▲ 84 ▼ English as a second language learners: what words were really hard for you to pronounce? (discuss.tchncs.de) submitted 10 months ago by RockySalad@discuss.tchncs.de to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml 155 comments fedilink hide all child comments If English wasn't your first language, maybe if you learned English later in life, were there any words that you had a really hard time learning how to pronounce? Do you think that had to do with the sounds made in your first language?
[–] CuddlyCassowary@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago (7 children) Or a French person. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 7 child comments replies: [–] Witchfire@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 child) This one's actually funny to me. It's a bit of a meme that francophones struggle with squirrel and anglophones struggle with écureuil, but I personally had no trouble with it. You just have to hear it once. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 1 child comment replies: [–] Cheesus@lemmy.ca 4 points 10 months ago My francophone wife practiced saying squirrel for like 7 years before she was able to get it kinda right, so that's very impressive if true. It doesn't help that in my accent, it's pronounced as one syllable. Even good approximations of the pronunciation that I've heard by French speakers are usually done in two syllables. permalink fedilink source parent [–] gilgameth@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago (3 children) Or a person permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 3 child comments replies: [–] CuddlyCassowary@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago (2 children) Is it tricky? English is my first language and it doesn’t seem difficult to me, but I never gave it much thought. So fascinating. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] otp@sh.itjust.works 11 points 10 months ago It only has a single vowel, which is an r-coloured vowel...which most languages don't have. For that matter, many languages don't even have our "r" sound, so colouring a vowel with "r" is incredibly hard when you don't even have that consonant to colour with! Not to mention that after using that r-coloured vowel, you have a semi-syllabic L immediately afterwards. (Is squirrel one syllable or two? Depends on who you ask I guess!). As you may know, L and R are the same in some languages. And even if a language has both AND pronounces them the same ways as English (not necessarily common), they might not allow an L to follow an R! (Just like how we don't allow R to follow an L) Oh, and which vowel are we colouring? "i" or the "short I". This is a very rare vowel, following a third dimension (tenseness) that the majority of other vowels don't use. Not common in other languages, either! So that's the last two sounds. The first three is a consonant cluster containing another uncommon consonant (w). And even ignoring that, s and k can't always be combined together in other languages. So literally every sound in the word "squirrel" has something foreign and rare about it to many languages immediately as you start to get past that "s" sound. Brutal. permalink fedilink source parent [–] gilgameth@lemmy.world 1 point 10 months ago It's not the trickiest, but it's not exactly easy to say it like the native speakers. permalink fedilink source parent [–] Camille@lemmy.ml 2 points 10 months ago What's the problem with Skouirrelle? :^) permalink fedilink source parent
[–] Witchfire@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 child) This one's actually funny to me. It's a bit of a meme that francophones struggle with squirrel and anglophones struggle with écureuil, but I personally had no trouble with it. You just have to hear it once. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 1 child comment replies: [–] Cheesus@lemmy.ca 4 points 10 months ago My francophone wife practiced saying squirrel for like 7 years before she was able to get it kinda right, so that's very impressive if true. It doesn't help that in my accent, it's pronounced as one syllable. Even good approximations of the pronunciation that I've heard by French speakers are usually done in two syllables. permalink fedilink source parent
[–] Cheesus@lemmy.ca 4 points 10 months ago My francophone wife practiced saying squirrel for like 7 years before she was able to get it kinda right, so that's very impressive if true. It doesn't help that in my accent, it's pronounced as one syllable. Even good approximations of the pronunciation that I've heard by French speakers are usually done in two syllables. permalink fedilink source parent
