English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

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Bmblbzzz
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by Bmblbzzz »

Mick F wrote: 8 Nov 2022, 11:14am People will be shortening other words eh? :lol:

Wensdy instead of Wednesday
Pronounce every letter!
mattheus
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by mattheus »

Mick F wrote: 8 Nov 2022, 11:14am
Vetrinairan instead of veterinarian
Ah, I know this one: it's correctly pronounced:

Ve'unry.

(I've been watching All Creatures, take my word for this.)
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Mick F
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by Mick F »

colin54 wrote: 8 Nov 2022, 12:34pm A funny thing, in my Chambers Dictionary secretary is spelt out phonetically as
-sek' ri-ta-ri
Thanks.
Bmblbzzz wrote: 8 Nov 2022, 12:34pm
Mick F wrote: 8 Nov 2022, 11:14am People will be shortening other words eh? :lol:

Wensdy instead of Wednesday
Pronounce every letter!
I do.
Don't you?
Mick F. Cornwall
Ray
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by Ray »

Mick F wrote: 8 Nov 2022, 2:29pm
Bmblbzzz wrote:Pronounce every letter!
I do.
Don't you?
Do you, though? :wink:
Ray
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Mike Sales
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by Mike Sales »

Ray wrote: 8 Nov 2022, 2:51pm
Mick F wrote: 8 Nov 2022, 2:29pm
Bmblbzzz wrote:Pronounce every letter!
I do.
Don't you?
Do you, though? :wink:
Could?
Plough?
Cough?
Clough?
or that spelling of fish, "ghoti"?
Gnome?
Gnomon?
Inglish is a bitch.
Last edited by Mike Sales on 8 Nov 2022, 4:00pm, edited 1 time in total.
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mattheus
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by mattheus »

I don't think I know anyone Englsih that says Wednesday as more than 2 syllables - unless they're joking about.
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Mick F
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by Mick F »

Not joking at all.
Wednesday is pronounced wed-nes-day, or maybe wed-nz-day perhaps. Either way, it has three syllables.
We know a lady ........... and known her since the mid 1970s ............ and she pronounces breakfast as break-fast and not brek-fust.
Mick F. Cornwall
DaveReading
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by DaveReading »

Mick F wrote: 8 Nov 2022, 5:12pmWednesday is pronounced wed-nes-day
I have never in my life heard it pronounced that way.
sizbut
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by sizbut »

Utter tosh. I strongly suggest you get a decent dictionary and look at the parts where, after the word, they indicate its enunciation. Uttering Wednesday the way you suggest would flag the speaker as either weird or someone for whom English wasn't their first language.
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by Nearholmer »

I have heard it pronounced wed-nz-day by native English speakers, but I’d say it’s a pretentious, or possibly outdated, pronunciation, unless it’s a localism.

A lot of these things come down to regional pronunciations, and even within those the differences between casual and polite speech, or urban and rural speech.

Secretary? In southeast England the most common pronunciation is probably something like sec-ret-ree, but a rural gardening club might have a sec-a-terry.

Edinburgh Morningside pronunciation probably sounds all four syllables.
Last edited by Nearholmer on 8 Nov 2022, 9:21pm, edited 1 time in total.
colin54
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by colin54 »

Wednesday, again from the phonetics in my Chambers Dictionary -
wenz'di & wed'nz-di, I think I use both :?
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DaveReading
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by DaveReading »

Nearholmer wrote: 8 Nov 2022, 9:05pmSecretary? In southeast England the most common pronunciation is probably something like sec-ret-ree, but a rural gardening club might have a sec-a-terry.
I see what you did there ...
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by Vorpal »

sizbut wrote: 8 Nov 2022, 5:54pm Utter tosh. I strongly suggest you get a decent dictionary and look at the parts where, after the word, they indicate its enunciation. Uttering Wednesday the way you suggest would flag the speaker as either weird or someone for whom English wasn't their first language.
I've heard it said that way. I think Wed-enz-day is more common than Wed-nes-day but I wouldn't say either is weird. I've heard it more in Scotland and the North, than from English-second-language speakers, who are usually taught in school to say Wenz-day.
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Mick F
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by Mick F »

Plurals?

Just been listening to R4 and the lady said "cannons".

When I was at skool, we learnt that some plurals were the same as the singulars ............ sheep, salmon, cannon ......... There must have been a few more. Examples please!

Some plurals are plural of plurals.
Grass for instance?
We have a garden of grass, and it's called grass, and even one bit of it is called a piece of grass ............ but if we had different ones, we would have grasses.

Could it be that "cannons" means a variety of different ones?
Ship's - generally - had cannon (plural), and not cannons.
Mick F. Cornwall
colin54
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Re: English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

Post by colin54 »

Cannon(s), either is correct according to my dictionary, e.g. cannon fire - the cannons fired.
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