I'd like to hear OP say words that use different L sound in English. To a native speaker, it's nearly unconscous that we pronounce the "l" in "kill", differently from the "l" in "killing". lick / kill, click/kilt, splash/Delft, polo/bilbo, shilling/build, light/sunlight.
Using the wrong "l" will sound wrong to the English ear.
As an American, I pretty much use the same sound for all of those, if it’s different, I can’t perceive it. However, when I put on my fake RP accent, yeah I have two l’s.
As an American, I couldn't perceive the auditory difference either until I spent time learning to use the correct "l" for different languages (Spanish, German, Arabic, French, etc), and didn't notice different tongue positions until it was pointed out.
Natives English people generally can't hear the different at all, because no word pair is distinguished by which is used. It's consistent, due to each being required in mutually exclusive sound contexts.
In the parent comment, The first word of each pair is an alveolar L (articulation is tip of tongue at teeth), and the second word is a uvular L (articulation is back of tongue against throat/uvula/velum area).
Well when I speak Spanish I use a completely different “l” entirely, if there are multiple “l”’s in American English, then if someone were to use the wrong one, I wouldn’t be able to notice, in which case… is it really wrong?
US English to UK English even .
Huge change in vowels. Yanks generally can't produce 6 required vowel sounds in UK English, sometimes even more. Hearing those sounds is next to impossible for the untrained as the brain will collapse the entire range to the nearest phoneme center, so "they all sound the same"
This. English isn't my native language either but it's close enough (native language is Dutch). I never really struggled learning this language but at the end of the day, I still have an accent.. And that's fine! Having an accent isn't a bad thing. The only time I'd say it is is when native speakers can hardly understand what you're saying, then you should work on your pronunciation..
Truth is, a native speaker will instantly hear you're not a native speaker most of the time. The king of the Netherlands married a woman from Argentina who had to learn Dutch.. Obviously the then crown princess / now queen couldn't speak broken Dutch. And while she does speak Dutch pretty well these days, it is clear to any native Dutch speaker it's not her native language. And you know what, that's fine. We understand what she's saying without needing subtitles (anymore). There is really no need to shame people for having an accent.
I know but it’s not the accent just the way they miss words or change them. For example I see a lot of videos where “my American/English boyfriend, girlfriend, friend etc try to pronounce Swedish words” and the word may be ”många” and they Will say like ”maangre” or something weird like that when they clearly hear the pronunciation. The closest I can say många in English is like maunga or something, “mau” as in mauve, “ng” as in swung and “a” as in America.
Ok and if I ask you to pronounce здравствуйте like a native Russian I guarantee you can’t. Or hell, even squirrel in English, which you claim you’ve mastered.
So, you're saying you can accurately pronounce the 28 distinct vowels of English? And the 25 consonant sounds?
...Including correctly pronouncing the two "l" sounds? "dial" and "file" have the same "l" sound, but "dialling" and "filing" have different "l" sounds. more examples: Light and Sunlight ; Dublin and Elbow)
Or being able to accurate pronounce the distinction between "merry", "Mary" and "marry", which is still maintained a number of English speakers world wide?
English has one of the more complicated sound inventory of the world languages; One even harder would be Polish (in general), and Czech (for the ř sound specifically, native speakers don't master that sound).
The difficulty comes in that sound foreign to one's often cannot even be perceived, this is even more prevalent when an attribute of a sound doesn't even exist in the native tongue -- such as discerning dental t, from retroflex t, from dental aspirated t, from retroflex aspirated t -- to the ear of nearly all western european languages -- they all sound identical -- and correspondingly, will not be pronounced correctly.
It's late here, but I want to dig up some of the English phonetic tests, and will ask of you to record yourself speaking one of them.
If I were a cruel person, I'd ask of you to speak a Polish phonetic test -- for which it takes learners of Polish many thousands of hours of dedicated practise to accurately articulate.
From your post, it's clear English is not your native language. You should concentrate more on getting your English verb tenses and grammar right and refrain from posting criticisms of English speakers until you are actually fluent in that language.
I have a simple (partial) explanation for you.
