Search results for 'tag:Vowels' matching tag 'Vowels'

Re: A sub-investment / An sub-investment ??

clive — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 04:29:11 GMT

Hi, a sub-investment or an sub-investment ? do we always look at the word after " - " for the correct article ? Just consider what sound immediately follows the article. That's all. Use 'an' if it is a vowel sound. Could you give me more examples? a university an ugly dog Clive

Re: WAAS .. tricky acronym

gleb_chebrikoff — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:36:11 GMT

Hello, Vladimir, this combination has not yet been codified in major pronunciation dictionaries, perhaps due to the narrowness of its use outside technical areas; therefore, we should resort to analogy. Thus, acronyms of a similar type (featuring consonant + vowel + vowel + consonant ), including WAAC and WAAF, are pronounced as follows: WAAC ( Women's Army Auxiliary Corps) - WAAF ( Women's Auxiliary Air Force) - , from which it stems that a possible pronunciation of the combination in question is , although it is still unclear whether this term has transcended the boundaries of a mere abbreviation and become a real acronym. Respectfully, Gleb Chebrikoff

Re: Merit or merits? graduated?

doctor d — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:46:13 GMT

First, the correct spelling is achievement . Also, I believe the term used in the US is "with honors" rather than "with merit." I am not familiar with the "points" part of it. That is not commonly used. You can say either an MSc or an MSc degree . Also, you can use the abbreviations BS or MS (these also stand for bachelor of science and master of science and are more commonly used). So, I would say: My academic achievements include a BS and an MS in economics, both with honors. (Use "an" before "MS" because the "m" has a vowel sound when it is pronounced.)

Re: Vowels

tanit — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:47:14 GMT

Hi, For vowels in (British) English, you might try the BBC's phonetic chart: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/pron/sounds/chart.shtml

Re: Words without consonants

grammar geek — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:18:43 GMT

The clue listed only the vowels. It was up to the contestants to figure out which state had those vowels in that order. AIE would be M ai n e IIIA would be V i rg i n ia EEEE is Tennessee I don't know which ones they listed, but apparently EEEE was one of them.

Dark L or Light L after final L + new word

dokterjokkebrok — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 10:10:22 GMT

Hi, A question for you guys, as I was unable to retrieve the answer to this from the threads. Do we pronounce a dark L or a light L in: e.g. cool Indian In other words, does the second word, which starts with a vowel, influence the dark L that is normally pronounced in the word 'cool' if pronounced seperately. Thank you for you replies.

Re: Vowel sounds

califjim — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 22:36:59 GMT

What is the difference between the vowel sounds "yoo" and "oo"? Strange question, don't you think? The first one has a "y" sound at the beginning; the second one doesn't. The "y" sounds like an "ee" pronounced very quickly so that it glides into the "oo". youth starts with the "yoo" sound. oops starts with the "oo" sound. You might look them up and listen to them at www.m-w.com. CJ

Re: Lazy vowels!

avangi — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 21:21:04 GMT

I didn't find anything in our house search engine, but Google has some stuff on foreign sites that might help: http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=91560579520 http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/servlet/SirveObras/12715753131277171865624/p0000027.htm

Lazy vowels!

anonymous — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 19:10:09 GMT

what is a lazy vowel? and can we have an example!

Cant figure out

anonymous — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 16:26:41 GMT

5 letters with no vowels cannot have a i s l e and uses 3 of these letters m a n l y

Re: Moonlighting5

kooyeen — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 20:54:12 GMT

I think I hear 'Sunday' there.You must ...on Sunday.(maybe) Hmm, it might be "Sunday", yes. Here comes a BIG problem that I've been wondering about for ages... And I'd like to find out more on this phenomenon soon.The problem is, I can sometimes hear different things, depending on what I expect to hear... and sometimes I find that it is possible to hear two different things at the same time. At first, I understood something like this: He woss kown drowned on sunday => He works kind of drowned on sunday??? I have no idea. But if I listen again and again focusing on certain sounds, a strange thing happens. And I can hear the first word in three different ways: He woss... You woss... Here wass... He,...

Re: Moonlighting

kooyeen — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 19:50:57 GMT

Well, it might just be the actor's accent that is confusing then. I seem to hear a bit of an r-sound before the vowel in trumps/charms too, so it would be more like "trom(p)s" (pronounced with the American vowel). But as Amy said, I guess "charms" is probably what he meant to say (even though I have no idea what "athletic charms" might mean in that context). As for Pose/Poles... I have just realized there's not much difference at all in the way I would pronounce them, LOL. They're almost the same. That's because I rarely touch the roof of my mouth when I pronounce an l-sound at the end of a syllable (so in "real" and "cool" my tongue doesn't touch the roof). Anyway,...

