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English as a second language learners: what words were really hard for you to pronounce? (discuss.tchncs.de)

submitted 4 days ago by RockySalad@discuss.tchncs.de to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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If English wasn't your first language, maybe if you learned English later in life, were there any words that you had a really hard time learning how to pronounce? Do you think that had to do with the sounds made in your first language?

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[–] ving_thor@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago (4 children)

"Subtle". I can not pronounce it in a way that it sounds different to "saddle".

[–] khannie@lemmy.world 5 points 4 days ago

Native. I say suttle. It's a dirty word from the spelling in fairness.

[–] morphballganon@mtgzone.com 1 points 3 days ago

Does it sound like "bat" when you say "butt"?

[–] _skj@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Subtle is spelled weird, but rhymes with muddle. Do you also pronounce "mad" and "mud" the same way? With my accent they have the same first vowel sounds as saddle and subtle

[–] CannonFodder@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Pretty sure subtle rhymes with shuttle.

[–] _skj@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

Sure, but shuttle also rhymes with muddle in my East coast US accent, at least in normal conversation. I can force myself to slow down and really enunciate the T, but even then the difference is easy to miss.

[–] pipes@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

According to the Macmillan they are [ˈsʌt(ə)l] vs [ˈsæd(ə)l], so the vowel changes slightly, but it depends on the speaker; I'm not native but I say saddle with a more open "a". But they're otherwise almost identical to me (in the British pronunciation included in the dictionary I hear a "t" both times, in the American one a "d" both times - which is how I say it too)

[–] transMexicanCRTcowfart@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

So you could say the difference...

Is subtle.

I'll see myself out.