Search results for 'tag:Conversations tag:Consonants' matching tags 'Conversations' and 'Consonants'

Re: Which language is most difficult language for people to learn?

Hoa Thai — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 12:43:06 GMT

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 country, a couple of TV hosts and many shop owners speak our language fluently and write better than most of our people do. Amazingly, all of them have lived in Vietnam for only a few years. For instance, Joe Ruelle, who has been in Vietnam for only 3 years or so, has his own blog written in perfect Vietnamese and speaks the language without a foreign trace. People say that Joe is a Vietnamese who had plastic surgery in order to look like a Canadian!

For me, after years of learning French, English, Japanese, and Korean in that order - I find that:

1. Korean is the easiest to learn. After learning its unique phonetic vowels and consonants, one can arrange them together to form / spell various monosyllabic words; and string the words together, using a few grammar rules, to make sensible sentences. After two years learning the language, I now can comfortably watch KBS TV- programs.

2. French is second. Its grammar is structural and without exceptions. Spelling the words is as they sound. The hardest part is to memorize the gender of its vocabulary (i.e., masculine vs. feminine).

3. English is next. This multi-syllable language has the richest dictionary in the world with all of the borrowed words from a score or more foreign languages, including Latin / French / German / Japanese / Vietnamese, etcâ¦you name it. It also has too many exceptions in both grammar and pronunciation, along with its homophones and all of its nym's (homonym, capitonym, etcâ¦) that give Spelling-Bee contestants nightmares.

4. Finally, Japanese is the hardest with its two syllabaries: hiragana and katakana, plus about 8000 kanji's. This multi-syllable ideographic language is too culturally, hierarchically, and gender sensitive. I was told, one needs to know about 2000 kanji's to reach college-level proficiency and 2000 more or so to be considered as a scholar. In number, those are not huge compared to hundred-thousands in English but they take a decade or more to learn! Thus, the language is VERY difficult.

After 2 years learning the language, I can only manage to limitedly engage in daily, social conversation and no more. Now my Japanese friends rather use their broken English to talk to me! I owe them a lot since they have to deal with the language, to them, is the most difficult one in the world.

Having said that, I must say all languages are equally difficult for foreigners, who are not familiar with the cultures in which they are used, to learn. Absorbing literal meanings might be manageable, but understanding the deep connotation is often impossible.

CIAO,

Hoa Thai

Re: preposition OF

CalifJim — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 08:03:33 GMT

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 friend of my sister's got a pony for Christmas. (a friend a my sister's)
That's the end of the story. (the end a the story)
A lot of the children already knew how to read. (a lot a the children)
He was the star of the show. (the star a the show)
Today's the start of football season. (start a football season)
She played the queen of spades. (queen a spades)

This form of of is sometimes written o' (but with the same pronunciation as the 'a's above) and has become a fixed part of a few words such as o'clock, jack-o'-lantern, will-o'-the-wisp, and man-o'-war.

This comment applies to American English.

CJ

Re: What is the most obstacle to your spoken english?

Philip — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 17:03:17 GMT

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 faster than I can think in it. So, I usually start any conversation more slowly that I really need to, and that seems to slow them down a bit. Vocabulary can also add to my problems.

As for people learning English, I find that the biggest problem I have with them is their attempt to speak faster than they really should, thus making it difficult for me to comprehend. I believe that many Asian languages use far more vowels than consonants, and when speakers of Thai, for example, speak English fast, they often do not give as much attention to the consonants in English. On the other hand, an English speaker will make many (sometimes embarrassing) mistakes because of the tonal system in Thai.

Each language-to-language situation is different, depending on the languages involved; these are problems that a language learner should be aware of and try to get help from a person thoroughly familiar with both languages.

Re: The sound of "S" at the beginning and in the middle of words

CalifJim — Mon, 15 May 2006 07:05:55 GMT

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, the S is /Z/*. vision, treasure
*/S/ is the sound of "sh" in "sheep". /Z/ is the sound of "s" in "measure" or of "zh" in "Zhivago".

