Comments on: Storage has just one R

By: Pat

Pat — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 00:50:40 +0000

Yes, I just realised.

By: Pat

Pat — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 00:31:00 +0000

Many, many people, including the Prime Minister pronounce roster as roaster.

He said it twice on Bondi+. I am no Daphne, and wouldn`t comment on English pronounciation, but the two words (as pronounced) mean something altogether different. You work on a roster and you roast a chicken.

[Daphne – There’s a separate post about this, Pat.]

By: tbg

tbg — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 22:51:34 +0000

In reply to bob. How about sterling? We don't say two sterlings. [Daphne - Sterling isn't a currency, tbg. Britain's currency is the POUND (sterling), aka GBP, in which the P stands for pound. In British shops, you pay in pounds and pence, not in sterling.]

By: bob

bob — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 13:33:33 +0000

while we’re at it, will people stop saying euros, Mr PM included. It’s 1 euro, 2 euro 3 euro and so on.

[Daphne – No, actually in idiomatic English it’s euros, just as you would say cents, dollars and pounds. In English, currency always take the plural form.]

By: Dumbledore

Dumbledore — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 12:31:42 +0000

That won’t work because many pronounce ‘edge’ as ‘adge’. What’s with this pronouncing an ‘e’ as an ‘a’? Hard boiled agg. They’ll pronounce storage as ‘staw adge’ if they follow your guide.

By: T

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 11:53:02 +0000

The Oxford dictionary does give the pronunciation of storage as rhyming with porridge: stɔːrɪdʒ and pɒrɪdʒ. Notice how they are identical from the r onwards, the difference being in the longish first vowel for storage and the shortish first vowel for porridge.

[Daphne – No it doesn’t, and the reason is, as you have noted, the difference in the first vowel sound. When you shorten the first vowel, the emphasis shifts, changing the pronunciation of the entire word. A short O gives you the double R sound that you get with porridge. A longer O gives you the single R that you get with storage. ]

By: Meg

Meg — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 11:42:42 +0000

What niggles me too is the pronounciation of the words roster more often pronounced as ‘rooster’ and worse is project, pronounced as pro-ject (with an emphasis on the pro) as in school project.