English Pronunciation Guide

There’s a Terrific Draft or Draught in here!

2009-08-17T09:55:00.000-07:00

When going for beer the other night I was confronted by two different offers as shown in the photos. Suddenly the questions came thick and fast:
Did I want a “draught beer” or a “draft beer”?
When you leave the door ajar do you let in a “draft” or a “draught”?
Before you finish writing a document is it a “draught document” or a “draft document”?
And is it a “rough draft” or a “ruff draught”?
Are detailed technical drawings done by a “draughtsman” or a “draftsman”?
Do I play a game of “drafts” or “draughts”?
Am I "drafted" or "draughted" to the army?
How deep in the water is a ship's "draught" or a ship's "draft"?

I think I will settle this over a bottle of stout!

The Man From the North

2009-07-26T03:16:00.000-07:00

Whether its the Yorkshire Dales or the Lancashire Plain there are some odd characters who come from the North of England (see picture above). In the North they call a spade a spade and they are proud of it. They have a good mild'n bitter beer and the fish and chips are better than in the South.

Normally they like sausages but obviously the man in the post below (see Czech Menu 2 - Dins) has had enough!

Czech Menu – Part 3 Pudding

2009-07-20T00:58:00.000-07:00

Here is a special delicacy of country regions, particularly popular in Moravia and North Bohemia. These are Flippers served with jam, fruit and cream. They are best finished of with a double measure of Plum Brandy (known locally as “Slivovice”) to avoid indigestion!

Czech Menu – Part 2 Dins

2009-07-19T03:40:00.000-07:00

A popular destination in Czech is the quaint old city of Bratislava, which is off towards Hungary in the east. The following conversation snippet was overheard on the next table between two tourists from the North of England:

“Eee by gum, Mabel. Yer coom all this way an wa’ der yer get? Grilled bloody sausages – again!”

It’s enough to make Bratislava want to move to Slovakia!

Czech Menu – Part 1 Soup

2009-07-16T00:08:00.000-07:00

Eating out when travelling often leads to interestings experiences and insights into local taste and culture.

When in the Czech Republic, for example in Southern Bohemia, it is always nice to start a meal with a tasty soup. In contrast to some less civilised parts of the world, here you do not have to worry about being put in the cooking pot by the local cannibals – instead they are served up to you – as Tribe Soup. Hmm yummy!

Menu for Acupuncturists

2009-07-11T04:51:00.000-07:00

This is no problem with English Pronunciation but simply funny!

Quiz: If you were a hungry acupuncturist which menu item do you think you would choose? The duck? The fish?
You got it. The needles! Perhaps they are served in haystacks! Or maybe they come with a camel side-dish, although they would be difficult to pass through the eye of the needle before eating!

Whatever else, they really have that menu sewn up!

The Therapeutic Smell of Tar

2009-07-10T00:15:00.000-07:00

I would hate to regurgitate an old belief but I just assumed that it was common knowledge that the smell of tar was therapeutic and had some mild medicinal benefit. In other words breathing deeply when passing a roadworks where the smell of tar was strong was “good for the lungs”!

Now I find out that not everybody is convinced of this, and horror of horrors, I am not sure myself that it is true. I simply always believed it.

However with the benefit of the ubiquitous internet searching for “therapeutic smell of tar” reveals that tar is used in all sorts of things from shampoo to sweets and candies, that there are different types of tar anyway; and unlike me, most of the entiries I read were concerning people who thought the smell obnoxious at best, while admitting that the fumes were harmless.

And today we have asphalt. Perhaps that just stinks!

The Nature of Mature

2009-07-09T01:04:00.000-07:00

In some conversations about English pronunciation recently it seems that there is some confusion in the pronunciation of the words “nature” and “mature”. So I searched around and found this limerick which, if you read it aloud, should make things clear – including the English pronunciation!

The Turning Lady Limerick
----------------------------
A lady can settle a score
By first making a sweet overture;
Then a quick turn of nature
And she’ll suddenly hate y’ur
Which is really not very mature!

Quay or Key

2009-06-30T14:39:00.000-07:00

Slowly but surely the new website is evolving! What we want to do is have some fun with English Pronunciation which, it must be admitted is definitely an object of fun!

One favourite that everybody loves to complain about is the word "quay", which, as everybody knows, is pronounced as the same as "Key" which makes sense, doesn't it? Just as "Quake" is not pronounced "Keek" but more like "Cake", which is rather the other way round.

So a quay is a place on land where boats and ships tie up. Like a harbour-side, dock, pier or wharf. It would, indeed, be interesting to know the differences between all these. Maybe a dock is bigger than a wharf which is not so jutting out into the sea as a pier and not so all encompassing as a harbour.

Probably no one will ever know (unless you Google for "quay pier wharf" and then there seem to be a surprisingly large number of authorities!)