Re: The article a or an

clive — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 21:26:39 GMT

Hi, Which is correct a history or an history ? An UFO or a UFO . I've always believe that since the letter h is pronounced in history it should be a history. Yes Words like a master of business administration or an MBE since M is pronouced as "em". Yes Any word beginning with a vowel or pronounced like a vowel is preceded by an. ex: an eagle , an angel, an UFO , a UFO, it's like a y oung man "an honor " the h left out when pronouced hence an. Clive

The article a or an

anonymous — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 21:14:04 GMT

Which is correct a history or an history? An UFO or a UFO. I've always believe that since the letter h is pronounced in history it should be a history. Words like a master of business administration or an MBE since M is pronouced as "em". Any word beginning with a vowel or pronounced like a vowel is preceded by an. ex: an eagle, an angel, an UFO, "an honor" the h left out when pronouced hence an.

Re: No vowels

philip — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 23:25:38 GMT

How about "nth" - it is in the Merriam-Webster dictionary. If you limit it to spelling, that is correct. However, it is pronounced with a vowel sound ('e' as in 'let').

Re: No vowels

cnykl123 — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 22:11:08 GMT

How about "nth" - it is in the Merriam-Webster dictionary.

Re: An

califjim — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 20:27:44 GMT

No. Some words that begin with a vowel are pronounced as if they begin with a consonant. In these cases, an is not used, but a . a European ( y oor-o-pean) a one-time chance ( w un time) CJ

An

pleasehelp — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 20:23:37 GMT

Does 'an' precede all words that begin with a vowel?

Re: S or es in simple present

philip — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:20:44 GMT

For the third person singular, use s . It's pronunciation will depend on what comes before it: voiced consonant or vowel /z/; unvoiced consonant /s/. animals, cows; pets For a word ending in /s/ or /z/ sound , use es (unless the spelling of the word ends in e : then just s . This gives a schwa sound +/z/. basses ; (phases) Sounds difficult? Not really. The spelling is simply a reflection of the natural pronunciation. Welcome to the forums, Mo.

Re: Dark L in American English

anonymous — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 13:47:34 GMT

- the "l" in "lee" is a clear L : we find it before vowels and /j/. - the "l" in "bell" is a dark one : we find it in all other cases (end of word, before a consonant). However, it is said that in American english the dark L only exists. It is the problem I raise in my "mémoire" this year : books say that L is always dark in American but in practice, not every american speaker pronounce it as well. For example, in adverbs ending in -ly ( beautifully ), the L is not pronounced dark by an american. Now, the question is : are there some phonological cases in which the dark L can become clear and which are they or is it only a question about geography ? If you have some things to share with...

Re: Pronunciation

raindoctor — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 06:47:37 GMT

There are two issues: (1) heuristics used in phonics (2) phonetics g: /g/, /dʒ/ c: /k/, /s/ /k/ is voiceless, whereas its counterpart /g/ is voiced. /s/ is voicelss; /dʒ/ is voiced. Velar consonants get softened (or voiced) before front vowels esp in derived-words: cf. electric vs electricity Given this background knowledge, what is your concern?

Re: "an year" VS "a year"

clive — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:53:16 GMT

Hi, No. 'Year' does not start with a vowel sound. Clive

Re: "an year" VS "a year"

anonymous — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 06:08:31 GMT

I am wondering it could also be 'an year' because it starts with a vowel sound.

Re: Pronunciation differences

raindoctor — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:00:01 GMT

r after any vowel has a special place in english. oor usually end up as ʊɚ, ɔɚ, oʊɚ poor: pʊɚ moore: mʊ ɚ , mɔ ɚ , moʊ ɚ floor: fl ɔ ɚ , floʊ ɚ door: d ɔ ɚ d oʊ ɚ oo before any but r: boom: bum doom: dum hood: h ʊd good: gʊd wood: wʊd hook: hʊk food: fud proof: pruf school: skuo (the last o shud be transcribed as a satellite, since vocalized l shud be there). Now, you can notice the pattern.

Re: Phonetic differences between English and Spanish

anonymous — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:23:45 GMT

The vowel in the English "family" is formed with the back of the tongue very high in the mouth (look in a mirror). The Spanish "a" is like the English in "Say 'AHHHH.'" The location of the tongue in the Spanish "a" is closer to the position of the English "u." That is probably why you think they sound the same.

