Continuing the topic of English. When you need to say the number 132, they don’t say one hundred and thirty-two, as we were taught in school. First, they don’t use “and” (it would be One Hundred Thirty-Two). But in practice, literally, everyone says One Thirty-Two. So, the word hundred is also dropped, especially in the case of house numbers. Theoretically, it could cause confusion with 1.32, but usually, it’s clear from the context that house numbers can’t include a point. Though, if we’re nitpicking, in the case of a point, you should say “point”.
And it might not be news to anyone, but just in case – numbers like 1500 are read as fifteen hundred, not one thousand five hundred. Sometimes even 2135 is read as Twenty-one hundred thirty-five. Also, twenty often sounds like ‘tweny’ in our region. But nobody reads 4000 as Forty hundreds—it’s still four thousand.
Some notes from my English lessons (mostly working on pronunciation, but also filling in the gaps in grammar, if any):
– it turned out, I had no idea about the subjunctive mood. For example, in the sentence “I think you should wait with this decision,” out of the following options, two are incorrect, and one is missing:
– I suggest waiting with the decision
– I suggest to wait with the decision
– I suggest that you need to wait with the decision
– I suggest that you should wait with the decision
– I suggest you to wait with the decision
Although, before I figured it out, I could have used all five (although a sense of the language was forming, and I don’t know why the incorrect ones were no longer favored). So, the incorrect ones here are number two and the last one. And what’s missing is precisely the subjunctive mood, which is exactly what’s needed here – I suggest that you wait with the decision. That is, the form with should, but without should. Other examples: I propose he work full time. It is imperative that the game begin at once.
I constantly confused what “d” in “I’d better” and “I’d rather” meant. In the second case, it’s would, in the first – had. Mixing them up was a mistake. I said “I would better” and nobody corrected me!
Before vowels, The is pronounced with an “ee” at the end. The Internet, The apple, etc.
Words like process, access, record, increase/decrease, import/export, discount, refund, conflict, contest, rewrite, update, upgrade, insert, object, refuse, desert, address, conflict, suspect, protest, product, and some others have different stresses depending on whether they are a noun or a verb. These are all widely used words. I constantly got them wrong. I am relearning to pronounce address with the stress on the first syllable, as they do in the States.
Control is pronounced with the accent on the second “o”. I often pronounced it with the stress on the first “o”.
Comparison is read with an “s,” not a “z” and the emphasis on the letter “a”. Meanwhile, observant is pronounced as “obzervant” 😉 and also resort is pronounced as “rezort”
I poorly articulated the “u” in words like curious. Correctly, it’s not “ky-urious,” but “kyoo-rious.”
The word evidently in the States is pronounced with the stress on “dent”.
It was new to me that a regular action in the past can be reflected through would. For example, My father always read me beautiful stories every night before bedtime could be translated as My dad would read me amazing stories every night at bedtime. Although in practice every second American here probably uses simple past simple “My dad read…” or the form “used to” to emphasize that he reads no more – I grew up (My dad used to read…).
The word temporarily in the states is pronounced with the emphasis on “ra”. Actually, this word is complex, and here there are two stresses, but in American English, the second one is stronger.
I also read employee with “em,” not “ee,” as it should be. Engineer should also start with “en,” not “in.”
It turns out, you can say “a Monday”. It means “some Monday”. In general, “on a Monday” is the same as “on Mondays”.
I also mispronounced words like paste – I didn’t articulate the “ay” in “paste” clearly enough; it came out closer to “pest”. Also, I didn’t articulate the “o” clearly enough in words like host or post.
The word distributed is read with the emphasis on i, not on u.
Awry is pronounced as a-rye. Turns out it’s because there was an older word “wry,” meaning “twisted”.
Luxurious is pronounced with the accent on the second syllable.
Novel in the USA is pronounced as “nawvul”.
Portugal is pronounced as “Por-chugl”, and Portuguese – por-chugeez. That is, a “ch” sound appears here.
And here’s another one. Query is pronounced in American English approximately as “kwir-ee,” not “kwair-ee.”
Previous series – https://www.facebook.com/raufaliev/posts/10158907915962368
#English #pronunciation #notes
Hi, I'm Rauf Aliev. 