Otherwise âssâ has the sound /s/. Exceptions where âssâ = /z/ are âAussie, Missouri, dessert, dissolve, scissorsâ, and the first âssâ of âpossessionâ

âscâ before âeâ, âiâ or âyâ acts as if âssâ. (acquiesce) Otherwise, âscâ is /sk/. (ascot, Oscar)

Intervocalic ârsâ, âlsâ, and ânsâ. The âsâ is /s/. (horse, else, density, dorsal, conversation, pulse, pensive)
But when followed by final âyâ or âeyâ the tendency in this situation is for âsâ to be /z/. (Mersey, Jersey, pansy, tansy, palsy) Unusual cases with three intervocalic consonants. parsley (/s/), Guernsey (/z/).
Intervocalic âspâ, âstâ*, âskâ. The âsâ is /s/. (aspen, mustard, asking, prosper, hostile, askew)

*But after a stressed vowel, final âstleâ and âstenâ have a silent âtâ, and âsâ is /s/. (castle, rustle, hasten) Stated differently, in such contexts âstâ has the sound of âssâ. An exception is âpestleâ, which may be pronounced with or without the /t/.

Intervocalic âsmâ, âsnâ, âslâ, âsbâ, âsdâ, âsgâ. The âsâ is /z/. (Osmond, osmium, cosmic, Asner, Maslow, Cosby, wisdom, Disney, frisbie, dismal, paisley) But not in compounds: (busboy, gaslight)

Final â-ismâ has /z/.

Intervocalic âsâ is typically /z/, but it is /s/ often enough to require memorizing the many exceptions. Note below how the same spellings can be /s/ or /z/, depending on the word or even the use of the word (noun or verb).

With /s/: case, base, chase, vase, erase
With /z/: phase, phrase, laser, quasar
With /s/: obese
With /z/: these, Chinese, Japanese, and all "nationality words" in "-ese"
With /s/: vise, isolate, isobar, and all words with prefix âiso-â.
With /z/: rise, wise, arise, advise, supervise, improvise, all prefix + âvise" words, advertise, prison
With /s/: dose, close (adj), verbose, morose, purpose, monstrosity, porosity
With /z/: chose, hose, close (v), nose, pose, prose, rose, those; lose, whose; position
With /s/ : obtuse, recluse; use, abuse, excuse (nouns)
With /z/: muse, fuse, ruse, amuse, accuse, profuse, confuse; use, abuse, excuse (verbs)
With /z/: raise, praise, braise, raisin, daisy
With /s/: geese, Reese
With /z/: cheese
With /s/: cease, crease, grease*, lease
With /z/: tease, ease, please; easel, teasel, weasel; reason, season, treason
With /s/: mouse, louse, grouse, douse (v), house (n)
With /z/: rouse, arouse, carouse; house (v), lousy; browse, drowse, drowsy
With /s/: moose, goose, loose, noose, caboose
With /z/: choose
*âgreaseâ has /s/ in the northern U.S. and /z/ in the southern U.S.

Prefix + root.

With the prefix âtransâ it often makes no difference whether /s/ or /z/ is used.
Speakers vary in their choices.
/s/ or /z/: transpire, transpose, transmit, transact
Latin prefixes âreâ, âdeâ, âpreâ followed by a root beginning with âsâ (and vowel) normally have /z/.
reserve, deserve, preserve, resort, present, design, resign, resent, resemble, resolve
But with /s/: resource, research; reset, resend, all âre-â meaning âagainâ.
But Anglo prefixes âbeâ, âaâ followed by a root beginning with âsâ (and vowel) have /s/.
beset, asea, beseech, aside, beside, besiege, asunder

CJ

Re: Skipping letters when pronouncing certain words?

Mister Micawber — Tue, 02 May 2006 06:41:12 GMT

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 bit more.

