Halloween (or Hallowe’en, see here) has in recent years also become a tradition in Europe. For quite some time, I have been wondering what the correct pronunciation of Halloween is. My usual source, the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, lists [hæləʊ’iːn] as the standard British pronunciation, and [hæloʊ’iːn] as the standard American pronunciation. The Oxford English Dictionary
According to my observations, many people have difficulties pronouncing the word staff (referring to the group of workers in a company or an organization). The correct pronunciation of staff is [stɑːf] or [stæf] in British English, and [stæf] in American English. You can listen to both versions here. A common incorrect pronunciation of staff is
The correct pronunciation of th seems to be one of the bigger challenges for people who want to learn the English language. Apart from the fact that the pronunciation of th varies from word to word, some of the sounds associated with th do not exist in other languages, and may therefore be difficult or
Following up on my previous post about Edinburgh, I want to discuss the English pronunciation of Berlin. According to the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, the pronunciation is [bɜː’lɪn], suggesting that (1) the r is not pronounced, even in American English, (2) the stress is on the second syllable (many German speakers stress the first syllable when
Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, is a wonderful place, but its name can cause quite some problems, especially when it comes to pronunciation. As a result, you can hear many different variations, both by native and non-native speakers. According to the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, the standard British pronunciation of Edinburgh is [,edɪnbərə], in agreement with
Whereas the German word homogen is rather straight forward to pronounce, the English equivalent, homogeneous, is slightly trickier. Oxford English suggests [ˌhɒməˈdʒiːniəs] (British English) and [ˌhoʊməˈdʒiːniəs] (American English), see and listen here. On the other hand, the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary includes the following possibilities: British English: [ˌhɒməʊˈdʒiːniəs] (used by 75% of the speakers) [ˌhoʊməʊˈdʒiːniəs] (used
Use of the name Dirac and the words honeycomb and ribbon has grown almost exponentially since the experimental realization of graphene (stressed on the second syllable) in 2004. Because of its shape, the hexagonal pattern in which carbon atoms are arranged in graphene is called a honeycomb lattice. On such a lattice, electrons near the
I have previously discussed the fact that the letter p is often silent in English, see here, and that this causes quite some problems with non-native speakers. Today, I want to discuss the letter w, which is also often silent. For example, the w is not pronounced in any of the following words (click to
With the movie about Abraham Lincoln out on DVD now, let me discuss the pronunciation of the name Lincoln. In contrast to the incorrect pronunciation often used by nonnative speakers, the second l in Lincoln is silent. The phonetic spelling is hence [ˈlɪŋkən]. You can listen to it here. A quick search on youtube brought
The phrase et al. is often used when referring to scientific papers by a group of authors, and means “and others”. Instead of naming all the authors (the average number of authors on scientific papers has been increasing for many decades, see here, here, and here for interesting discussions of this phenomenon), it is common