Speak Proper!

[slinky]

KEEV is the Ukrainian pronunciation KIEV is the Russian. Given the current situation, I am fully behind rolling back the Russification of Ukrainian place names, or anything else in Ukraine. Just how I feel, and I learned Russian at school (can barely speak it now almost 40 years later).

In terms of English accents, surely there is a way to keep the main features of the accent rather than us all sounding "posh"?
Glottal stops (or to those prone to them glo'al stops) are widespread in many parts of the UK, and it's hard to eradicate unless there's a good reason... like being more inclusive of deaf lip readers and those learning English as a foreign language.

Ooh I learnt Russian at school too…also 40years ago (born 1970). I love still being able to read the Cyrillic alphabet and can remember stock phrases - my kids love it

 

[Brissles]

What is grammar rules just don't stick in your head? I've tried and tried to learn and relearn grammar rules for both Welsh and English but they don't stay around for long.

But if you want me to explain how logarithms work, easy. An eight page Maths prof full of caclus bring it on. Explain the Normal Distribution I learnt it for A level 40 years ago and still can give it a fair go. Solve a Rubicks cube of course I can. Just don't ask me what a past participle is and I won't even ask you how many ways you can conjugate a verb in Welsh and I can even remember the English word for treiglad which has to be the most evil part of grammar where you change the front end of a word up to three different ways so four spellings of the same word depending what something is doing, it's colour or size or who owns it. So yes there are lots of reasons people have bad grammar, but 2+2=4 always, or 100 is you can do binary.

Maths is fun and logical.

 

[backstreetgirl]

To be fair the pronunciation of Kiev has changed since the war started hence the spelling change to Kyiv.

And yet still some reporters are saying Kiev, not Kyiv! I switched over to Sky News yesterday for the latest and someone reporting from Kyiv said Kiev!

I quite like Bradley Walsh but dear Lord I want to slap him when says “what was you….”

Ohhh one of my bugbears that.

 

[JeepSwensonfan]

They have to get down with the kids. And, pretend to be from sarf centrol.

 

[maymorganlondon]

Ooh I learnt Russian at school too…also 40years ago (born 1970). I love still being able to read the Cyrillic alphabet and can remember stock phrases - my kids love it

I keep thinking "he is mad" in Russian, whenever Vlad is mentioned. No idea if it's true or not...
I'm 5 years ahead of you. My teacher was a Lithuanian-born Pole, so I dare say I would have more of a Polish than Russian accent. The last time I used it in anger was to speak to a Japanese work colleague who spoke it better than English!

 

[Grizelda]

They don't want to sound 'posh' or too educated because that would alienate many prospective customers. Personally, I don't mind the dropped word endings or glottal stops, except when Chloe says 'pound' instead of 'pounds'. I suppose it's whatever gets your goat.

Channel surfing just now - landed on QVC for the first time since I last calculated the donkey's age. Caught a new-ish presenter, Laura Fleming. Full of enthusiasm, as you'd expect, but as she approached climax over the Danni Minogue range of petite fashions, she kept telling us that she was so "exci'ed" and that the product range was so"exci'ing". Three or four times in the first couple of sentences you could hear the letter "t" hit the floor before being used.

I admit, I'm an old fuddy-duddy when it comes to speaking proper - you can tell because only people of a certain age use the phrase "fuddy duddy" - but surely even the tat-peddlers of shopping tv could use all 26 letters of the alphabet.

This also happens with BBC presenters now, and the BBC was the one media organisation whose staff could speak the Queen's English. It used to be just footballers who would fill their sentences with "like", "obviously", "you know", "literally" etc etc. Now, it seems like it is a badge of honour to be celebrated.

Stop..., like, NOW!

What would be a modern alternative to 'fuddy duddy'? Being 'square' or 'not with it' would date you as well. 'Old fart' may work, but it's a bit crude. Probably 'un-cool' would hit it, but do people still say 'cool'?

