improving english language

Sceadwian · Mar 29, 2007

Well, I can't say anything about that, I mostly prefer British pronounciation over American anyways, though I don't go out of my way to 'correct' myself =) I'm also odd for an American in that I prefer to spell 'color' 'colour' because I think the u gives it a little colour =)

One of my favorite quotes ever is from the comic Eddie Izzard who brought this up during his recorded show "Dressed to Kill"

Eddie: You say 'erbs', and we say 'herbs', because there's an F'ing 'H' in it!

BeeBop · Mar 29, 2007

epilot,
one item is 1, more than one item is 3.
4 could be, simply, 'How much?' (I used this construction in Korean, and it worked well.)

Nigel, and Sceadwian,
Yep, they're famous for dropping the final 'r' as well. We had a Canadian Professor, educated in Britain, who could never decide for sure on the final r sound; he came off as very pretentious. In fact, I've known several profs, educated in Britain, with pseudo British accents. Still feels, to me, pretty colonial here.
British vowels are also shifted ever so slightly, in some dialects, which is what gives the dignified sound.

Standard British, is the accent you will hear on BBC, and I believe it comes from the south of London?

ikalogic · Mar 30, 2007

wsl69 said:
English is very diffcult to me too!

so is chineese! lol eventhough i managed to learn "wo ai no", it mens "i love you" rught???!!!

euh also i recall .. "Xia" means "get down" right?!

epilot · Mar 30, 2007

Sceadwian said:
Using an online dictionary will show you the proper way or pronouncing each sylable in a word. There are various notations for which letters sound stressed and how they're sounded. Usually there's a pronounciation key that contains simple words as refrence

Yes I have a very good dictionary, it is able to read any word too.
Well, I did expect to have an explanation about pronunciation and accent.

I am not aware about English and American pronunciation differences but I knew that it exists. But my presumption of Nigel's talks is that there is a lot of difference between English And American pronunciations, and I assume that every English speaker is able to understand the meaning of any word even with an incorrect pronunciation, Right?

P.s Nigel, Can you explain the difference and the border between British and American pronunciation please?

epilot · Mar 30, 2007

BeeBop said:
epilot,
one item is 1, more than one item is 3.
4 could be, simply, 'How much?' (I used this construction in Korean, and it worked well.)

Thanks Robert,
First can you answer my questions which I asked in my first post at this page?

Why we should say 'dollarS' and not 'dollar' for 'What is the price IN dollarS?'

Which one is correct please?
1; This is a bird who(that) is talking TO me.
2; This is a bird who(that) is talking WITH me.

Len, I do enjoy when you correct my writings, Please repeat it if you could take any time for me please.

Numerous thanks.

ljcox · Apr 2, 2007

epilot said:
Thanks Robert,
First can you answer my questions which I asked in my first post at this page?

Why we should we say 'dollarS' and not 'dollar' for 'What is the price IN dollarS?'
dollars. I know the price of the article could be one dollar but you don't know the answer until you've asked the question.
Which one is correct please?
1; This is a bird who(that) is talking TO me.
2; This is a bird who(that) is talking WITH me.

This is the bird that is talking to me. The word "this" indicates that the bird is close, ie. you can see it. So it is therefore "the bird" not "a bird" since "the" is called the definite article. Whereas, "a" is the indefinite article. You could say "who" but I think "that" is better in this case.

Len, I do enjoy when you correct my writings, Please repeat it if you could take any time for me please. "Writing" not "writings". But "English" or "prose" would be better.

Numerous thanks. The normal expression is "Many thanks".

"a" is called the indefinite article since it refers to a non specific person, object or thing. eg. I saw a dog last night.

"the" is called the definite article since it refers to a specific person, object or thing that is not present but the person to whom you are speaking knows what you are referring to. eg. I saw the dog last night. The other person knows which dog you are refering to.

"this" could be called the specific article since it refers to a person, object or thing that is close at hand, ie. you can see it and can therefore indicate the object. eg. I saw this dog last night. Means that the dog is present so you can indicate to the other person (eg. by pointing at the dog) which dog you are talking about.

However, some people use "this" as the indefinite article. eg. I saw this dog. Meaning "I saw a dog". This is incorrect, but is often done these days.

Alex_rcpilot · Apr 2, 2007

Well I'm one of those from none English spoken countries and I found it interesting watch movies and learning the language when I was 13. Later I had access to the internet and I started talking to English-speaking people. No wonder I would cause embarrassing misunderstandings in the beginning, but I got over this period. Although I'm not as good as those native guys by now, I don't make as many mistakes as before. My advice, keep on practising, this trail and error process may continue for many years, but you will find yourself in a better position afterwards.

Nigel Goodwin · Apr 3, 2007

epilot said:
I am not aware about English and American pronunciation differences but I knew that it exists. But my presumption of Nigel's talks is that there is a lot of difference between English And American pronunciations, and I assume that every English speaker is able to understand the meaning of any word even with an incorrect pronunciation, Right?

Pretty well, but both the UK and the USA have strong regional accents as well, and there's where most problems appear. What does really annoy me is American actors trying to do an English accent - it always sounds nothing at all like any English accent you've ever heard!

P.s Nigel, Can you explain the difference and the border between British and American pronunciation please?