[–] gilgameth@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago (3 children) Or a person permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 3 child comments replies: [–] CuddlyCassowary@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago (2 children) Is it tricky? English is my first language and it doesn’t seem difficult to me, but I never gave it much thought. So fascinating. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] otp@sh.itjust.works 11 points 10 months ago It only has a single vowel, which is an r-coloured vowel...which most languages don't have. For that matter, many languages don't even have our "r" sound, so colouring a vowel with "r" is incredibly hard when you don't even have that consonant to colour with! Not to mention that after using that r-coloured vowel, you have a semi-syllabic L immediately afterwards. (Is squirrel one syllable or two? Depends on who you ask I guess!). As you may know, L and R are the same in some languages. And even if a language has both AND pronounces them the same ways as English (not necessarily common), they might not allow an L to follow an R! (Just like how we don't allow R to follow an L) Oh, and which vowel are we colouring? "i" or the "short I". This is a very rare vowel, following a third dimension (tenseness) that the majority of other vowels don't use. Not common in other languages, either! So that's the last two sounds. The first three is a consonant cluster containing another uncommon consonant (w). And even ignoring that, s and k can't always be combined together in other languages. So literally every sound in the word "squirrel" has something foreign and rare about it to many languages immediately as you start to get past that "s" sound. Brutal. permalink fedilink source parent [–] gilgameth@lemmy.world 1 point 10 months ago It's not the trickiest, but it's not exactly easy to say it like the native speakers. permalink fedilink source parent
[–] CuddlyCassowary@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago (2 children) Is it tricky? English is my first language and it doesn’t seem difficult to me, but I never gave it much thought. So fascinating. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] otp@sh.itjust.works 11 points 10 months ago It only has a single vowel, which is an r-coloured vowel...which most languages don't have. For that matter, many languages don't even have our "r" sound, so colouring a vowel with "r" is incredibly hard when you don't even have that consonant to colour with! Not to mention that after using that r-coloured vowel, you have a semi-syllabic L immediately afterwards. (Is squirrel one syllable or two? Depends on who you ask I guess!). As you may know, L and R are the same in some languages. And even if a language has both AND pronounces them the same ways as English (not necessarily common), they might not allow an L to follow an R! (Just like how we don't allow R to follow an L) Oh, and which vowel are we colouring? "i" or the "short I". This is a very rare vowel, following a third dimension (tenseness) that the majority of other vowels don't use. Not common in other languages, either! So that's the last two sounds. The first three is a consonant cluster containing another uncommon consonant (w). And even ignoring that, s and k can't always be combined together in other languages. So literally every sound in the word "squirrel" has something foreign and rare about it to many languages immediately as you start to get past that "s" sound. Brutal. permalink fedilink source parent [–] gilgameth@lemmy.world 1 point 10 months ago It's not the trickiest, but it's not exactly easy to say it like the native speakers. permalink fedilink source parent
[–] otp@sh.itjust.works 11 points 10 months ago It only has a single vowel, which is an r-coloured vowel...which most languages don't have. For that matter, many languages don't even have our "r" sound, so colouring a vowel with "r" is incredibly hard when you don't even have that consonant to colour with! Not to mention that after using that r-coloured vowel, you have a semi-syllabic L immediately afterwards. (Is squirrel one syllable or two? Depends on who you ask I guess!). As you may know, L and R are the same in some languages. And even if a language has both AND pronounces them the same ways as English (not necessarily common), they might not allow an L to follow an R! (Just like how we don't allow R to follow an L) Oh, and which vowel are we colouring? "i" or the "short I". This is a very rare vowel, following a third dimension (tenseness) that the majority of other vowels don't use. Not common in other languages, either! So that's the last two sounds. The first three is a consonant cluster containing another uncommon consonant (w). And even ignoring that, s and k can't always be combined together in other languages. So literally every sound in the word "squirrel" has something foreign and rare about it to many languages immediately as you start to get past that "s" sound. Brutal. permalink fedilink source parent
[–] gilgameth@lemmy.world 1 point 10 months ago It's not the trickiest, but it's not exactly easy to say it like the native speakers. permalink fedilink source parent
[–] Camille@lemmy.ml 2 points 10 months ago What's the problem with Skouirrelle? :^) permalink fedilink source parent