Mastering pronunciation is a difficult task when learning a language. However, isn’t it ironic that the word pronunciation is spelled and pronounced differently than the word pronounce? The first difficulty is that many people misspell pronunciation as pronounciation. However, even if you get the spelling right, it is important to notice that “pronounce” is to
The word quantum has made it all the way from physics to areas such as movies and parcel services (knowing about the uncertainty principle of quantum mechanics, the name quantum view for a parcel tracking service causes some mild anxiety). The phrase quantum leap (Quantensprung in German) is commonly used, even though it typically refers
London, Boston and Washington are not only very nice cities to visit but also happen to be very often pronounced incorrectly by non-native speakers. This includes people on television, radio, and even English teachers. As I will tell you below, there are many other examples of the same mistake. English and other pronunciations Before calling
Taking pictures has turned from an expensive hobby to something that people do on an every-day basis, not just on holidays or special occasions. Let us look at some typical language mistakes that occur in this context. 1. Non-native speakers often use the phrase “to make a photo”, whereas the correct expression is “to take
[Zur deutschen Version dieses Posts wechseln] Loose, lose, looser, and loser often cause problems among both native and non-native speakers. The reason is quite obvious: their spelling and pronunciation are rather similar. Just by counting the number of o’s, we can guess that lose and loser are related, as are loose and looser. However, the
The words previous and last can in many cases be used interchangeably. For example, I can refer to the week before the current week either as last week or the previous week. However, the word last also has a different meaning, namely that of final or ultimate. If I were to change jobs, I could
While reading the news today, a German statement in the sports section caught my eye: Wir haben ein tolles Momentum im Team […] For some reason, this incorrect and completely unnecessary use of the word Momentum has become much more common recently, although it seems to be confined to sports so far. Clearly, Momentum is
Non-native speakers often make mistakes pronouncing the words multi and multiple in English. A possible reason is that these words have their origin in Latin, and hence are used in a number of other languages. The typical mistake involves an incorrect pronunciation of the letter u, listen here: Instead of pronouncing it as in the
Although Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees have now spread far beyond English-speaking countries, there is still a lot of confusions about the correct spelling. Importantly, in expression such as Master’s thesis, Bachelor’s thesis, Master’s degree or Master’s student, the apostrophe is part of the correct spelling, indicating that the thesis was written by a person that
The word matrix has become mainstream in 1999 thanks to the movie The Matrix. Long before that, the word had been in use in science and technology. In mathematics and physics (the fields I am most often confronted with in talks and discussions), a matrix is a regular array of objects such as numbers or