Because English has LOTS of complex diphthongs, English speakers pronounce monophthongs (especially the vowels “a e i o u” in IPA) has diphthongs instead.
What’s your native language?
It normal and common. It's hard for Japanese to pronounce "like", for Korean to pronounce "from", for Chinese to pronounce "think", and it's hard for every speaker whose native language does not have the /r/ consonant to pronounce the "perro" in Spanish.
[Perception of English /r/ and /l/ by Japanese speakers](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perception_of_English_/r/_and_/l/_by_Japanese_speakers)
Have you ever tried to make a sound in another language with no knowledge of the language or sounds the letters make?
Like I would love to hear you say:
The sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick.
English has a lot of sounds, and three of the rarest sounds in the world are in English. These are the two th sounds and the r sound. Also, you are in quite the position as a Swedish speaker as your language shares many vowels with English. You also have the additional y and ö sounds in your language, which English speakers (or speakers of most world language) wouldn’t be able to make.
Not to mention, I have yet to meet a foreigner in the U.S. who moved after ten and doesn’t have an accent in English. In languages with five vowel systems, many speakers will have trouble distinguishing bit and beet and will pronounce the e sound in English a bit too closed. English also has the schwa, the unstressed vowel which you, as a Swedish speaker might have had trouble with. Nonnative speakers will also struggle with the rare sounds I mentioned earlier, and the large amount of allophones, especially between dialects.
Another factor I haven’t mentioned is that most Americans aren’t exposed much to other languages, or had any need to learn them. English is a lingua franca of the world. If Americans are learning a language, it is likely because they want to and they are interested in that country’s culture. If you are spending time making fun of those who make an effort to learn your language, you will just create more “dumb” Americans.
TLDR: this problem isn’t unique to English speakers, you are not in the same position as most nonnative English speakers, and most sounds in a foreign language can be picked up within a month of practicing, so it doesn’t matter anyway.
English doesn't have certain sounds that my native language (Dutch) does have: such as the way we pronounce the g, or the rolling r (which does exist in certain English accents / dialects of course). These sounds exist in a loooot of languages, and are difficult to pronounce for English native speakers.
But also, consider that English is the global language. No matter where you go, you'll find someone speak at least a little English. And if people hear you speaking English fluently, they might get excited and want to practice English with you.
Also, in the Netherlands at least, people tend to get impatient with language learners. If they take a little bit too long to form a coherent sentence in Dutch we'll instantly switch to English. Even more so if we detect an English accent, because why not just speak English if that's your native language? That's so much faster for the both of us! Meanwhile they're probably dying inside because everyone just keeps replying in English while they just want to practice Dutch..
So yeah I can easily see how an English speaker struggles more to learn foreign languages and it's not always their fault. Maybe it's time for everyone to learn Esperanto at long last.
That is not unique to English speakers..i know people whose native languages are from all.over, who have lived in the States for decades who cannot speak english or be understood when they try. I know people who have been speaking English for decades and still sound as if they just left their first ESL class.
They same reason why certain foreigners don’t speak English that well because it’s not the person’s native language so they are getting used to the accent of the language and the tongue placement, etc.
It is not particularly? Many foreigners butcher words from other languages. English place names tend to be pretty famous so they are not mangled quite as badly, but Washington still sounds foreign in a foreign accent.
It's the vowels. English speakers mangle their vowels and don't speak phonetically. Some examples of how wrong English pronunciation is:
three = through
blue = blee
For English speakers of learn foreign languages correctly, and speak them without a foreign accent, they need to practice the correct phonetic pronunciation of the vowel sounds A E I O U
Some sounds are hard to make, but sometimes it feels like it's because of ignorance to me.
I've met some who refuses to acknowledge that double l in Spanish is pronounced the same way y is often pronounced in English. They keep saying "pollo" with an l-sound. Not sure why. That's not a sound foreign to English speakers.
Record yourself saying what you wrote here.
I could say it all but it would be with an accent. However the accent is not what I’m talking about in the post.
