Tricky spelling / pronunciation

gerardM a écrit:



afaIk students

1. Pronunciation of the “Y”

“Y” is pronounced as ‘ai’ or ‘i:’.

- In one-syllable words, “Y” is pronounced as ‘ai’. For example: my, by, fly, shy, sky, dry, cry, fry, and try.

- In two-syllable words, “Y” is pronounced as ‘i:’. As example: happy, funny, baby, bony, puppy, party, tiny, city, candy, berry, penny, and turkey.

2. Pronunciation of the “C”

“C” is pronounced as ‘s’ or ‘k’. For example: city, cider, circle, and country.

- When an “E” or “Y” follow the “C”, it is pronounced as ‘s’. Good examples are: cellar, center, cent, ice, cycle, cell, cypress, and cyclone.

- When an “O”, “U”, or “A” follows the “C”, it is pronounced as ‘k’. Some examples are: cold, country, computer, couple, cup, curb, cut, cap, can, and cat.

Read these sentences aloud and compare both sounds:

_ The city is cloudy.

_ The center is covered.

_ We cycle in the city but drive the car in the country.

3. Pronunciation of the “G”

- When an “E”, “I”, or “Y” follows the “G”, it is pronounced as ‘ʤ’. Examples are: gym, giant, gem, gorgeous, and George.

- When a “U” or “A” follows the “G”, it is pronounced as ‘’ or ‘æ’. For example: gun, gum, gas, garden, and gap.

4. Pronunciation of vowel letters

- The long “A” and the short “A”, for example: cape and gap.
-at: bat, cat, hat, fat, sat, rat
-ad: bad, had, mad, sad
-ag: tag, wag, rag, bag
-an: fan, pan, can, ran
-am: jam, ham, ram, yam
-ap: map, tap, nap

When the word ends in “E”, the “A” is pronounced as a long vowel. Examples of this are: rake, gate, face, base, cage, wave, and take.

When the word ends in “R”, the “A” sound is as in: tar, jar, car, and far.

- The long “I” and the short “I”.
-id: bid, kid, lid, did
-ig: big, rig, wig, pig, dig
-in: pin, fin, tin, win, bin
-ip: tip, lip, hip, rip, dip
-it: kit, hit, fit, sit, pit

When the word ends in “E”, the “I” is pronounced as a long vowel. For example: kite, bike, dime, ride, and vine.

- The long “O” and the short “O”.
-og: fog, hog, dog, jog, log
-op: mop, pop, hop, top
-ot: hot, pot, got, not
-ob: mob, cob, job, sob

When the word ends in “E”, the “O” is pronounced as a long vowel. As examples: rose, pole, and hope.

- The long “U” and the short “U”.
-ut: pup, cup, put, up, rut, hut, cut, nut
-ub: cub, tub
-us: bus, pus
-un: fun, sun, run, bun, gun
-ug: mug, bug, tug, hug

When the word ends in “E”, the “O” is pronounced as a long vowel. Examples: tune, cube, and cute.

Do you judge people’s abilities based on their accent? Do you think a person with a posh accent must be more intelligent or better informed than someone with a multicultural London accent or a northern accent, even if the words they say are identical? In short, do you care less about what someone said and more about how they said it?

These were the questions our team set out to answer. We looked at attitudes to British accents among the general public but also among recruiters in an elite profession, namely law. We found good news and bad news.

The bad news: opinions found 50 years ago in a survey by Howard Giles remain today. In a new survey of attitudes to 38 different British accents, we found that exactly the same accents continue to attract high prestige - received pronunciation, the Queen’s English, French-accented English, Edinburgh English, one’s own accent - and the same accents continue to receive low ratings, particularly ethnic minority accents (Indian) and historically industrial urban accents (Cockney, Liverpool, Essex, Birmingham).

Given how busy the country has been disgracing itself on the world stage, you would think anglophilia would be about as fashionable as gout. And yet it’s seriously cool to be English at the moment.

MurielB a écrit:https://theconversation.com/british-people-still-think-some-accents-are-smarter-than-others-what-that-means-in-the-workplace-126964

Do you judge people’s abilities based on their accent? Do you think a person with a posh accent must be more intelligent or better informed than someone with a multicultural London accent or a northern accent, even if the words they say are identical? In short, do you care less about what someone said and more about how they said it?

These were the questions our team set out to answer. We looked at attitudes to British accents among the general public but also among recruiters in an elite profession, namely law. We found good news and bad news.

The bad news: opinions found 50 years ago in a survey by Howard Giles remain today. In a new survey of attitudes to 38 different British accents, we found that exactly the same accents continue to attract high prestige - received pronunciation, the Queen’s English, French-accented English, Edinburgh English, one’s own accent - and the same accents continue to receive low ratings, particularly ethnic minority accents (Indian) and historically industrial urban accents (Cockney, Liverpool, Essex, Birmingham).

In the film “My fair lady” we understand the importance of having a good accent. At the beginning of the twentieth century, thanks to a suitable training, a professor of phonetics turned a flower merchant with a dreadful cockney accent into a grande dame...