There are three /t/ sounds: aspirated /t/ at the end of utterances, like Right!; stopped /t/ followed by other consonant sounds, like Right now!, where the end of the /t/ sound does not 'pop' with expired breath; and flapped-t between vowel sounds, which actually sounds like /d/, as in Right away!. Immediately is pronounced with the shortened, stopped /t/ in normal conversation, but your pronunciation may not be strong enough, so your teacher may be asking you to use the aspirated /t/ in an effort to counterbalance your tendency and develop the habit of making the appropriate sound.

That is just my guess, of course.

syllables

Asiatrek — Fri, 19 Aug 2005 09:15:06 GMT

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 as pronunciation guides to help indicate where the syllable lies. I agree with this point but I suggested that a consonant blend -- i.e. motorcycle -- cle -- the final e is silent and therefore does not practically make a vowel sound to indicate where the syllable is. Then I suggested that the vowel sound is "hidden" between the letters of the consonant blend. Thus although one cannot see the "hidden" vowel sound one can still 'hear' the vowel sound. Thus the general rule of thumb for finding syllables still applies -- every syllable contains a vowel sound --- ; )
She would like to know from a technical perspective whether this is correct or not.... I have no idea since I am not a expert in these matters. Any feedback appreciated

Re: Hello

abbie1948 — Sat, 02 Apr 2005 12:28:37 GMT

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 be:

"Hi Student ..."

I know that when we use the internet or text, we often leave out things like capital letters and punctuation, but when you are learning, it's a good excercise to pay attention to the details.

We also always use a capital letter for 'I'

2. It is important to use a dictionary to ensure your spelling is correct. (But we all make mistakes!)

Here is a list of your spelling errors:

articale; indifinint; pronounse; diffecult; difinint; resturant; papular; studing

See if you can find these in a dictionary and correct them.

3. Verbs - these can be quite difficult to understand. This site might help.
http://www.learnenglish.org.uk/wordgame_current_frame.html

* "here are the using..."
This needs to be present simple + noun. "Here is the use...."
Use is a verb, but also a noun, and you are using it as a noun here. As it is singular, the verb also needs to be singulr.

* "A" is called (NOT is calling) - I agree, it sounds as if you should use the present continuous here, but in fact we don't; we use the simple past. I was called X when I was born, and it is a long situation.

* "and use with only nouns ...."

Here you need the present tense of "be" + the participle "used"

"and is used with ...."

* "book is A noun and began with 'b'"
The simple present here - it is a permanent situation; book begins with 'b', and will always begin with 'b'. the same goes for "nice BEGINS with 'n' "

Also, pay attention to your articles, particularly as this post is about articles!

* I went to a restaurant and I have had ...."
Here you need the simple past: "I had my lunch there" because having lunch is a short, quickly finish action.

"Which restaurant I talked about ...."
The past progressive is better here; it is used for temporary actions and situations in the past.

"Which restaurant I was talking about" Presumably you didn't talk for years about the restaurant, nor did you repeatedly talk about it!

OK, here's the corrected item - although I'm leaving the spelling mistakes in so you can look them up!

Hi Student,
Here is the use of these articales:
"A" is called THE indifinint articale and useD with only nouns or adjectives which already begin with A CONSONANT, FOR example; a book, a nice rose. Book is A noun and begINS with b, nice is AN adjective and begINS with n, and so on.

"An" is also dealT with it as AN articale, but we can use it with nouns or adjectives which begin with vowelS such as "a,u,i,o,e,and someTIMES 'h' when we pronounse IT like: honest , so we can say an honest boy!

To MAKE IT easIER for you, try to use "a" with apple. You will note that IT IS more diffecult TO say an apple, isn't it Ali?

"The" is THE difinint articale: IT is usED for someTHING we already know, or someTHING we HAVE mentionED in our conversation; so when we want to repeat it again we use "the" before it, eg: I went to a resturant and I HAD my lunch there, I saw my old friend in the resturant. WE USE 'THE' BECAUSE YOU already know which resturant I WAS TALKING about. Also we use it with something UNIQUE in the world, eg. The Indian Ocean, but we can't use it before people'S names, OR meals, like lunch,dinner ETC. So "the" has many uses.