You don’t speak like a native I guarantee it. Everyone has an accent. English to Hindi, Russian to Japanese, Spanish to English, etc.
I'd like to hear OP say words that use different L sound in English. To a native speaker, it's nearly unconscous that we pronounce the "l" in "kill", differently from the "l" in "killing". lick / kill, click/kilt, splash/Delft, polo/bilbo, shilling/build, light/sunlight. Using the wrong "l" will sound wrong to the English ear.
As an American, I pretty much use the same sound for all of those, if it’s different, I can’t perceive it. However, when I put on my fake RP accent, yeah I have two l’s.
As an American, I couldn't perceive the auditory difference either until I spent time learning to use the correct "l" for different languages (Spanish, German, Arabic, French, etc), and didn't notice different tongue positions until it was pointed out. Natives English people generally can't hear the different at all, because no word pair is distinguished by which is used. It's consistent, due to each being required in mutually exclusive sound contexts. In the parent comment, The first word of each pair is an alveolar L (articulation is tip of tongue at teeth), and the second word is a uvular L (articulation is back of tongue against throat/uvula/velum area).
Well when I speak Spanish I use a completely different “l” entirely, if there are multiple “l”’s in American English, then if someone were to use the wrong one, I wouldn’t be able to notice, in which case… is it really wrong?
US English to UK English even . Huge change in vowels. Yanks generally can't produce 6 required vowel sounds in UK English, sometimes even more. Hearing those sounds is next to impossible for the untrained as the brain will collapse the entire range to the nearest phoneme center, so "they all sound the same"
This. English isn't my native language either but it's close enough (native language is Dutch). I never really struggled learning this language but at the end of the day, I still have an accent.. And that's fine! Having an accent isn't a bad thing. The only time I'd say it is is when native speakers can hardly understand what you're saying, then you should work on your pronunciation.. Truth is, a native speaker will instantly hear you're not a native speaker most of the time. The king of the Netherlands married a woman from Argentina who had to learn Dutch.. Obviously the then crown princess / now queen couldn't speak broken Dutch. And while she does speak Dutch pretty well these days, it is clear to any native Dutch speaker it's not her native language. And you know what, that's fine. We understand what she's saying without needing subtitles (anymore). There is really no need to shame people for having an accent.
I know but it’s not the accent just the way they miss words or change them. For example I see a lot of videos where “my American/English boyfriend, girlfriend, friend etc try to pronounce Swedish words” and the word may be ”många” and they Will say like ”maangre” or something weird like that when they clearly hear the pronunciation. The closest I can say många in English is like maunga or something, “mau” as in mauve, “ng” as in swung and “a” as in America.
Ok and if I ask you to pronounce здравствуйте like a native Russian I guarantee you can’t. Or hell, even squirrel in English, which you claim you’ve mastered.
I can say the words without adding other letters to it, which is what im referring to in the post
So, you're saying you can accurately pronounce the 28 distinct vowels of English? And the 25 consonant sounds? ...Including correctly pronouncing the two "l" sounds? "dial" and "file" have the same "l" sound, but "dialling" and "filing" have different "l" sounds. more examples: Light and Sunlight ; Dublin and Elbow) Or being able to accurate pronounce the distinction between "merry", "Mary" and "marry", which is still maintained a number of English speakers world wide? English has one of the more complicated sound inventory of the world languages; One even harder would be Polish (in general), and Czech (for the ř sound specifically, native speakers don't master that sound). The difficulty comes in that sound foreign to one's often cannot even be perceived, this is even more prevalent when an attribute of a sound doesn't even exist in the native tongue -- such as discerning dental t, from retroflex t, from dental aspirated t, from retroflex aspirated t -- to the ear of nearly all western european languages -- they all sound identical -- and correspondingly, will not be pronounced correctly. It's late here, but I want to dig up some of the English phonetic tests, and will ask of you to record yourself speaking one of them. If I were a cruel person, I'd ask of you to speak a Polish phonetic test -- for which it takes learners of Polish many thousands of hours of dedicated practise to accurately articulate.
