English Pronunciation and Spelling - TV Tropes Forum (2024)

As anyone who speaks English (or learning to speak it) can tell you, this language is notoriously difficult to work with.

If you're curious as to why this is so, just take a look here.

You have at least 10 English dialects, and each one has its own approach to pronouncing words. There are some general patterns in spelling and pronunciation, but there are plenty of exceptions!

edited 23rd Feb '12 9:24:19 AM by TiggersAreGreat

Oh, Equestria, we stand on guard for thee!

I know. There are two ways of saying "glass".

There's glass, which rhymes with "ass", and "glass", which rhymes with arse.

And then there's the annoying (sorry) British habit of pronouncing "idea" as "idear" which sounds like an Apple device made for hunting.

ok boomer

What you're witnessing is either the "Linking R" or the "Intrusive R" sandhi or linking phenomena.

In the case of the "Linking R", an "r" at the end of a word will be pronounced when a word beginning with a vowel. So as an example, the words "tuner amp" can be pronounced as /ˈtjuːnər æmp/.

In the case of the "Intrusive R", an "r" will get put between a word ending with the /ə/, /ɪə/, /ɑː/, or /ɔː/ vowel sound and a word beginning with a vowel. So the phrase "Law and order" tends to be pronounced as "Law-r-and order" in British English, and some say that the phrase sounds like "Laura Norder" is being said.

You should watch some American shows out there. Any British character who shows up will stick out like a sore thumb, I guarantee it!

edited 23rd Feb '12 11:05:12 AM by TiggersAreGreat

Oh, Equestria, we stand on guard for thee!

I was able to find out how frequent (relatively speaking) letters are in English.

The following sequence is the alphabet, with the letters arranged from most frequently used to least frequently used:

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

On an interesting side note, in English, the space is slightly more frequent than the top letter (e) and the non-alphabetic characters (digits, punctuation, etc.) occupy the position between (t) and (a).

The following sequence is the alphabet, arranged from most frequently used first letter in a word to least frequently used:

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

This may not look like much, but I hope it helps the next time you find yourself having to spell a word!

Oh, Equestria, we stand on guard for thee!

How would that help with spelling?

Don't get me wrong, it's certainly very interesting, but I don't see how it helps with spelling.

"It's so hard to be humble, knowing how great I am."

Well, okay! I guess letter frequency does not necessarily help with spelling.

I can say that "e" is definitely a frequently used letter. I've heard of some fictional works that deliberately avoided using any words containing the letter "e". These fictional works proved that it is quite difficult to tell a good story without the letter "e". You wouldn't be able to use fundamental words like "the", "these", "those", "their", etc. That would put limits on what you could do!

edited 24th Feb '12 4:53:54 PM by TiggersAreGreat

Oh, Equestria, we stand on guard for thee!

Cracky/Randomdude: But those are dialect differences, which happen in every language, really.

ᐅᖃᐅᓯᖅ ᐊᑕᐅᓯᖅ ᓈᒻᒪᔪᐃᑦᑐᖅ

Hehehe, "c, u, m."

and "glass", which rhymes with arse.

Never heard of that one.

edited 24th Feb '12 7:19:37 PM by 0dd1

Insert witty and clever quip here.My page, as the database hates my handle.

Englizt pronoonshieishon und spalling.

That's how I read it.

NO TREE FOR ME (ALSO LOVES HER BOYFRIEND)

I don't find English hard to work with. I love this language, actually, and I've learned two so far in my life (German and Chinese). I love working with it as a writer.

"Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person that doesn't get it."

Never heard of that one.

Imagine a posh yuppie saying it.

And let us pray that come it may(As come it will for a' that)

Having an adequate knowledge on vocabulary is important. Indeed, it is hard, but people cannot underestimate the required understanding of complex words. It is a way of life and we have to accept it.

Tea is best served with fellow monsters. | MAL

While the frequency of letters may not help much in terms of spelling, I've heard arguments that it would help in keyboard design, since QWERTY was supposedly designed to throttle the speed of input in order for typewriters to cope, back in the day. *shrug*

Not a substitute for a formal medical consultation.

@ 0dd1: Yeah, I just knew that someone would point out some words you could make from those sequences of letters!

Some people have dared to ask how many words there are in English. It's difficult, to say the least, to give an answer to this question. Why? Well, let's see:

1. English is a big language, and it's big enough that you couldn't be expected to count every single word (Captain Obvious)!
2. Is "dog" one word? It can be a noun and it can be a verb, and each one has different definitions.
3. If we consider "dog" two words, should inflections be counted separately? "Dogs" can be a noun and it can be a verb, too.
4. Is "dog-tired" one word, or is it just two other words joined together?
5. Is "hot dog" actually two words, since it could be written as "hot-dog" or even "hotdog"?
6. There is dispute over what counts as English. There are medical and scientific terms. There are Latin words used in law. There are French words used in cooking. There are German words used in academic writing. There are Japanese words used in martial arts. How about Scots dialect, teenage slang, and abbreviations? Do those count?

With all that said, there are some sources that estimate (or guess) that there is a quarter of a million words at least and at most three quarters of a million words. I have also heard claims that English has 1 million words!

Oh, Equestria, we stand on guard for thee!

Is that considered too many? I thought 1 million was natural for most languages...

"If you aren't him, then you apparently got your brain from the same discount retailer, so..." - Fighteer

Uh, no.

"Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person that doesn't get it."

Well, damn it. Clear misconception.

"If you aren't him, then you apparently got your brain from the same discount retailer, so..." - Fighteer

I doubt even 1 billion reaches the number of English words there are.

@Bat Pencil: I dunno, "glahs" I can picture, but not "glarse".

Insert witty and clever quip here.My page, as the database hates my handle.

Unlikely. Not even Greek has a billion words. And it depends on whether you count derivatives or not. It's impossible to measure.

edited 25th Feb '12 7:19:24 AM by lu127

"If you aren't him, then you apparently got your brain from the same discount retailer, so..." - Fighteer

Are you people serious?

"Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person that doesn't get it."

About a million? Yes, totally serious. I didn't know. Stupid me.

About the billion? No way any language has that.

"If you aren't him, then you apparently got your brain from the same discount retailer, so..." - Fighteer

Million sounds too little...

Glars?

Yeah, I drink from a glass (glars). I have a laugh (a larf), and I take a bath (baf).

One rule of thumb that could be used is grouping words together that rhyme. I understand if that sounds like a tactic aimed at kids, but it could be helpful with pronunciation and spelling.

bat /bæt/, cat /kæt/, chat /tʃæt/, dat /dæt/, fat /fæt/, gat /gæt/, gnat /næt/, hat /hæt/, mat /mæt/, pat /pæt/, rat /ræt/, sat /ˈsæt/, shat /ʃæt/, tat /tæt/, that /ðæt/, vat /væt/, zat /zæt/.

But "eat" /iːt/ or /it/, "hat" /hat/ (UK pronunciation), "Jat" /dʒɑt/ or /dʒɔt/, "kat" /kɑt/, "khat" /kɑt/, "lat" /lɑt/, "nat" /nɑːt/, "oat" /əʊt/, "qat" /kɑt/, "that" /ðət/, "wat", /wɒt/,"xat" /xɑt/, "yat" (Dunno, but it might be pronounced similarly to "Jat").

I've tried to be as thorough as I could with this, but I think I might have missed some things! I hope you can see the pros and cons of this rule of thumb!

edited 25th Feb '12 4:16:10 PM by TiggersAreGreat

Oh, Equestria, we stand on guard for thee!