My favourite English words, pt. 1
June 20, 2007 at 8:51 am | In English, Word | 9 CommentsTags: Favourite, Muzzle
Muzzle. It sounds so soft. Who’d have thought.
muzzle (ANIMAL)
noun [C]
the mouth and nose of an animal, especially a dog, or a covering put over this in order to prevent the animal from biting
I’d like to have this one as a handbag:
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doch, how interesting – if he’s British, it must be tough for him to pronounce it the right way – like muzzle is difficult for me (the soft z). although I sympathize – in South arica I particularly liked the:
ag, shame, man!
_the g in ag pronounced like the ch in doch
ask him how he likes ‘genau’
Der Galgen
Der Strick
Das Beil
Das Schafott
Die Guillotine
Die Mordwaffe
http://www.dict.cc/
Comment by anaj — June 20, 2007 #
btw, South Africa
Although South Arica is a weird slip for a German.
Oh, it’s about to rain!
Comment by anaj — June 20, 2007 #
Definitely where I live (close to Lake Constance and the Swiss border) – the weather is either gorgeous or shitty, with nothing in between. Now its shitty, I suppose around noon it’s going to be gorgeous.
http://karren.protask.at/
Comment by anaj — June 21, 2007 #
Wow!! Me too… loved that one
Comment by Nova — June 22, 2007 #
Hey Nova – the word or the view?
Comment by anaj — June 22, 2007 #
The hard “ch” isn’t that difficult. The u/ü distinction is far worse.
“Genau”… strongly reminds me of my polish ex, who used to say it in a high-pitched american-dumb-blonde voice, quite frequently. I completely forget why. “Schön” is another nice word. More flexible than the english equivalent.
Coincidentally, just across the road from the university there’s a road called “Am Galgenberg” (“By the Gallows Hill”).
Comment by VikingChemist — June 24, 2007 #
I might have a trick for you – when I taught German in South Africa back in 1998, one students suggested that the ü be pronounced like the first sound in the diphthong in ‘food’ – and it’s true, but only if you know how south africans pronounce food…
Comment by anaj — June 24, 2007 #
The only person I know of south african origin spoke english with no discernable foreign accent, but I know what you mean; the Irish do something similar to ü when they say “you”.
The problem I have is not just pronunciation, tho – I can do a passable ü if I try – it’s that ü is just a variation on u, in english (see, e.g., south africans & irish), so it’s difficult to pick up on the difference. I just don’t notice which one other people are saying; I don’t always notice which one I’m saying…
Comment by VikingChemist — June 25, 2007 #
That’s right – certain sounds are not discernible for speakers of certain languages – think of the German attempts to say love and laugh. Also, the trick above doesn’t help explain the difference between füller and fühlen either – it’s a different sound, not just the difference between short and long vowel.
Comment by anaj — June 25, 2007 #