A short question about pronunciation
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Hi everyone,
yesterday I had a little discussion with my brother about languages in general and some misunderstandings that may appear through the same pronunciation of words with different meanings.
One thing was left unresolved so I thought that I just ask you to maybe clear it up a bit.
Do you pronounce one's and once the same way?
And a little add on that irritated me while writing this:
Can somebody please explain me why pronunciation lacks the OU combination in front of the second N but pronounce has it? Is there a rule for the shortening or is this just something that "just is this way and nobody knows why" ?Thanks for reading and answering in advance ^^
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One's and once are pronounced differently.
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@zaibon: "One's" is like "wunz"
Once is like "wuntce."
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@Ayespy @g_bartsch
Damnit .... now I need to pay for the cinema tickets and a beer this evening. ^^
Never the less thanks for the help and the very good phonetic spelling example because I am really bad at reading the "normal" phonetic alphabet. -
@zaibon said in A short question about pronunciation:
cinema tickets
What are you seeing?
Ayespy's explanation was excellent. I confess i read your query soon after you posted, but decided not to reply, as i said to myself; "oh goodness, how would i even begin to explain the vagaries of English's multiple broken rules for spelling & vocalisation, merely using my keyboard?". AS solved it very nicely.
All i will say though is that [& this is part of my underlying reason for previously, in separate posts, expressing such awe at so many non-native English speakers' command of English] English is a proper bugger of a language to learn, because it has sooooooo many exceptions to its "rules". That is, just as soon as you think you've understood a particular "rule" governing placement of vowels near consonants, or pronunciation of some vowels with a flat or rounded sound, etc, along comes an exception... then another... then another. It means that to become a competent English language user, one needs not only to learn all the "rules", but also all the exceptions. That's gotta be really tough to accomplish, for people who grew up with an entirely different "rulebook"!!!
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@Steffie The movie we'll be seeing is Ghost in the Shell, years ago I read the books and I really hope they didn't screwed it up.
And regarding the strange rules of the english language - I guess that every language has a few parts where someone can rise an eyebrow over the absurd rules. ^^ -
@Steffie English is not a complicated language, and because of that most English speakers have a hard time learning other languages. One of the advantages of English is that objects have no gender -- a major obstacle in other languages. There may be various exceptions to rules, but basic conjugation is logical and very simple.
Of course, I'd argue mastering any language is equally hard, but if we consider the basics, English might be one of the easiest languages to learn, especially if your mother tongue has Indo-European roots.
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@Gwen-Dragon -- Well, fwiw, i continue to feel, even if i'm just naive, that's it's simply wonderful that here we all are, communicating so freely & effectively. Yay.
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I'd also like to add to what @luetage said, that compared to some other languages, English seems to be quite simple actually. And it's also relatively easy to learn English because it's practically everywhere. You can hear and read it every day, it's used worldwide and thus people are often forced to learn it. But isn't that hard if you are to use it from time to time.
That's how it was in my case. I've been learning English in the 1st grade of the Elementary School, but since the 2nd grade (after moving to another town) I've been learning the German language only for the next 8 years. In high school, we were attending two language classes - "Advanced" German & "Basic" English. This added up to 5 years of learning English vs. 12 years of learning German. And still, I've chosen English for the final exam and passed it. That's because I was already surrounded by English at that time and it was easy for me to learn it. I wouldn't ever make it with my poor Deutsch, though...
At that time I wasn't really motivated to actually learn German, as I didn't see any use for it in my life. Now that I'm a grown up (at least physically), I've changed my mind about a lot of things and now I am motivated enough to pick up that education. Now, if I only had the time...
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@Quinca71 said in A short question about pronunciation:
Would I commit sacrilege if I asked you what your mother tongue is?
Why? It's not a secret. You could've just found out - by visiting my profile here - that the only "local forum" that I regularly participate in is this one.
@Quinca71 said in A short question about pronunciation:
I was waiting, too, pass the period of conflicting reactions from you to me and vice-versa, for say what I am saying now.
I wonder what you have in mind. I hope you were not offended by the Yoda joke? At least, you never said you were... I can't recall any other moment when you and I were disputing over something here.
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@Quinca71
Mmh, pretty good idea - I somehow never thought about this. Thanks -
@Quinca71 Interesting concept, "agree with." The Google Translate pronunciations in this case are accurate. There are not multiple interpretations or concepts of English pronunciations for these two words. There is only one for each - and Google Translate in this case is accurate.
Regionally, the vowel "o" pronounced the same as the "o" in "one," or the same as the "w-o" in "won" or "wonder" might be longer, shorter, sharper or softer regionally, but the voiced "s" "onez" like an English "z" (zed), buzzing sound, versus voiceless "s" (pure sibilant like the "s" in "sing" or "lapse"), hissing sound, is unaffected by regional differences in vowel sound.
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@Quinca71 Hard to be offended when one speaks a language that allows this: "I plough on thoroughly through the rough although I cough and hiccough."
Plenty more where that came from... http://www.hintsandthings.co.uk/library/english.htm
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@aach1 English speakers no longer have the fortitude for that sentence. I plow thoroly thru the ruff altho I cough and hiccup.
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@Quinca71 no problem at all. You said "Therefore, IMO and sorry for probable feelings..." and so I thought you might have thought you had given offense. the point of my reply was that anyone who speaks English can hardly object to someone pointing things out about it.
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@Quinca71 some people get offended by the truth! personally I'm not one of them.
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@Quinca71 I'd probably put French before Spanish, but that's probably because I learned it first. Outside of Europe, Farsi is in with a shout in my book.
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A banjee jumper was recently killed, confusing the 'No jump' of the staff with 'Now jump'
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@Catweazle And the Darwin Award goes to... drumroll
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Things that happen if the instructor is Spanish and has bad English pronunciation and the jumper Dutch. It happened in Cantabria - Spain