A great pronunciation

Tom   Fri Aug 21, 2009 6:59 pm GMT
Another question for native speakers from all parts of the English-speaking world:

1. "He had a great American pronunciation."
2. "The second speaker has an especially nice pronunciation."

Correct? Sounds a bit unusual? Sounds like a grammatical mistake?
Jim   Fri Aug 21, 2009 7:20 pm GMT
1. A little odd.
2. Fine.
Leasnam   Fri Aug 21, 2009 7:30 pm GMT
<<1. "He had a great American pronunciation."
2. "The second speaker has an especially nice pronunciation." >>

For 1., I would make it "He had great American pronunciation". No "a". OR "He had a great American type of pronunciation"

2. is fine, I agree
DelAster   Sat Aug 22, 2009 1:22 am GMT
When you say "a pronunciation" (with the article), I can't help but think some specific pronunciation. It begs the question, pronunciation...of what word?

I would just say "The second speaker has especially good pronunciation."
Uriel   Sat Aug 22, 2009 2:04 am GMT
I would drop the articles from both -- no "a" and no "an".
Tom   Sun Aug 23, 2009 2:34 pm GMT
Jim, Leasnam:

You say "He had a great American pronunciation." is a bit odd.

How about:

"He had a really great American pronunciation."

Does it sound it less odd to you now?
Johnny   Sun Aug 23, 2009 2:38 pm GMT
My opinion (as a learner) is that... I think "He had a great American pronunciation" is grammatically ok, but it's not something that is likely to be said in real life, because maybe native speakers would say something different, like "He spoke English very well" or "Boy, he really sounded pretty much like an American, didn't he?", you know, stuff like that.
Damian London E14   Mon Aug 24, 2009 12:22 pm GMT
From the general British perspective within the ESW the indefinite article in both examples would be overlooked most of the time and I would tend to agree with DelAster's comments here.