By Conversations, Consonants

CalifJim wrote:I read somewhere that Mario Pei, the linguist, tried to learn a different language every year. He supposedly claimed that Vietnamese was the most difficult. CJ I disagree with the linguist Mario Pei not because I am a Vietnamese. It is because I have seen, in my...

of always has the 'v' sound at the end except in (typically faster) informal conversation, where the 'v' is sometimes dropped when the following word begins with a consonant, 'of' then being identical in sound to the word 'a'. Help! Help! An alligator's got a hold of me! (a hold a me) A...

Anonymous wrote: I would like to know what is the most obstacle to your spoken english? 'greatest' I am somewhat proficient in three languages other than English. My biggest problem in conversations, of course, is understanding the other people, usually because they speak the language...

I don't know of a site like that. Initial s is pronounced /s/, except in sure and sugar, where it is pronounced /S/*. Medial s is problematic. There are no hard-and-fast rules -- mostly just lists. In -ssion or -ssure, the double S is /S/. impression, pressure In -sion or -sure,...

Yes, the M-W is a typical AmE pronunciation of immediately.I have a feeling that, since you are a Spanish native speaker, your terminal consonants and consonant clusters (strengths, firstly, etc.) are not as clear as your teacher would like; therefore she is asking you to stress the /t/ sound a...

During a conversation with a Chinese English Teacher she stated that her long ago Univ. prof had taught her that consonant blends can form vowel sounds. I suggested that a consonant blend can not be a vowel sound. She replied that in "any" dictionary consonant blends are used in those editions...

Hi Jazz, Thanks for saying I could correct your post on line. Re: your reply to Ali; 1. In English we always begin a new sentence with a capital letter, and we use a capital letter for people's names, and for names of places such as London, the Indian Ocean etc. So your greeting should...

If you need a detailed description for American English, here's something I came across in some old notes of mine. It's got some exercises at the end too! The phonetic transcriptions aren't really anything standard, but I think you can figure them out. Past tense of Regular Verbs Phonetic...

Hi Timbo, nice to meet you - haven't talked to you yet, have I? Where in Australia are you from? As I can see, your e-mail address is not an Australian one - do you live in Switzerland at the moment? I was wondering you knew about the German forms, so do you learn German? Actually, we...