly vowel sounds play vital role for accent variation.
Hence pronounce the vowels clearly.
Practice English sincerely. Don't feel shy to speak English as a beginner.

Re: How to pronounce Pacino, Scorsese and Sean

Jackson6612 — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 10:21:44 GMT

Anonymous
Actually guys Italian like Spanish spells its' words phonetically. Scorsaysee is more or less and American Italian invention its' not how the word should be pronounced.

Scor -se -se is actually the true prounciation of this LATIN word. In latin the e is never pronouced like the english long e but only as the short vowel e as eh - like egg or exit.
EE in italian is used by the letter i in which gives the long e vowel sound we know in English, ie Pacino - Pa Chee no.

The ScorSAYsee in Scorsese is most likely due to a missinterpretation of the Italian accent that colours certain vowel sounds.

But in Italian, Scorsese would sound like Scor SE se. Raising the tone of your voice and elongating the sound eh so that it sounds almost like a drawl (not an american drawl but a lazy e). Thank how an Italian would pronounce Luigi.

Whatever the correct phonetic sound of Scorsese it is NOT pronounced ScorSAYsee

Thankk you, anon.

Question 1: Doesn't English also spell its words phonetically?

Question 2: Which of the following sentences is correct? If both are correct, then what is the difference in meaning?
1: Doesn't English also spell its words phonetically?
2: Doesn't English also pronounce its words phonetically?

Question 3: I believe Italian and Spanish are based on Latin. English, too, does borrow some of its words from Latin but it's a Germanic language. Am I correct?

Re: How to pronounce Pacino, Scorsese and Sean

Anonymous — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 02:54:18 GMT

Actually guys Italian like Spanish spells its' words phonetically. Scorsaysee is more or less and American Italian invention its' not how the word should be pronounced.

Scor -se -se is actually the true prounciation of this LATIN word. In latin the e is never pronouced like the english long e but only as the short vowel e as eh - like egg or exit.
EE in italian is used by the letter i in which gives the long e vowel sound we know in English, ie Pacino - Pa Chee no.

The ScorSAYsee in Scorsese is most likely due to a missinterpretation of the Italian accent that colours certain vowel sounds.

But in Italian, Scorsese would sound like Scor SE se. Raising the tone of your voice and elongating the sound eh so that it sounds almost like a drawl (not an american drawl but a lazy e). Thank how an Italian would pronounce Luigi.

Whatever the correct phonetic sound of Scorsese it is NOT pronounced ScorSAYsee

Re: Changing from American to British accent.

Lincoln Punch — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 17:39:35 GMT

I tried, but failed.

It's really difficult even though English is not my first language.

I love how British English sounds, but I feel more comfortable and confident when I speak in American English.

Besides, some vowels, like British 'short o' sound is really hard for me to pronounce.

It's probably because I learned American English first.

Re: i want to learn bristish accent...

Anonymous — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 15:12:47 GMT

I am very talented with accents, but I have had to accept the fact that I am getting older and the ability to imitate an accent is diminishing. I am a native speaker of standard mid-western American English (considered to be accent free in the US). I speak Spanish with several regional accents, due to spending summers as a child in Mexico with relatives, then I lived 12 years in Miami and developed quite a heavy Caribbean accent, and could pass as a Cuban.

I learned quite fluent German at age 20-23 when I was stationed in Germany with the US Army, but I have a slight accent because of what I mention in the next paragraph--rhythm and music.

I live in Israel now, and although I do not use American vowels and consonants in Hebrew, it is the rhythm or music as they say, which gives me away.

At the end of the day, you must admit that it is WHAT you say and that it should be kind and with a good heart. Someone could be the most talented foreign language learner in the world and could learn to speak those languages perfectly without foreign accent, but this person is a horrible and says nasty things! I think we would love and respect the foreign accent spoken by the kind, well-meaning person. It is not the accent, but the thought that counts. Remember that!

Re: pronunciation

Huevos — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 09:33:47 GMT

Yes, they are correct in British English. US stress doesn't always follow British stress, but I would have thought so here. By the way the "standard" way to show stress is an acute accent over the vowel: PÃ³rtugal, AmÃ©rica, GÃ©rmany, etcÃ©tera.

Re: British Accent - How to speak in a British Accent

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 21:53:49 GMT

If you're not doing a posh accent - 'th' words such a throat, threat, something, think, thing, that have the 'th' sound - involving using your tongue between your teeth to say them - if you get what I mean (!) are pronounced with the 'f' sound so froat, fret, somefing, fink, fing. Although the actual word something - is also pronounced in the general London area as sumfing, sunfink, summink and summing or even dropping the k and g. have lived near this area most my life, but not sure which of these is prevelant in the Brixton area!!!! (guess not very observant!!)

Also as i think somone said, drop your g's. ie for words like thinking - so say more as thinkIN and not thinKING.

Also aitches - drop them - 'ere, instead of here, 'er instead of her etc.

and shorten words - probably be prob'bly,differently - diff'rently. Kind of any vowels that make it an extra effort to speak - drop!!!!

Re: Tone contour

Avangi — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 15:33:58 GMT

New2grammar
I have no idea what those numbers represent. . . . . . you can say it louder of softer

Just as you could assign numbers from one to five to represent the loudness, or accent of the syllables in a sentence, you could represent the pitch level (Hertz) at which you speak/sing the vowel tones by a scale of one to five. Sometimes the pitch rises or falls on the vowel sound of a given syllable. That's why the OP represented the "dont" in each example by two numbers. (I believe there's a forum devoted to this sort of thing.)

You ask a girl if she'll go with you to a dance. She replies, "Don't you wish!" The pitch level would probably stay constant across "don't you" and then fall sharply on the short "i" vowel of "wish." There's probably a dwell at the higher level followed by a dwell at the low level, rather than a trombone style glissando, sliding down across the range, hence well represented by two numbers.

- A.

Re: The word "Greenwhich"

Mr Wordy — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 22:10:55 GMT

It's spelled "Greenwich" (well, the ones I know are anyway).

I'm from England, and I pronounce it "Gren-itch", with the first "e" pronounced as in "met". Some people in England say "Grin-itch", the "i" as in "bit". I suppose I can just about visualise someone with a rural British accent saying "Gran-itch". I'm not qualified to advise on US or other pronunciations.

As for why ... I don't really know, but it's easier to say it with a short first vowel, so may have been corrupted for that reason.

Re: the ~ thee

Kooyeen — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 22:25:10 GMT

Hmm, can I answer even though I am not a native speaker?
I would say "thee eagle" because I learned to pronounce it "thee" before vowel sounds. Words like "university" and "wall" don't really start with a vowel sound, but with "semivowels", I think. In IPA they would be /j/ and /w/ respectively. That's why I say "the" in front of "university" and "wall".

Philip
I seem to insert a glottal stop if I try to say 'thee' before 'evening' rather than just slide from one word to the other.

That reminds me of some weak sounds the author of American Accent Training says learners should try to put between vowel sounds when connecting different words: Thee (j)other, three (j)oranges, etc.

Just my opinion.