By the way, u r studing in THE UK. It is A GOOD place to LEARN BETTER English. I AM jealous u coz I WISH I WERE there!

P.S Re; full membership: I think this is very reasonable question, because I didn't know at first. I think it depends upon how many times you post a question or response to the forum, so keep on working, and it will just happen.

Do keep on answering posts, as you did to Ali, because it helps everyone.

Re: Rules of Pronounciation for regular verbs in the Simple Past needed

CalifJim — Wed, 22 Dec 2004 05:07:06 GMT

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 Considerations

/xxxxx/ shows how the word is pronounced.
"xxxxx" shows how the word is written.
These guidelines do not apply to irregular verbs.

1. Verbs that end in /d/.
Add /id/.

/pad/ /padid/ ("pad","padded")
/land/ /landid/ ("land","landed")
/bOrd/ /bOrdid/ ("board","boarded")
/trAd/ /trAdid/ ("trade","traded")

2. Verbs that end in a consonant and /t/.
The final /t/ remains the same. Add /id/.

/akt/ /aktid/ ("act","acted")
/irupt/ /iruptid/ ("erupt","erupted")
/lift/ /liftid/ ("lift","lifted")
/twist/ /twistid/ ("twist","twisted")

The verb form "wanted" drops the /t/ in most everyday conversations.
"wanted" = /waunid/. Use /waunt'id/ only in careful speech.

3. Verbs that end in a vowel* and /.t/.
*This includes R-colored vowels.
Change the /.t/ to /d/ and add /id/.

/pa.t/ /padid/ ("pat","patted") Intervocallic "t" and "d"
/stAR.t/ /stARdid/ ("start","started") are neutralized!
/sE.t/ /sEdid/ ("seat","seated") That means "t between vowels"
/nO.t/ /nOdid/ ("note","noted") and "d between vowels"
/wA.t/ /wAdid/ ("wait","waited") are pronounced the same.

/.t/ represents an unreleased /t/.
Final "t" after "r" or after a vowel graph is normally unreleased.

If you need to be very precise, keep the /t/, for example, if you didn't understand a word, ask:
Did you say "seated" or "seeded"? ... "waded" or "waited"?
/sE-t'ed/ or /sE-ded/ /wA-ded/ or /wA-t'ed/
It would obviously do no good to ask "Did you say '/wAdid/' or '/wAdid/'?" !!!
But in normal conversation in the U.S. and in Canada, these /t/'s are pronounced as /d/'s. /sEdid/ = "seated" or "seeded"; /wAdid/ = "waded" or "waited".

4. Verbs that end in an unvoiced consonant other than /t/.
(That is, those that end in /p/,/k/,/f/,/s/,/Sh/, or /tSh/.)
Add /t/.

/hO.p/ /hOpt/ ("hope","hoped")
/bA.k/ /bAkt/ ("bake","baked")
/laf/ /laft/ ("laugh","laughed")
/lAs/ /lAst/ ("lace","laced")
/wauSh/ /wauSht/ ("wash","washed")
/latSh/ /latSht/ ("latch","latched")

Since /tSh/ = /Ch/, the last example could have been written phonetically as:

/laCh/ /laCht/

5. Verbs that have any other ending (voiced consonants other than 'd', or vowels).
Add /d/.

/nAm/ /nAmd/ ("name","named")
/nab/ /nabd/ ("nab","nabbed")
/shO/ /shOd/ ("show","showed")
/beg/ /begd/ ("beg","begged")
/rAn/ /rAnd/ ("rain","rained")
/dodZh/ /dodZhd/ ("dodge","dodged")

Since /dZh/ = /j/, the last example could have been written phonetically as:

