''Mom/Mum'' and ''Dad'' and ''mother/father''

mjd   Sunday, October 10, 2004, 01:52 GMT
José,

I think your posts would be more readable if you didn't flood the whole thread with "what if" questions concerning pronunciation. In your three posts you must have asked over a hundred questions....obviously, it'd take quite a bit of time to address all of these issues. Seemingly endless posts that try to tackle all of the complexities of English pronunciation are a favorite ploy of "spelling reform spammers," and are routinely ignored or deleted on this forum.

My advice to you...get a new teacher. If he/she told you to use "amn't", I don't think he/she has much credibility as a teacher of English.

This message board has a lot of knowledgeable native speakers on it and we can help you with your questions. However, the best way to learn pronunciation is to listen to native speakers.
José   Sunday, October 10, 2004, 03:01 GMT
''My advice to you...get a new teacher. If he/she told you to use "amn't", I don't think he/she has much credibility as a teacher of English.''

Yeah, That is what I'm going to do. I am not going to go back to that teacher even one more day.

Anyway, Do you have any answers to these grammar questions?

Is ''amn't'' not correct? Can ''amn't'' ever be used as a contraction of ''am not''?

Are ''he isn't'' and ''they aren't'' more correct than ''he's not'' and ''they're not''? My teacher insists that we never should never use ''he's not'' and ''they're not''.

Is there a distinction between ''people'' and ''persons''? My teacher is told me that ''persons'' should only be used talking about individuals and that ''people'' should only be used when talking about a group. Is that true?

Is the plural of ''cow'', ''cows'' or ''kine''? My teacher said it should be ''kine''.

Is the plural of ''deer'', ''deer'' or ''deers''? My teacher said it should be ''deer''.
Mxsmanic   Sunday, October 10, 2004, 04:54 GMT
"Amn't" is not correct in standard English.

"He isn't" is no more or less correct than "he's not."

The distinction between people and persons is valid.

The plural of cow is cows.

The plural of deer is deer traditionally, but many people say deers now, particularly if they're not very familiar with wildlife.
José   Sunday, October 10, 2004, 06:34 GMT
Mxsmanic, Thanks for your answers.

Can you answer these questions?

Is there a distinction in pronunciation between the words ''dew'', ''do'', ''doo'' and ''due''? My teacher is telling us that ''dew'' should be pronounce [dju:], ''do'' should be pronounced [dU:], ''doo'' should be pronounced [du:] and ''due'' should be pronounced [dy:]. Is that true? Should I worry about trying to distinguish the four words ''dew'', ''do'', ''doo'' and ''due''?

Is there a distinction in pronunciation between ''road'', ''rode'' and ''rowed'' and the ''o'' in ''post''? My teacher is telling us that ''road'' should be pronounced [ro..d], ''rode'' should be pronounced [ro:d], ''rowed'' should be pronounced [roUd] and the ''o'' in ''post'' should be pronounced [@u]? Is that true? Should I worry about distinguishing the four sounds?

Is there a distinction in pronunciation between ''mete'', ''meat'', ''meet'' and ''mitt''? My teacher is telling us that ''mete'' should be pronounced [mI:t], ''meat'' should be pronounced [miot], ''meet'' should be pronounced [mit] and ''mitt'' should be pronounced [mIt]. Is that true? Should I worry about distinguishing the four vowels.
Mxsmanic   Sunday, October 10, 2004, 11:05 GMT
The detail would be defensible if it correlated with some very widespread standard for English, but Scottish English is useless outside Scotland.
José   Sunday, October 10, 2004, 17:32 GMT
Mxsmanic, What accent is the standard accent and what dialect is the standard dialect? Is the Scottish accent nonstandard?
Mxsmanic   Monday, October 11, 2004, 04:58 GMT
The best accents to adopt are American English or Received Pronunciation/Estuary English, I think, as these are very widely understood and, in the case of AmE, widely spoken. Good models to follow are the English pronunciations you here on CNN Or the BBC, most of which are quite clean and standard. I prefer the American pronunciation because it matches spelling more closely and there are more native speakers of that pronunciation than of any other, but both are equally standard and comprehensible.

In contrast, Scottish English is fine in Scotland, but many English speakers outside that country have a great deal of trouble understanding it. The accent of Glasgow can be almost incomprehensible for people outside Scotland, and there are many particularities of Scottish English that can bewilder other native speakers.

I think it's always best to adopt an accent that is as widely used and understood as possible. For English, that means a neutral American or British accent; none of the others comes close. There are many minor variants of American and British that will work fine, although some will identify you with a particular region (e.g., if you speak with a Boston accent people will think you are from Boston, but they'll probably still understand you).
Damian   Monday, October 11, 2004, 07:02 GMT
<<The accent of Glasgow can be almost incomprehensible for people outside Scotland>>

Correction: In this sentence, for "Scotland" substitute "Glasgow". Thanks. 45 miles might just as well be 45 million miles...but heck! ...look what's in between.... Cumbernauld!

(Tinsel Town Glasgow? ...well..... let's just make David Paisley an exception.....)
Mxsmanic   Monday, October 11, 2004, 18:36 GMT
If you say so; I had assumed that at least other people in Scotland would be able to understand those from Glasgow, but perhaps not.

The strength of that city's accent seems to vary quite a bit. Some people from Glasgow I can understand with no problem; others are extremely difficult to understand.

In any case, it would make a very poor model for pronunciation in ESL teaching, unless the goal were to teach students how to live in Glasgow exclusively.
vn23   Monday, October 11, 2004, 20:59 GMT
I'm a New Zealander and have had quite a few problems when trying to communicate with people with Scotland and Ireland, take the advice and stick with standard american or RP/estuary accents if you want to be universally understood.

By the way I have a few problems with being understood by British people (I'm in London) but this is just with a couple of vowels and thats easily fixable!
vn23   Monday, October 11, 2004, 21:01 GMT
by the way, there is no such word as deers!!

Edit: above post should say "with people from Scotland and Ireland"
Smith   Monday, October 11, 2004, 21:02 GMT
vn23, you don't say ''fush and chups'' do you?
vn23   Monday, October 11, 2004, 21:12 GMT
nah its fish and chips
Smith   Monday, October 11, 2004, 22:12 GMT
Vn23, do you pronounce ''bare'', ''bear'' and ''beer'' all the same way. Many New Zealanders I've heard do.
Margaret   Wednesday, October 13, 2004, 09:07 GMT
''I amn't going back to that teacher''???

Get out of there!