I can't even explain the difference between different accents in the UK

mvs sarma · Apr 3, 2007

Nigel Goodwin said:
........................
I can't even explain the difference between different accents in the UK

Well said sir.

i used to use a similar phrase-ofcourse, w.r.t site seeing -" i didn't see many places in my hometown even atmy 40th year-- what to talk about a foreign trip... etc"

Yes- even in case of persons with englishas mother tong, one could be proficient in one or two dailects-- unless a persons is a literary lauriet in English language.

Being an Indian, we feel it a little comfortable with UK,s general accent--or what i might feel BBC radio specific accent.
Others feel our accent difficult as i find that we try to speak little faster and perhaps dont attract the required attention.

Even in case of written english, we use little complex sentencesand perhaps it coule be cut down. we could rather use simple sentences to express our thoughts.

Alex_rcpilot · Apr 3, 2007

Nigel Goodwin said:
I can't even explain the difference between different accents in the UK

True. Accents vary noticeably as the location changes. As a local from town, I can easily spot someone from a close village by his accent.

So far, I haven't been able to expose an American actor doing a poor job imitating a British speaker.

Nigel Goodwin · Apr 3, 2007

Alex_rcpilot said:
So far, I haven't been able to expose an American actor doing a poor job imitating a British speaker.

I don't know if you have ever seen the TV series 'Bones'?, if you have, in a few episodes the FBI agent has an 'English' girlfriend - she doesn't sound anything like any English person I've ever met or heard!

AllVol · Apr 3, 2007

Nigel Goodwin said:
it always sounds nothing at all like any English accent you've ever heard!

Does everyone there say "lay-bore'-ah-tree".... or is it just Basil Rathbone?

Alex_rcpilot · Apr 3, 2007

Nigel Goodwin said:
I don't know if you have ever seen the TV series 'Bones'?, if you have, in a few episodes the FBI agent has an 'English' girlfriend - she doesn't sound anything like any English person I've ever met or heard!

oops! Never heard of this TV series. I'm only picking domestic programs here. As for online resources, I get "Prison Break", "Lost" and "The 4400". All American series. But I would like to ask if you've ever watched the movie "The Island". Lincoln 6E's sponsor is from Scotland. The actor playing these two characters has to speak both in U.S accent and British accent. I could only tell that this guy's probably American judging by his U.S accent. I'm curious if he did well with the British accent.

epilot · Apr 3, 2007

Alex_rcpilot said:
Well I'm one of those from none English spoken countries and I found it interesting watch movies and learning the language when I was 13. Later I had access to the internet and I started talking to English-speaking people. No wonder I would cause embarrassing misunderstandings in the beginning, but I got over this period. Although I'm not as good as those native guys by now, I don't make as many mistakes as before. My advice, keep on practising, this trail and error process may continue for many years, but you will find yourself in a better position afterwards.

Ok, many thanks for your advice,

Yeah, practice is one of fundamentals of learning,

you seem to have a very good English writing, I am wondering if you have learnt it just by English movies and chatting?

epilot · Apr 3, 2007

Nigel Goodwin said:
Pretty well, but both the UK and the USA have strong regional accents as well, and there's where most problems appear. What does really annoy me is American actors trying to do an English accent - it always sounds nothing at all like any English accent you've ever heard!

I can't even explain the difference between different accents in the UK

So I should avoid to travel to UK, or I'll forget what I know in English by now

What's your idea about accents in this sonig
**broken link removed**

ljcox · Apr 3, 2007

I listened to the song. She has a mild American accent. She rolls the r on words like paper - paperr. When I say it it's more like pay-pa.

Can you receive the BBC on the radio? I expect they have a short wave service.

We have Radio Australia on short wave.

You can also listen to Australian radio stations on the internet.

For example the ABC has station 774 on the internet.

Alex_rcpilot · Apr 4, 2007

I have access to BBC online. But VOA is still unaccessible yet, it's never been allowed by the Chinese government.

Sceadwian · Apr 4, 2007

You could always just use a proxy service. Ther are even free anonymous web proxies available out there that can bypass such bans, as long as those sites themselves haven't been banned yet at least.

Souper man · Apr 4, 2007

Hero999 said:
What does that mean then?

In the UK, US, NZ and Austrailia and South Africa it's taken as a sexal advance.

Forget English vs other languages, in the UK fags are cigarettes while in the US, NZ and Australia they are homosexuals (which has partly spread to the UK) and saying "I'm pissed" in the UK, Austrialia and NZ means "I'm drunk" while in the US it means I'm pissed off.

Also accents change throughout the UK even though it's much smaller than the US, for example Manchester has a different dialect to Liverpool, this can also change within a distance of less then 5 miles in some areas (like parts of the east midlands and north weast) and be pretty uniform over 100 miles in others (like the south east).

There are many accents in the US as well. New yorkers, Southern, Rednecks, and mideast(like Illinois, Michigan) all varies a lot

Sceadwian · Apr 4, 2007

I heard a ways back that we Rochesterarians actually have an accent. The only real distinguishing feature being the slight propensity to have a longer sounding R. But this was brought up by a local studying linguist and isn't officially cofirmed as a regional dialect =)

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