Search results for 'tag:Pronunciation tag:Difference between' matching tags 'Pronunciation' and 'Difference between'

Re: waistcoat vs vest

Anonymous — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 08:52:45 GMT

We wouldn't use vest either for a waistcoat. A vest is what both women and men wear in the winter under their shirts and jumpers. I wouldn't use the term pants either as trousers, or as meaning no good. I would simply say 'no good' or 'useless'.

And yes, be careful, there is a difference between British English and English English. The Scots, Irish and the Welsh are not the same, with their own native celtic languages. What you need to use as a yard stick is known as BBC English, Queen's English or Received Pronunciation - and they vary as well!

Some questions to ask

Belly — Fri, 30 May 2008 15:02:03 GMT

I want to ask 2 questions about pronunciation first:

1) Do Americans say /use-d/ or /use-t/ in used to?

2) I saw Ann Cook wrote this in American Accent course:

If the first consonant is voiced, the next one will be as well. If the first one is unvoiced, the second one will sound unvoiced, no matter what you do.

Then she gave out examples:

After a voiced sound: He had to do it /he hae (d) d' du(w)'t/

After an unvoiced sound: he got to do it / he ga(t)d' du(w)'t/

a)(note that the words in bracket (d) (t) (w) are small and stand upper to others, I wonder whether we pronounced them)

b) How do those examples support the cause she gave, but I've seen no reason why. After t( unvoiced), we still pronounce: 'd, and so does after (d), so what's the difference?

3)What is the difference between rate and incidence?

4) "Lifting bar bell helps your pectorals expand" or ""Lifting bar bells helps your pectorals expand"

Re: you're or your

Kooyeen — Wed, 21 May 2008 19:29:43 GMT

RayH
How about people who don't know the difference between then and than?
Or there, their, and they're?
Or too and to?
Or its and it's?

Despite being wrong, they all make sense, since they are pronounced the same, except "then" vs "than". I've never understood that very well, but I recently noticed that "then" and "than" can actually be pronounced the same when the vowel in "than" is not completely reduced to a schwa. So it seems to me that in fast or normal speech you have "Better thun me", and in slower speech you have "Better then me". Maybe I'm mistaken though... Reduction and raising of /Ã¦/ to /É/ in reducible syllables is something I just started to notice. I'll post in the pronunciation section too.

Re: that that

Kooyeen — Sun, 04 May 2008 17:53:49 GMT

Well, I usually hear it that way, and Ann Cook in American Accent training told me to do so, so I think I'll go on pronouncing them that way. I could upload the short audio examples she uses to teach the difference between those two kinds of "that", but I don't feel like it now. If you are interested or curious I might post them in the pronunciation section one day...

Re: Could you check my pronunciation, please?

Zerox — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 10:29:02 GMT

Yes, I was also going to mention that v/w confusion. I've also struggled quite a lot with that since my native language really doesn't distinguish the difference between them. Luckily, I make that mistake extremely rarely nowadays.

Re: English prepositions strike back... again

Kooyeen — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 21:00:25 GMT

Hmm, sorry, I really know nothing about baseball! (or cricket) You know, there's virtually no baseball at all here (but I've seen it in American movies on TV )

As for the pad on my back, I thought it was ok as well, since I thought "pad on" was pronounced the same as "pat on". Then I started to have doubts, and I suspect the "a" in "pad on" is actually a little bit longer than the "a" in "pat on". Should I post in the pronunciation section? I'm sure we already discussed something similar, and it was hard to draw a conclusion (I think it was the difference between "pedal" and "petal").

Re: The difference between progress and to progress

Anonymous — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 13:04:06 GMT

N, I didn't mean the pronunciation, I meant the meanings of the two words. One is a noun and the other a verb so how does the meaning change?

Re: The difference between progress and to progress

Grammar Geek — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 12:48:09 GMT

The noun, in the first sentence, has the accent on the first syllable. PRAW-gress. (American pronunciation)

The verb, in the second sentence, has the accent on the second syllable. pruh-GRESS. (Also American)

Did you mean pronunciation, or did you mean something else?

Re: "s" and "z"

CalifJim — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 04:09:12 GMT

Is it because of my ears or is there really not much difference?

Your ears.

How important is the difference in the pronunciation of all these ending voiced /z/, devoice /z/ and /s/.

It's very important. Well, the difference between /s/ and /z/, anyway. Maybe the devoiced /z/ is not so important. Practice with /z/ and imitate native speakers, and you'll automatically produce the correct forms.

Can people really notice the difference?

Yes. Native speakers have no trouble hearing the difference between the verb and noun pronunciations of use, for example.

I[ f ] I pronounce all of them as /s/, would you find it strange?

Yes. That would be strange.

Maybe you just need to practice a little more. Eventually you'll get it.

CJ

Son and Sun, The same pronunciation?

Hector9 — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 17:39:51 GMT

Well I found on www.m-w.com

I heard the pronunciation and is almost the same, I donÂ´t know whatÂ´s the difference between "Son" and "Sun"

May be you can help me