Although I have previously mentioned that quite a few non-native speakers tend to incorrectly pronounce letters of the English alphabet (see here), including the X in x-ray, I believe that my recent observation warrants a separate post. Specifically, I noticed that it is common for German (and likely other) native speakers to pronounce the X
To be honest, I’m not a fan of all the whooping that goes on at parties, sports events, etc., even if I only witness it on TV. I could only bear to watch the first 10 seconds of the following video, any more should be considered torture. On the other hand, since I do enjoy
Given the recent political developments in Europe, the word refugee is now used much more often by non-native speakers. Because most of them are not aware of the correct pronunciation, let me mention it here. The most obvious mistake is to stress the word on the first syllable. Instead, refugee is stressed on the last
While reading an article about BMW’s Harald Krũger, who apparently fainted on stage at the Frankfurt Auto show but is OK, I noticed that BMW cited “circulation problems” as the cause. The term is a translation of the German expression Kreislaufprobleme. However, circulation problems in English refer to a serious and often lethal condition caused
A while ago, while watching Downton Abbey, I noticed that the name Alfred can be tricky to pronounce for non-native speakers. In particular, I remembered where I had heard it being pronounced differently — on TV. I’m not afraid to admit that I used to quite enjoy watching the TV series Batman while growing up.
I have previously written about the different pronunciations of the th (an example of a digraph) in English, see this post. Today, I want to discuss the tricky words smooth and smoothie, which are very often pronounced incorrectly. The main reason is that many nonnative speakers feel uncomfortable with the sounds [ð] and [θ]. However,
Have you every noticed that the name Miracel Whip (a brand name for mayonnaise used by Kraft in German-speaking countries) actually goes back to a sensible English name, namely Miracle Whip? From the Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries: miracle: an act or event that does not follow the laws of nature and is believed to be caused
Take-home message for efficient readers If you don’t care about the details, let me state very bluntly that both Porsh and Porshuh are incorrect from a German point of view and do not match the pronunciation used by Porsche in their English commercials. This does not mean that you can’t use these pronunciations in English,
The English language offers some very interesting ways to shorten names. First, it is common to abbreviate double names (two first names, as opposed to double-barrelled names which correspond to two last names) by their initials. For example, the son of Anthony Soprano in the fantastic TV series The Sopranos is usually called A J
Every time I take the bus in Munich, I hear the number five (as in U5, the underground line I take) being pronounced incorrectly, namely as [faɪf] instead of [faɪv]. You can hear the correct pronunciation here. This common mistake among German speakers is also often made in the case of live; live is correctly pronounced as