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Use YouTube to improve your English pronunciation

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Re: Use YouTube to improve your English pronunciation

#261

Post by radicalbyte »

anadalakra wrote: post #119

As a non-native English speaker, the "randomness" of English pronunciation has been a source of frustration for me for many years. I realized there are two types of issues: 1. Some sounds in English don't exist in other languages and you have to learn them "from scratch". For example the "flap T" in butter. Or the particular American "r" (constrast it to the Spanish rolled r for instance). 2. Certain sounds I DID kno…

> word like "color" has two "o" letters but neither of them makes an "ou" sound

That it why we spell it as "colour" in English. Americans removed the "u" from their dialect which makes a needlessly complicated language even more so.

Learning Dutch really opened my eyes as to how terrible English is as a written language. The funny thing is that it's mirrored in our law - English law is all about case law and president. We don't even have a formal written constitution.

Re: Use YouTube to improve your English pronunciation

#262

Post by tescocles »

Brajeshwar wrote: post #199
Dfiesl wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A word of note: In British English "color" is spelt "colour"

One of the things UK front-end developers really hate is they have to use "color" instead of "colour" to write CSS. :-)

I have always found it amusing that CSS does not accept both "color" and "colour" even though it accepts both "gray" and "grey"

Re: Use YouTube to improve your English pronunciation

#263

Post by zac23or »

The problem is... the English accents are endless!

I gave up on improving my understanding of English after watching a video of the Liverpool English accent... at some point the girl uses the R sound instead of the K sound. https://youtu.be/R_C4PDSfQJA?t=173

I finally accepted: There are people who have super clear pronunciation, you know. Some accents are impossible to understand immediately, but with some time you will understand. Some you will never understand!

And some media you can understand clearly, but in some cases (Nolan disciples?) the sound is so bad that native speakers don't understand! Captions are your best friends.

Re: Use YouTube to improve your English pronunciation

#265

Post by shiroiuma »

yhager wrote: post #190
anadalakra wrote: post #119

As a non-native English speaker, the "randomness" of English pronunciation has been a source of frustration for me for many years. I realized there are two types of issues: 1. Some sounds in English don't exist in other languages and you have to learn them "from scratch". For example the "flap T" in butter. Or the particular American "r" (constrast it to the Spanish rolled r for instance). 2. Certain sounds I DID kno…

There is no such thing as "English pronunciation". English does not have a regulatory body like Spanish or German have. There are many English dialects, and sounds (and meanings) vary, A LOT. It's up to you whether you want to try and assimilate the local dialect of where you live right now, or you want to simply understand and be understood. There are many non-native speakers who are extremely easy to understand, ev…

>The human mouth is capable of pronouncing all human sounds, it is only a matter of practice.

This is only partially true: the language a person speaks affects the development of facial muscles used to make those sounds. So trying to speak a different language that uses different muscles can be very difficult. Of course, as you said, it's a matter of practice: with enough practice, you can develop those muscles, just like pumping weights in a gym.

Re: Use YouTube to improve your English pronunciation

#266

Post by dotancohen »

EE84M3i wrote: post #257
anadalakra wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm based in the US, where it's spelled without the "u". Quite a few examples of this spelling difference - humo(u)r, behavio(u)r etc. Oh and "spelt" is "spelled". Isn't English fun! :)

It took me until I was 30 to learn that Brits spell enroll as enrol.

I only learned that last year... when I was 45.

The Americans and the British, one people separated by a common language.

Re: Use YouTube to improve your English pronunciation

#267

Post by PetitPrince »

netsharc wrote: post #213
Brajeshwar wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the things UK front-end developers really hate is they have to use "color" instead of "colour" to write CSS. :-)

Hah, that should be a trivial transpiler rule to add to one's web development build pipeline...

You're probably looking for this: https://github.com/HashanP/postcss-spiffing

Re: Use YouTube to improve your English pronunciation

#268

Post by vibragiel »

mgaunard wrote: post #246
bongobingo1 wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_language_regulators https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_of_Academies_of_th... I had no idea this would exist. I guess it makes sense that people would try to do something like this, but also, to my English addled brain, not much sense to expend the effort.

Most of these are just pretending to have any authority. In particular for French, l'Académie Française is pretty much a joke, with mostly ecclesiastics above 80 years old, no linguists involved, and nothing produced in the last 50 years.

It's pretty much the same for the Spanish language.

Re: Use YouTube to improve your English pronunciation

#269

Post by jdhzzz »

radicalbyte wrote: post #261
anadalakra wrote: post #119

As a non-native English speaker, the "randomness" of English pronunciation has been a source of frustration for me for many years. I realized there are two types of issues: 1. Some sounds in English don't exist in other languages and you have to learn them "from scratch". For example the "flap T" in butter. Or the particular American "r" (constrast it to the Spanish rolled r for instance). 2. Certain sounds I DID kno…

> word like "color" has two "o" letters but neither of them makes an "ou" sound That it why we spell it as "colour" in English. Americans removed the "u" from their dialect which makes a needlessly complicated language even more so. Learning Dutch really opened my eyes as to how terrible English is as a written language. The funny thing is that it's mirrored in our law - English law is all about case law and presiden…

It's explained in this SNL sketch "Washington's dream": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYqfVE-fykk&t=1s

Re: Use YouTube to improve your English pronunciation

#270

Post by loevborg »

radicalbyte wrote: post #261
anadalakra wrote: post #119

As a non-native English speaker, the "randomness" of English pronunciation has been a source of frustration for me for many years. I realized there are two types of issues: 1. Some sounds in English don't exist in other languages and you have to learn them "from scratch". For example the "flap T" in butter. Or the particular American "r" (constrast it to the Spanish rolled r for instance). 2. Certain sounds I DID kno…

> word like "color" has two "o" letters but neither of them makes an "ou" sound That it why we spell it as "colour" in English. Americans removed the "u" from their dialect which makes a needlessly complicated language even more so. Learning Dutch really opened my eyes as to how terrible English is as a written language. The funny thing is that it's mirrored in our law - English law is all about case law and presiden…

What? No, it's spelled "colour" because it comes from French, not to help make pronunciation easier.
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