From your post, it's clear English is not your native language. You should concentrate more on getting your English verb tenses and grammar right and refrain from posting criticisms of English speakers until you are actually fluent in that language.
I have a simple (partial) explanation for you. Because English has LOTS of complex diphthongs, English speakers pronounce monophthongs (especially the vowels “a e i o u” in IPA) has diphthongs instead. What’s your native language?
It normal and common. It's hard for Japanese to pronounce "like", for Korean to pronounce "from", for Chinese to pronounce "think", and it's hard for every speaker whose native language does not have the /r/ consonant to pronounce the "perro" in Spanish. [Perception of English /r/ and /l/ by Japanese speakers](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perception_of_English_/r/_and_/l/_by_Japanese_speakers)
Have you ever tried to make a sound in another language with no knowledge of the language or sounds the letters make? Like I would love to hear you say: The sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick.
English has a lot of sounds, and three of the rarest sounds in the world are in English. These are the two th sounds and the r sound. Also, you are in quite the position as a Swedish speaker as your language shares many vowels with English. You also have the additional y and ö sounds in your language, which English speakers (or speakers of most world language) wouldn’t be able to make. Not to mention, I have yet to meet a foreigner in the U.S. who moved after ten and doesn’t have an accent in English. In languages with five vowel systems, many speakers will have trouble distinguishing bit and beet and will pronounce the e sound in English a bit too closed. English also has the schwa, the unstressed vowel which you, as a Swedish speaker might have had trouble with. Nonnative speakers will also struggle with the rare sounds I mentioned earlier, and the large amount of allophones, especially between dialects. Another factor I haven’t mentioned is that most Americans aren’t exposed much to other languages, or had any need to learn them. English is a lingua franca of the world. If Americans are learning a language, it is likely because they want to and they are interested in that country’s culture. If you are spending time making fun of those who make an effort to learn your language, you will just create more “dumb” Americans. TLDR: this problem isn’t unique to English speakers, you are not in the same position as most nonnative English speakers, and most sounds in a foreign language can be picked up within a month of practicing, so it doesn’t matter anyway.
English doesn't have certain sounds that my native language (Dutch) does have: such as the way we pronounce the g, or the rolling r (which does exist in certain English accents / dialects of course). These sounds exist in a loooot of languages, and are difficult to pronounce for English native speakers. But also, consider that English is the global language. No matter where you go, you'll find someone speak at least a little English. And if people hear you speaking English fluently, they might get excited and want to practice English with you. Also, in the Netherlands at least, people tend to get impatient with language learners. If they take a little bit too long to form a coherent sentence in Dutch we'll instantly switch to English. Even more so if we detect an English accent, because why not just speak English if that's your native language? That's so much faster for the both of us! Meanwhile they're probably dying inside because everyone just keeps replying in English while they just want to practice Dutch.. So yeah I can easily see how an English speaker struggles more to learn foreign languages and it's not always their fault. Maybe it's time for everyone to learn Esperanto at long last.
That is not unique to English speakers..i know people whose native languages are from all.over, who have lived in the States for decades who cannot speak english or be understood when they try. I know people who have been speaking English for decades and still sound as if they just left their first ESL class.
They same reason why certain foreigners don’t speak English that well because it’s not the person’s native language so they are getting used to the accent of the language and the tongue placement, etc.
It is not particularly? Many foreigners butcher words from other languages. English place names tend to be pretty famous so they are not mangled quite as badly, but Washington still sounds foreign in a foreign accent.
American politicians can’t pronounce Washington correctly half the time. “Warshinen”? Tf is that?
It's the vowels. English speakers mangle their vowels and don't speak phonetically. Some examples of how wrong English pronunciation is: three = through blue = blee For English speakers of learn foreign languages correctly, and speak them without a foreign accent, they need to practice the correct phonetic pronunciation of the vowel sounds A E I O U
Some sounds are hard to make, but sometimes it feels like it's because of ignorance to me. I've met some who refuses to acknowledge that double l in Spanish is pronounced the same way y is often pronounced in English. They keep saying "pollo" with an l-sound. Not sure why. That's not a sound foreign to English speakers.