/doj/ /dojd/
____________________________________________

Practice saying the base form (shown) and the past tense of these verbs.
Write out the phonetic form of at least 5 of each type.
Type 1. afford, add, fade, pad, kid, side, confide, card, board, weed, wend, blend, befriend, sand, attend, heed, aid, bread, hood
Type 2. act, twist, conduct, select, perfect, construct, elect, dust, toast, fast, evict, dent, vent, opt, adopt, rust, salt, bolt, tilt, predict, lift
Type 3. start, bait, state, sight, depart, court, assert, avert, create, plate, bleat, tote, coat, boot, loot, bat, fret, edit, inhibit
Type 4. rope, soap, cope, nap, trap, trip, skip, bake, rake, fake, poke, soak, lock, nick, ache, laugh, quaff, rough, cough, doff, roof, miss, place, trace, wish, fish, finish, polish, abolish, itch, reach, leach, cinch, enrich
Type 5. bathe, fan, yell, empty, try, cry, snow, flow, pardon, consider, pray, saw, prove, love, live, smile, mine, team, steam, scream, ding, file, fool, fill

Re: Why is it You were and not You was?

pemmican — Mon, 26 Apr 2004 15:49:25 GMT

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 have three forms for English "you":
"du" (2nd person singular),
"ihr" (2nd person plural) and
"Sie" (formal 2nd person, both singular and plural).

I posted a long reply already to a similar question about the forms of to be in a former thread, I searched for it, but unfortunately I haven't been able to find it yet - maybe the admins could post a link to where it has gone to now??!!

Maybe I can give a short answer nevertheless, I hope I can remember all the important facts...

Language tends to become simpler, i.e. irregularities are reduced.
This development is a very slow one of course, and the more common a word is, i.e. the more it is used in daily conversation, the harder it is to get rid of the irregularities.
You can see that especially in inflections of words.
Strong verbs e.g. tend to become weak ones as that is a more productive way of "building" forms of the tenses
(learn - learnt - learnt e.g. becomes learned - learned, and work - wrought - wrought changed to worked - worked).

It's a bit more difficult with was/were as I have to refer to Middle-High-English and Middle-High-German now, ok let's have a try:
You maybe know that English and German both are Germanic languages, therefore they are related of course.

English however, is usually a step further already in its way of dropping irregularities, while German is not, but the word "to be" bears some difficulties: Due to the fact that it is a verb that is used very often, the forms hardly change; you could say "to be" is sort of a "fossil verb".

The past tense forms of "to be" in Middle-High-German were

ich was (current German: ich war) = I was
du waere (cG: du warst) = you were
er was (cG: er war) = he was

wir waren (cG: wir waren) = we were
ir wart (cG: ihr wart) = you were
si waren (cG: sie waren) = they were

You can see now, that the forms of current German are more regular than they were in Middle-High-German:
The -s in 1st and 3rd person has been replaced by -r, that consonant that occurs in the plural.
The form for 2nd person singular had been derived from the plural forms of the past tense, and, if possible, with Umlaut, this Umlaut has been replaced by the stem -a- in a later step of simplifying.

English on the other hand still keeps this old -s in the 1st and 3rd person plural: I/he "was".

It is a bit more difficult with the form of the 2nd person singular and plural:

Some of you were quite on the right way already:
Actually, the old form of "you" for 2nd person singular was "thou", for 2nd person plural "you" - so there was a difference in former times between singular and plural (as there still is in German).

The form of "to be" for 2nd person singular was "thou wert" - compare with: "thou didst, thou hadst", etc. - as you can see: these old forms also kept the old inflection ending "-(s)t"; also compare to the German forms above.

There has been another form for "thou wert", later on which used to be "thou wast", here you can see that the old Umlaut had been eliminated and the -r has been replaced by -s to have a difference between singular and plural forms.

In a further step then finally, the difference between the singular and plural form of the 2nd person had been dropped and the singular person had totally been replaced by the plural form: "you", for both singular and plural, so that is why the current form is "you were" rather than "you was".

If you compare these forms in one more step now with the Dutch forms of "to be" (past tense), you can see, that here, the form was indeed replaced by the singular, more regular form - the old s/r change is still kept though:

ik was
jij was
hij was

wij waren
jullie waren
zij waren

I hope I could help you out and this was not too confusing for you.
Maybe one of the admins will find my former posting reply about the "to be" problem, it might be a better help.

Greetings from Germany
Pemmican