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Use YouTube to improve your English pronunciation

youglish.com

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Re: Use YouTube to improve your English pronunciation

#301
post #292

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…

The main issue really is that there are no rules for pronunciation. It's not as bad as reading Chinese (as far as I understand - I tried to learn for a month and gave up :)), but in the same direction going from a language like Turkish or Spanish that are mostly WYSIWYG - the glyphs in the word don't actually tell you how to pronounce it properly. My all time favorites are the words that are literally spelled the the…

There are some rules in English pronunciation, but there are a ton of exceptions and inconsistencies. To give you an example of a reliable rule: when a plural word ends in a vowel or a voiced consonant, the "s" is pronounced as "z" (eyes, dogs), but when it ends in an unvoiced consonant, it's pronounced as "s" (cats). Our BoldVoice, we like to teach these rules because they are quick wins for most people. Then, a lot of the hard work comes in practicing and memorizing the many, many exceptions.

Re: Use YouTube to improve your English pronunciation

#302
post #211

So how might they be harvesting YouTube transcripts? I know of userscripts that can do it, but anything in the backend I'm not sure how they'd do it without ToS issues

Nothing in the official YouTube API allows you to download captions. Even if you could, you'd be rate limited really hard because the YouTube API does not have any paid tiers and you can get cut off at any point. Websites like this exist because the eye of Sauron has not yet gazed upon the land.

They have enough of an archive to not need to grow it if they get cut off somehow

Re: Use YouTube to improve your English pronunciation

#303
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. :-)

Haha yes it pains me every time too ;)

Re: Use YouTube to improve your English pronunciation

#304
post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

And also the two vowel sounds are the same?

I think there's a slight difference in sound of the "o" and the "ou", it probably depends on your accent though.

Re: Use YouTube to improve your English pronunciation

#305
feedback: - I want to repeat just the word, lots of times, without waiting, so a "rapid repeat" button would be nice. - Context is good, but the player keeps going, well beyond the initial useful section. My attention span struggles with this. - I want it for Chinese!!! I would pay for this.

Great app, thanks!

Re: Use YouTube to improve your English pronunciation

#306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My guess is that it refers to the really "hype" voice that a lot of YouTubers use. Like Mr. Beast, and most Minecraft YouTubers (but usually not ones on Hermitcraft) (source: I've had to listen to my little brother watching Minecraft videos way too much).

It's interesting, all of us interpret it based on the YouTube bubbles we are familiar with: I first assumed they were referring to the "I have just figured out a secret, little child, and I'm deigning to share it with you" type voice that Johnny Harris and people making videos of that ilk put on. Then I thought maybe they were talking about the YouTube voice people like Connor (CDawgVA) and Ludwig put on, which is a…

It may also be just how youngsters talk nowadays, because my teenager's friends have the YouTube voice. (Or maybe their excessive YT consumption is affecting their speaking style.)

Re: Use YouTube to improve your English pronunciation

#307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

aaand that reminds me of "Torpenhow Hill". > When the Saxons arrived and asked the Welsh the name of that hill, the Welsh said “pen” which means "hill" in Welsh. So the Saxons used their word for hill, “tor,” and called it Torpen (hill hill). > > Then the Norse arrived and the same process added the their world for hill “Haugr”. So now it was Torpen Haugr (Hill Hill Hill). > > Later, the English called it Torpenhow H…

This is a fun hoax that was invented 70 years ago, in 1953. It was debunked at least 20 years ago, but it's still more popular than facts. There is a Tarpenhow place in the UK, but it has no hill. So Tarpenhow hill does not exist . No mention of Norse either in the Oxford Concise Dictionary which describes the word as "Torr pen", top of the hill, from the Welsh "pen", and Old English "hoh", ridge.

there's a 3x hill name in Pilton, uk/ on the site of Glastonbury festival

"You see, in Welsh (Romano-British), PEN means hill. In a slightly different version of Gaelic (more common in Ireland and Scotland), ARD means hill. So, Pennard Hill is "Hill Hill Hill". For generation after generation, newcomers to the region have been referred to "that hill over there" - and completely failed to understand. A few more millennia, and the name may be longer than the hill. "

from https://www.strum.co.uk/twilight/pennard.htm

Re: Use YouTube to improve your English pronunciation

#309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haha there's one about a "genius programmer", maybe not a terrible idea for listening practice.

Dude, I am not sure you will still read this. Viki has changed: https://support.viki.com/hc/en-us/articles/17924295071251-Su... What a clusterfuck. This may be a better option now: https://www.iq.com/

Oh bummer, what was it like?

Re: Use YouTube to improve your English pronunciation

#310
post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, like I said, it's most unlikely that you're using vowel length correctly. You can't copy something you're not aware of. For example, without looking it up, would you say 'quit' and 'quid' are pronounced with the same vowel length or not?

"Quid" is longer. >You can't copy something you're not aware of. If that was the case, babies would not be able to learn how to speak.

Babies haven't already acquired another language, when they're learning to speak, and so there's no interference. That's not the case when someone learns a second language later in life.

> "Quid" is longer.

Feel free to post a voice recording, so we can check.

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