 

[maymorganlondon]

They don't want to sound 'posh' or too educated because that would alienate many prospective customers. Personally, I don't mind the dropped word endings or glottal stops, except when Chloe says 'pound' instead of 'pounds'. I suppose it's whatever gets your goat.

What would be a modern alternative to 'fuddy duddy'? Being 'square' or 'not with it' would date you as well. 'Old fart' may work, but it's a bit crude. Probably 'un-cool' would hit it, but do people still say 'cool'?

Boomer, I imagine. As in OK, Boomer.

 

[Lemonpop]

Dropping the “t“ is sometimes down to a regional accent although I don’t know if that’s the case with Laura, but just in case ……

The “mispronunciations“ that I always notice are”somethink, anythink, etc” instead of using the “g“ at the end and also “should of” instead of “should have.” Maybe it’s the teacher in me.

Or something,anyfink

 

[Lemonpop]

Or something,anyfink

Or somefink,anyfink. Why it changed one and not the other I have no idea.

Last October we were waiting at Southampton for our Lateral Flow tests before boarding our cruise ship and I was talking to one of the young men who was directing people into the test centre. He'd asked me how our journey from Yorkshire had been and I said apart from a bit of traffic on the Motorway it had been fine. He told me " we say on the Motorway,you said on Motorway ". I wasn't aware that to him ont Motorway sounded like on Motorway.
Regional dialects and different words for things I find fascinating although nowadays with people moving to different areas a lot of words and dialects are changing.

 

[loveallthingsitalian]

Jill F is a fink offender and Jilly H is a pound offender.

Julia and her numba, orda, etc has me gritting my teeth.

 

[Glamourkitty]

Just don't ask me what a past participle is and I won't even ask you how many ways you can conjugate a verb in Welsh and I can even remember the English word for treiglad which has to be the most evil part of grammar where you change the front end of a word up to three different ways so four spellings of the same word depending what something is doing, it's colour or size or who owns it.

OMG! I am a Welsh learner, 5 years and counting, and very often say that I can't tell you what it does in English so how am I supposed to know what it does in Welsh. Rod Gilbert has an excellent description of treiglad in one of his shows, about a cat, if you haven't already seen it.

 

[SisterBliss]

My dad worked in the media and he had elocution lessons early on in his career to eradicate his very strong northern accent. He always said if you can't speak or spell properly you won't get very far - seems he was wrong!

CC

My Mom did my elocution lessons - a rap round the head with whatever she had at the time when I offended. Peeps say I sound 'posh', however I often unposh in certain situations. Mom has a twang of Black Country - it's hilarious. I can 'do' broad black country as a party piece.

Channel surfing just now - landed on QVC for the first time since I last calculated the donkey's age. Caught a new-ish presenter, Laura Fleming. Full of enthusiasm, as you'd expect, but as she approached climax over the Danni Minogue range of petite fashions, she kept telling us that she was so "exci'ed" and that the product range was so"exci'ing". Three or four times in the first couple of sentences you could hear the letter "t" hit the floor before being used.

I admit, I'm an old fuddy-duddy when it comes to speaking proper - you can tell because only people of a certain age use the phrase "fuddy duddy" - but surely even the tat-peddlers of shopping tv could use all 26 letters of the alphabet.

This also happens with BBC presenters now, and the BBC was the one media organisation whose staff could speak the Queen's English. It used to be just footballers who would fill their sentences with "like", "obviously", "you know", "literally" etc etc. Now, it seems like it is a badge of honour to be celebrated.

Stop..., like, NOW!

I'm amazed at the beebs 'dumming down' Always used to be able to rely on aunty. #sadtimes

 

[Lemonpop]

Jill F is a fink offender and Jilly H is a pound offender.

Julia and her numba, orda, etc has me gritting my teeth.

