The following words which end with an ean are pronounced as /*i:n/ whereas Sean is pronounced as /ʃɒn/:      bean, dean, lean, mean...   Why is Sean not pronounced as /si:n/ but as /ʃɒn/? Where does this irregularity come from? Are there known rules in English for such cases?
122730
I've always had this question about the pronunciation of Sean.  Is Sean a word from another language? Is it actually not pronounced Shawn and instead it's some sound between Shawn and Seen? Also, why isn't it pronounced as Sawn instead of Shawn, when the word Sean doesn't even have the letter 'h' in it to get that -sh sound?  Bottom line is, why is Sean pronounced Shawn instead of Seen?
88623
Let's say we have the numeral "12,345". Why is it pronounced as "twelve thousand three hundred and forty five" as opposed to "twelve thousands three hundreds and forty five". Are 's's omitted while pronouncing numerals to make the whole thing more succinct and easier to pronounce?
17399
I've always heard people say something like     "Pronunciation is not my [for-tay]"   ... but I feel that I've heard that the correct pronunciation is     "Confusing people is my [fort]"   What is the proper way to pronounce this word?
9758
Possible Duplicate:           My name is Greg — this is Greg 's post.  If my name ended with an 's', I am aware of the proper apostrophe usage (James&nbsp;→ James'), but how should this be pronounced?  Phonetically, am I Jameses best friend or James best friend?
36063
The following words and their plurals seem to be somewhat inconsistent:   combo / combos concerto / concertos grotto / grottos / grottoes (?) hero / heros (?) / heroes potato / potatos (?) / potatoes tornado / tornados / tornadoes tomato / tomatos / tomatoes volcano / volcanos / volcanoes   Is there a common source for -s versus -es? With regards to words such as "heros", is it likely to see more words start dropping -es in favor of -s?  (If you have any other good examples of strange plurals from words ending in "o" feel free to edit them into the question.)
76363
I have been studying the pronunciation of Greek-derived words in English, and I've found an odd anomaly. There are (at least) two possible pronunciation patterns for plural word-forms that end in -&#8288;mata (which correspond to singular word-forms that end in -&#8288;ma).   Antepenult stress (expected)  It appears that it is always possible to place the stress on the antepenult (third-to-last) syllable, such as:    /ˈlɛmə/, /ˈlɛmətə/  /ˈskiːmə/, /ˈskiːmətə/  /ˌtɛrəˈtoʊmə/, /ˌtɛrəˈtoʊmətə/~/ˌtɛrəˈtɒmətə/  /ˈstɪɡmə/, /ˈstɪɡmətə/   This is what would be expected from  (I believe most or all of these words came through Latin before entering English), since the penultimate "a" in the original Greek words is short.  Maybe Latin vowel quality and stress rules are not very relevant; certainly, few English speakers know about them nowadays. And even with antepenult stress, some of these pronunciations do not seem to follow all of the traditional rules for pronouncing Latin-derived terms in English. I was reminded by some comments in this  that  in antepenult stressed syllables, we would expect tense ("long") vowels to be shortened due to  (TSL), yielding pronunciations like /ˌtɛrəˈtɒmətə/ (which I just noticed is in fact listed in the Oxford English dictionary) and ?/ˈskɛmətə/ (which is not). (Compare to genus~genera /dʒiːnəs/~/dʒɛnərə/, and perhaps opus~opera /oʊpəs/~/ɒpərə/). However, there are other Latinate plural forms that typically don't have trisyllabic laxing (matrices, also I think helices), or where both the lax- and tense-voweled pronunciations coexist (codices, apices), so I guess the apparent lack of it in schemata should not be surprising. (There are even some exceptions to TSL in singular nouns like obesity.)  Penult stress (unexpected)  The other pronunciation seems to exist only for a couple of words, in which the penultimate "a" is commonly stressed and broadened: stigma ~ stigmáta  (listed by both the Merriam-Webster dictionary and the ), and also sometimes schéma ~ schemáta /skiːˈmɑːtə/ (listed only by the ). (Neither the Merriam-Webster dictionary nor the Oxford Learner's Dictionaries list *"lemmáta").  I'm wondering why this pronunciation exists. It's an irregular plural either way, and putting the stress on the penultimate syllable creates a stress change between the singular and the plural forms.  (It's true that all of these words are rare, and some people might pronounce some of their plurals differently. The pronunciations I give here are simply the ones listed in dictionaries.)  The plural form "stigmata" is probably most common in religious or theological contexts (where it refers to the wounds of Christ), so at first I wondered if the penultimate stress was supposed to be closer to the original Greek pronunciation, but according to , the stress is on the antepenult in Greek as well.  So, what's up with this? Did the stress perhaps change in Latin over time, is this a tradition of Greek accentuation that I'm not familiar with, is this a simple matter of ignorance of the original position of the stress that has now become entrenched with time and usage, or is this somehow explainable by established English stress patterns? (For example, do English speakers have some natural preference for a penultimate stress on polysyllabic words?)  If nobody knows of a reason, I suppose I can just put it down to people encountering the word mainly in text, not knowing which syllable to stress, and choosing the penult because it sounds better to them.  (I asked this question a while back on , but nobody knew of any reason.)
