| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | The unpronounceable (April 29, 2011) Thread poster: RominaZ
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Carole Paquis 
United Kingdom
Local time: 16:59
Member (2007)
English to French
| there's a little street I know | May 4, 2011 |
It's called Holtshill Lane.
I have been known to send people a few roads round the corner to avoid having to tell them to go up said road and turn right.
Carole
| | | | Jacques DP
Switzerland
Local time: 16:59
English to French
That was always a hard one for me. I'm having a look and see that people often pronounce it as "cloz". I will do that next time
| | | | | Red fruit compote with cream (in Danish) | Jun 8, 2011 |
Rød grød med fløde
Roed groed med floede
It means a sort of compote of summer fruits - strawberries, raspberries, redcurrants or whatever you have in the garden, served with cream. Red and white like the colours of the flag... so it is very symbolic.
-- That is the Danish tonguetwister used to pick out foreigners from real Danes.
It has the guttural Danish back 'r', the glottal stop and two variants of the Danish vowel ø. (Sorry, I've forgotten al... See more Rød grød med fløde
Roed groed med floede
It means a sort of compote of summer fruits - strawberries, raspberries, redcurrants or whatever you have in the garden, served with cream. Red and white like the colours of the flag... so it is very symbolic.
-- That is the Danish tonguetwister used to pick out foreigners from real Danes.
It has the guttural Danish back 'r', the glottal stop and two variants of the Danish vowel ø. (Sorry, I've forgotten all the phonetics I ever learnt!) But the longer version of the vowel can sound distinctly vulgar to English ears...
When non-natives first arrive in Denmark, the whole of the language sounds like that. Compared with German, it is spoken fast but extremely indistinctly, and claims to have more different vowel sounds than most languages. Separated by 'soft' or guttural consonants, it is one big tongue-twister for the uninitiated!
Danes even have three extra letters after the English alphabet, æ, ø and å as a help to spelling the odd sounds.
I can talk to some Danes for quite a long time before they discover I am not native, but my relatives and friends know just how to trap me!
I can cope with their 'red porridge' if I say or grunt it fast enough, but there are plenty of other pitfalls and shibboleths.
Don't misunderstand me - Danish is a fascinating language, and has expressions I envy them...
But they would never dream of claiming it was 'la plus belle langue du monde', for instance...
The word I really hate is asthma...
But most English call it 'asma' and leave it at that.
[Edited at 2011-06-08 12:13 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Streichholzschachtel | Jun 8, 2011 |
Anna Spanoudaki-Thurm wrote:
Eichhörnchen -> squirrel
I practice since 1996... still no progress.
A Spanish friend of mine had the same problems with the same word... Give it a try with "Streichholzschachtel" (matchbox) or even "Streichholzschächtelchen" (little matchbox). Good luck!
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Allison Wright (X)
Portugal
Local time: 15:59
| maravilhosamente | Jun 8, 2011 |
This Portuguese word (marvellously/wonderfully) flaws me frequently. Consequently, I have a learnt many synonyms.
| | | | Patty Black
United States
Local time: 10:59
Spanish to English
+ ...
| hard words in English | Jun 11, 2011 |
my dad has been known to mangle a couple of words like....
poodle instead of puddle
sweetcase instead of suitcase (he argues, why in the word is not pronounced as suite)
I still have a hard time with 'iron' and 'Atlanta', even 'Los Angeles' (what a paradox, because I cant pronounce it the American way...)
| | | | apk12
Germany
Local time: 16:59
English to German
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| Were is the German classic? | Jun 11, 2011 |
Usually, it's filed under "tongue twister" (or actually, not even really a twister, simply as playfield example for the German compound phenomenon)- but, anyway, pronouncing it is for sure quite some fun, too
Donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftskapitänsmützenbandfransenfadenendoppelknotenlösungsfindungssuchereignismitteilung
for example...
[Edited at 2011-06-12 00:11 GMT]
| | | | | Pages in topic: < [1 2] | There is no moderator assigned specifically to this forum. To report site rules violations or get help, please contact site staff » The unpronounceable (April 29, 2011) | LinguaCore |
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