And our resident beauty expert " mebbe"

OMG! I am a Welsh learner, 5 years and counting, and very often say that I can't tell you what it does in English so how am I supposed to know what it does in Welsh. Rod Gilbert has an excellent description of treiglad in one of his shows, about a cat, if you haven't already seen it.

Rhod Gilbert is brilliant.

 

[PennyPitStop]

OMG! I am a Welsh learner, 5 years and counting, and very often say that I can't tell you what it does in English so how am I supposed to know what it does in Welsh. Rod Gilbert has an excellent description of treiglad in one of his shows, about a cat, if you haven't already seen it.

If you need help with Welsh feel free to ask. If I know I'll always help. But mutations ie treiglad forget it, I only get half of them right. I go by the "sounds right" rule. If it sounds right then it's OK. I try to look them up, but that is hard work sometimes. I've asked a few to explain it all but oh it's just complicated. 50% is good enough for me.

Just DM if you need help, I'm from the South but understand "Gog". You are brave to learn, it is far from an easy language. Tip my hat to you.

Rod Gilbert explains it brilliantly. It is exactly how I feel about it. It us a frequently watch vid on YouTube.

I blame school, if they taught me grammar as a logical science type thing and totally by passed literature I'd have been better off. I had over 1500 books once with less than 100 fiction. I'm happy to read a cookery book but oh a novel seems such hard work.

 

[Glamourkitty]

If you need help with Welsh feel free to ask. If I know I'll always help. But mutations ie treiglad forget it, I only get half of them right. I go by the "sounds right" rule. If it sounds right then it's OK. I try to look them up, but that is hard work sometimes. I've asked a few to explain it all but oh it's just complicated. 50% is good enough for me.

Just DM if you need help, I'm from the South but understand "Gog". You are brave to learn, it is far from an easy language. Tip my hat to you.

Rod Gilbert explains it brilliantly. It is exactly how I feel about it. It us a frequently watch vid on YouTube.

I blame school, if they taught me grammar as a logical science type thing and totally by passed literature I'd have been better off. I had over 1500 books once with less than 100 fiction. I'm happy to read a cookery book but oh a novel seems such hard work.

Thankyou. I'm from the South as well. OH and myself decided to start learning the language. I'm ok with reading, he's much better at speaking so we get by between the two of us.

 

[Grizelda]

Boomer, I imagine. As in OK, Boomer.

Boomer sounds right

 

[slinky]

Dropping the “t“ is sometimes down to a regional accent although I don’t know if that’s the case with Laura, but just in case ……

The “mispronunciations“ that I always notice are”somethink, anythink, etc” instead of using the “g“ at the end and also “should of” instead of “should have.” Maybe it’s the teacher in me.

I’m secondary, but my husband is primary and I can’t tell you how much ’should of’ grips his ****!
My personal fave is when folk say ‘Pacific instead of ‘specific’

 

[loveallthingsitalian]

Very unique get me going!

 

[Luigi Tefloni]

I’m secondary, but my husband is primary and I can’t tell you how much ’should of’ grips his ****!
My personal fave is when folk say ‘Pacific instead of ‘specific’

My mother used to call diplomas "sustificates". "Should of" should be rewarded with a day in the stocks and as much rotten fruit as possible. Another ****gripper comes at New Year, when someone - usually an elderly aunt in an effort to be amusing - asks if you've made any New Years "revolutions", and smiles at you because they know it is incorrect.

 

[Luigi Tefloni]

They don't want to sound 'posh' or too educated because that would alienate many prospective customers. Personally, I don't mind the dropped word endings or glottal stops, except when Chloe says 'pound' instead of 'pounds'. I suppose it's whatever gets your goat.

What would be a modern alternative to 'fuddy duddy'? Being 'square' or 'not with it' would date you as well. 'Old fart' may work, but it's a bit crude. Probably 'un-cool' would hit it, but do people still say 'cool'?

In my case, "old fart" is probably the most appropriate!