17081
The audio clips  do not vocalise any sound resembling a 't', and the IPA contains no 't':     BrE /ˈkrɪsn/ ;   NAmE /ˈkrɪsn/   The 't' in 'christen' and 'hasten' (mooted by  in a deleted question), was it ever pronounced?     What formal linguistic concepts or terms describe this phenomenon? I read this () and this ().
75461
A general rule of English pronunciation states that the 's' in plural nouns is to be pronounced as /z/ if it is preceded by a 'voiced consonant' such as /n/ or /g/, and as /s/ if it is preceded by a 'voiceless consonant' such as /t/ or /p/.  Therefore, "pens" is pronounced as /penz/ and "cats" is pronounced as /cats/.  Now my question is, do native speakers of English always follow this rule? Secondly, and this is what I really need to understand, does this rule apply also to the 's' in the verbs of 'third person singular subjects'?
33502
People often use sans, the French word for ‘without’ in English.   What I don’t get, is when should that switch be made. When should I say sans when I really want to say without. Are there any general rules regarding usage, or is it kind of a person-to-person basis/feeling of flowerness.
5952
My coworker and I have been having this discussion for a day or two...  What is the most correct way to pronounce 'new' or 'news' ?  Does it rhyme with 'few' ? or 'snooze' ?  Does 'new crew' rhyme?  I know both 'noo' and 'nyoo' are correct, but what are the origins of the two different pronunciations?  Asking around the office, it seems that 'nyoo' might have a British English origin, but I would like to know if anyone is more knowledgeable on this topic.
68128
Most times we hear that the letter A is pronounced as [ə], but sometimes I hear that it is pronounced as [eɪ] in American English. Such as the following sentence: From VOA Special English:  She says governments must make that goal of a continental free trade area a reality.  The first A is pronounced as [eɪ], the second A  is pronounced as [ə]. Why? Does it have some regularity in it?
113939
The word &quot;&quot; is pronounced as /ˈsɪŋ.ər/ having /ŋ/ and not /ŋg/ in Standard Englishes. On the other hand, the word &quot;&quot; is pronounced as /ˈlɒŋɡər/ having /ŋɡ/ and not just /ŋ/ in Standard Englishes. &quot;Longer&quot; is derived from &quot;long&quot; which only has /ŋ/. There are some other words as well, like younger, youngest and the superlative form of &quot;long&quot;: longest = /ŋg/ And those which have only /ŋ/: ringer, hanger, banger. I read this answer () and it suggests:  Word-internal [ŋg] mostly remained (as in finger, anger), but an originally word-final -ng- that becomes word-internal only as the result of the addition of certain suffixes is pronounced [ŋ] (e.g. singing, singer). The -ng- in English is not word-final, and -lish is not a suffix here, so it isn't expected to be pronounced [ŋ] according to the pronunciation patterns of the most commonly described dialects.  The er is a suffix in both &quot;longer&quot; and &quot;singer&quot; but they are pronounced differently. Why is &quot;singer&quot; not pronounced as /ˈsɪŋɡər/ or &quot;longer&quot; as /ˈlɒŋər/? Is &quot;longer&quot; an exception to this rule or there is a specific reason?
88579
Ok, see the word "conscious" has the IPA /ˈkɑːnʃəs/ in the   However, when you listen clearly, you will feel like it should be /ˈkɑːntʃəs/ not /ˈkɑːnʃəs/.  So it should read /tʃ/ rather than /ʃ/.  In some other dictionaries, which use different transcription systems, they give the entry "ˈkän(t)-shəs" , for example in the . Here we see it with a /t/.  So, should the IPA for the word "conscious" be /ˈkɑːnʃəs/ or /ˈkɑːntʃəs/?
56545
Why, in American English, is the word Italy is pronounced /ˈɪdəli/ and not /ˈɪtəli/? What is the rule that is followed in the pronunciation of Italy to make the letter t pronounced like a d? Why is the same rule not followed for Italian, which is pronounced /əˈtæljən/ or /ɪˈtæljən/?
85774
It seems that in the words Englishman, Frenchman, and Scotsman, the ‑man part is pronounced /mən/ (just like in Roman).  Whereas in snowman, the ‑man part is pronounced /mæn/ (just like in no man).  Why is it that when ‑man is appended to snow‑ to make snowman, the pronunciation of the man part doesn’t change?    Wouldn’t it logically follow for it to be pronounced /ˈsnowmən/ not /ˈsnowˌmæn/?
60760
In expressions such as "ham 'n eggs", the conjunction 'n appears to replace and, yet there is only one apostrophe to indicate the missing a and none for the missing d (i.e., no "ham 'n' eggs").    Is there a punctuation rule that governs this or is it just an idiosyncratic case?
47135
What is the correct pronunciation of the word processes? I am confused because my mother tongue is not English, and in my company some say it as "process-eez" and some say it "process-ess".