Re: the pronunciation of the word "the"

anonymous — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:22:16 GMT

This is a pet peeve of mine. I hear more and more on the radio, in television and film the lack of proper pronunciation of the word "the" when it precedes a word beginning with a vowel sound. The result of saying "the" with a schwa ending before a vowel sound is a very awkward sounding combination without flow. To me it sounds like the speaker has a distinct lack of intelligence. DP

Re: Plz reply regarding use of article

clive — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 21:37:02 GMT

Hi, she told me " i met professor shah at _ University". which article is applicable before "University" here? and why? options are 1)a Some particular university that has not yet been mentioned in the conversation. The listener might therefore ask, 'Oh, which one?' 2)an Not correct, because 'university' sounds like it starts with a Y sound, not a vowel sound like the word 'ugly'. 3) the Can refer to a specific university already mentioned, but also said by some people to refer to university in general. 4)nil Refers to university in general. You are interested in the details of article usage, but apparently you do not care that the lack of...

Re: How do you pronounce 'suicide'?

kooyeen — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 17:55:14 GMT

Sue aside. The exact quality of some unstressed vowels is not very important in English, because it varies from accent to accent and from situation to situation. In all such cases, like stay-shun vs stay-shin or Duh-sember vs Dih-sember, just say whatever sounds best or acceptable to you. It often is somewhere in between and it might not be always completely fixed in a certain speaker's speech, I suspect. Just my opinion.

Re: Pronunciation of coat and quote

soka — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 07:55:56 GMT

They may also have difficulty with a combination of front glide and front vowel, such as in yeast , perhaps saying it as east . Absolutely right CJ, They often pronounce it as east.

Re: Pronunciation of coat and quote

califjim — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 04:54:24 GMT

For Pakistanis, coat and quote have exactly the same pronunciation. You must do whatever you can to make them stop it! The difference is between ko and kwo . w is a back glide. o is a back vowel. They may also have difficulty with a combination of front glide and front vowel, such as in yeast , perhaps saying it as east . CJ

Re: What is the longest word in English without vowels?

philip — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 15:00:42 GMT

The only word that I know of (American Heritage Dictionary now recognizes it) without a written vowel is "nth". Don't forget, Anon, that y sometimes serves as a vowel, not just a demi-vowel.

Re: What is the longest word in English without vowels?

grammar geek — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:54:06 GMT

This has already been asked somewhere. There are no English words in use that have no vowel sounds. i think you will find there is eg, shy What sound do you associate with the "y" in "shy"? For that matter, what sound do you associate with the "y" in "myth" or "hymn"?

Re: What is the longest word in English without vowels?

anonymous — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:40:25 GMT

This has already been asked somewhere. There are no English words in use that have no vowel sounds. i think you will find there is eg, shy

Re: Bus driver fights with a kid

kooyeen — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 12:56:51 GMT

Very interesting. Phonemes helped me a lot, but if I had known the expression "un" I might have understood correctly. From Longman: (BrE spoken) a short form of 'one', used to say that someone or something is good, bad etc. As for "faults", I thought of that at first, but I discarded it for two reasons: 1) Longman didn't help me much and so it seemed the verb "fault" wasn't good there. 2) It might sound like "faults" in American English, but I was expecting a different vowel in that accent (a higher one, like the one in "thought" here: http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=thought&submit=Submit) And so I discarded this option too. So are words like "not"...

Re: Welsh accent (to be more precise, Tom Jones's)

colombo — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 10:04:19 GMT

Instead of worrying about perceptions (auditory phonetics), try to produce variations (articulatory phonetics): how to produce a fronted /u:/ ? That seems a very good idea. I think I might try to change from one vowel to the other by knowing whether I must make it more to the front, to the back, more open... But I don't know how I can know whether I'm producig the right vowel, or any other. Are there mp3 recordings of isolated vowels that are long enough so I can try to adjust the vowel I produce to the vowel I hear, and then maintain it for some time? I should try to save them in my computer so I can practice at home.

Re: Whilst

anonymous — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 21:15:01 GMT

No there is no rule.The two words have the same meaning, 'whilst' is the older version (some dictionaries list it as obsolete) and it usually appears only in formal or poetic writing. If you stick to 'while' you won't ever be wrong, whereas 'whilst' can easily look out of place. Actually, several authoritative sources cite "whilst" as the neologism, with "while" being the older form. Michael Quinion's excellent World Wide Words site does give brief mention of this. As for rules for when to use whilst vs. while, I agree that any such rules are silly and probably wrong (i.e., received wisdom from a less-than-reliable source). It seems the words are effectively interchangeable. ...

