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
Yo is certainly one of the most unusual words I come across as an Austrian in Germany. In fact, I am not even sure how it is spelled, because the Duden has nothing to say about either Yo or Jo, and I did not find it in any other dictionaries either. The spelling Yo chosen
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
While my blog is usually concerned with the English language, today I want to mention a topic for advanced learners of German. In Germany (but not usually in Austria and Switzerland), it is quite common to abbreviate the word einen with ‘nen (the apostrophe is not always used, but is required since it indicates that
In the context of languages, the term false friend refers to the incorrect use of a word in one language that is identical or very similar in terms of spelling to a word in another language. Of course, because of the common origin of many languages, there are many true friends, namely words that are