the Bear SG well, i was watching a current affairs article on CNA not too long ago, there was this lady who wrote a book about commonly mangled words.. in singapore, that is.. there are a few which are always around.. and some with hilarious results just like the CEO of GNC just said: "meal" - "mew" then the hilarious one.. "third" - "turd" which brings me to something a lot of singaporeans don't seem to be able to pronounce: TH "thanks" is not "tanks" "things" is not "tings" then the mispronunciation "d" in words.. "food" becomes "foot" "rude" becomes "root" "good" becomes "goot" what others are there out there? i really need to improve my diction.. it's getting worse by the day
Rhonda SG Oh... I watched that same show when it was broadcasted over CNA too. Here are my own observations : There are a handful of folks who cannot pronounce the letter 'v'. For instance, 'van' becomes 'wan', 'vehicle' becomes 'wehicle'. "Three" becomes "tree". And "Vase", which should rhyme with 'Base', is very commonly pronounced here as 'V-Arse'. "Sword" (pronouced 'Sord') becomes "Sword"; "Economic" should be "Air-conomic" but often pronounced "Ee-conomic", because "Economy" is pronounced as "Ee-conomy"; "Photographer" ("Fur-tor-grapher") becomes "Photo-grapher"; "Flour" should be pronounced as "Fl-Our" but we often pronounce it as "Fl-ah"; And this next one I have argued over many a woman over! "Lingerie" (pronounced "Lohn-jer-ray") becomes badly mispronounced as "Linger-ree". That's all I can recall for now... I'm sure there are more. Will post them as and when I recall t hem.
SBS9828X SG Its usually 'S' that most ppl cant pronounce properly like wind coming out when the teeth meets the tounge
laurence82 SG rhonda i think urs is mostly american english i remember the brits pronounce flour as flar, while the american's fl-Our
Rhonda SG I had a lecturer who made me shudder each time she mentioned "Singapore"... she mispronounced it as "Seng-ka-pore"! Aaaaaargh!!! And oh, way before Boat Quay and Clarke Quay was popular, they were both local delicacies, 'Boat Kueh' and 'Clarke Kueh'!
laurence82 SG The famous idiotic principal of ACJC, cant pronounce her words properly I dont know becomes I donch know and she has to emphasise it..arghhhh
Rhonda SG How about 'condo' for 'condom'! hehehe! "I wanna live in a condo" is very very different from "I wanna live in a condom". hehehehe!
the Bear SG to-mah-to coz we're using the Queen's English this word is killing me: DATA... it's "DAY-TA".. not bloody "DAH-TAH".. it comes from the word Datum or Reference..
elindra SG Depends if you wanna speak Queen's English or American english This so reminds me of the song by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong ' Let's call the whole thing off'
I_am_PeTe_Parker SG And imagine the embarassment if the lady says "Buy me a condo if you love me" and you go buy a Durex instead and she really meant a condo.
Rhonda SG Lau, I checked the phonetics for the word "Flour" in the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary, which gives both the British and US pronunciations of words and British or American, the word IS pronounced as "Flower". Interesting. Check it out here!
the Bear SG here's one: "subtle" - the B is silent.. pronounced "suttle" also this one.. "often" - the T is silent.. pronounced "offen"