Re: Answer this..

tanit — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 19:47:24 GMT

What is the longest word without a vowel? Come again??? http://www.englishforums.com/English/LongestWordWithoutVowels/bbjkk/post.htm http://www.englishforums.com/English/6LetterWordWithNoVowels/jmjhk/post.htm http://www.englishforums.com/English/LongestWordNoVowels/khjmv/post.htm

Answer this..

onlinemrpersonal — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:54:00 GMT

What is the longest word without a vowel?

Re: Welsh accent (to be more precise, Tom Jones's)

raindoctor — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 07:45:14 GMT

Focus on the variation of vowels in various accents: phonetic differences. Sometimes, you can see phonemic differences as is the case between BrE and AmE. Most of the transcriptions are broad, like the ones we see in dictionaries. Mastering narrow transcription, which requires you to train your ears to notice all variations/subtlities, is the key to understand variatiations.

Re: General AM Eng-pronunciation of talk, caught and bought

freekarol — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 13:45:08 GMT

I thank you all for your effort to help me and of course for your time... I think my questions were answered. Especially a reply by Marvin A. completely answered my questions. What pronunciation to choose depends on what American accent you want to have. If you don't want to have a certain American accent then the best way to be understood by most Americans is to use pronunciation what most Americans use: the Open back unrounded vowel for all of those words.

ELIDED vs. ELLIPTED

anonymous — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 13:12:30 GMT

I was taught that "elided" = omission of a vowel (I'll) and that "ellipted" = omission of some words (a book written by = a book that was written by....). Was I taught correctly? Thank you for your guidance.

Re: Can u pls describe the schwa sound?

califjim — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 02:59:15 GMT

Since your need is urgent, there's no point in expostulating on the myriad subtleties. I'll give you my simplest version: The schwa is a short u sound, as in much , and it's always unstressed. It can be spelled as any vowel: a go, it e m, med i cine, p o tato, u pon. CJ

Re: Consonat nouns

mister micawber — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 22:45:59 GMT

These are consonants: b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y, z. These are vowels: a, e, i, o, u.

Re: What ia a consnent

clive — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 22:27:32 GMT

Hi, Do you know what a vowel is? A consonant is a letter that is not a vowel. Plese note the correct spelling of the word. Best wishes, Clive

Re: the pronunciation of the word "the"

mister micawber — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 11:46:30 GMT

when U is pronounced as "you", then the consonant rule applies, and when the U sounds like "uh", then the vowel rule applies. That is right. It is an observation of sound change in word flow, not a rule of grammar.

Re: the pronunciation of the word "the"

anonymous — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 09:54:52 GMT

What about The United States (of America)? Thuh or Thee? Some say that when U is pronounced as "you", then the consonant rule applies, and when the U sounds like "uh", then the vowel rule applies. Is this a grammatical rule, or a regional variation, or a misunderstanding?

Re: English and spanish phonetic sounds with their phonetic differences

anonymous — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 06:56:50 GMT

well the English D and T sound like a Spanish R (not double R but just R) - the Spanish J sounds like a English H - the Spanish L and English L don't sound alike (they are different sounds), and the same happened with the Spanish and English T (they are different sounds) - In English when one pronounce the letter "P" one relieses a puff of air, in Spanish you don't do that (that's what makes the Spanish and English T different too, by the way) - the English N and M's sounds are way longer than the Spanish ones - the Spanish Y and Spanish LL (or, double L) sound alike, and their sound is that of a English "J", unlike most people think, is the Spanish Y and double LL are not pronounce like an...

Re: General AM Eng-pronunciation of talk, caught and bought

califjim — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 04:59:10 GMT

how can I know what pronunciation to choose? I would recommend that you use the Open back unrounded vowel for all of those words. I would recommend the same. There is very little to be gained by mastering the subtle distinctions that mark the pronunciation of certain regions. Stick with what "most people" use, which is what this recommendation amounts to. CJ

Re: The word "gay" as a noun denoting homosexuality

avangi — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 20:29:43 GMT

not kewl Never heard this before! Do you pronounce the vowel as a dipthong, or is it just "cool"? rgdz, - A.

Re: General AM Eng-pronunciation of talk, caught and bought

kooyeen — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 17:49:23 GMT

You can choose the one you hear the most or the one you like the most. In my opinion, it's not worth bothering with such a distinction, because it would be a useless effort, unless you really wanted to have a perfect accent where such a distinction is made. A lot of Americans don't make that distinction, and anyway it's not a clear-cut distinction. This means a lot of Americans are not even consistent in their own speech, and pronounce such words in with different vowels at different times. I tend to pronounce talk, walk, dog, call, long, car, father with more or less the same vowel. Probably not the exact same vowel, and not all the time, but the point is: I don't make a conscious distinction, and a lot of Americans...