3
votes
Accepted
Do long vowel differ to their short counterparts beyond just being longer?
In general, the length of a vowel sound is not as important in English as the quality of the sound. For example /iː/ and /ɪ/ form a pair of vowels in which the first is generally "long" and ...
- 231k
1
vote
Accepted
accursed [əkɜːrsid][əkɚst] Which one is more prevalent?
In contemporary American English, trisyllabic accurséd is a synonym for "damned" and is used primarily when swearing about something:
This accurséd car won't start in cold weather!
I don't ...
- 137k
1
vote
Do long vowel differ to their short counterparts beyond just being longer?
Phonetician (and screenwriter and director!) Geoff Lindsey argues convincingly, including on his YouTube channel—and in particular in his video entitled Why these English phonetic symbols are all ...
- 11.3k
1
vote
Accepted
"get out of the house" breath group, intermission making any change in the meaning?
Since of the house is complement to out, the command should be said in a single breath, that is, with no syntactic pause long enough to isolate of the house from out.
That's assuming you are in direct ...
- 137k
1
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"get out of the house" breath group, intermission making any change in the meaning?
The phrase should be spoken without pauses.
If I say "Get out /(pause)/ of the house, does this sound idiomatic or make sense?
99% of the time - absolutely not.
1% of the time - we can discuss ...
- 10.1k
1
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their faces' spots were ... (pronunciation of "faces'")
You never pronounce the Saxon Genitive (possessive) s after a noun pluralized by adding s. That's true even if the noun doesn't contain another s sound (such as the soft c in face).
So plural
the ...
- 74.6k
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