Tag right

May 3, 2014

Eliminate these wannabe-Germanisms

By Martin in False friends, Scientific English Tag alright, english, german, Germanisms, good, incorrect, ja, OK, or, right, yes

In this post, I want to discuss some fascinating mistakes made even by very advanced speakers. They concern expressions which are borrowed from their native language (called Germanisms when borrowed from German), and are not used by native English speakers. The examples given below are typically absent in formal writing, but often show up in

Aug 26, 2013

How to pronounce w in wrong, write, wrestling, etc.

By Martin in Pronunciation, TV English Tag letter, pronunciation, rap, right, silent, sword, swordfish, w, wrangler, wrap, write, wrong

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