Pronunciation

It's always irritated me that most people in the South of England pronounce pattern as patten. There's an r it!

Teachers from around this way speak in the same way, though.
It's how we talk.

All starts at school with teachers being role models. If teachers were decent role models children would be aware of acceptable pronunciation. Yes we proudly all have our own accents but diction and annunciation must be appropriately expressed by teachers. Glottal stops aught to be a teaching crime. Our children deserve the best. When children are taught to say ‘haitch’ instead of H., I cringe.
Our once beautiful language is being corrupted by American slang. Yes we have accents but do we really need our precious children to have bad role models.

Yes I am IRRITATED with the latest sports commentators and everyone else who does not sound their bloody 't's' or 'th's'...
I try not to judge, but I enjoy watching sports and especially the Olympics. Clare Baldwin I salute you! The other two newbies, I do not! Regional accent my backside! I had to turn off the coverage on Saturday night, couldn't stand it any more! Sad!

Nannan2

And yes, i do wonder why they allow people on tv (announcers and such like) if they cannot be bothered to speak correctly ?

maybe because they are trying to reflect, represent all their audience, and some of the attitudes on here sound utterly snobbish to me, but also ridiculous, like hyacinth bucket.

I had noticed Alex Scott saying things like womin swimmin before Digby Jones mentioned it. I don’t know if it’s her accent or just mispronunciation. Slightly irritating but not life changing, we have more important things to worry about.

@Brocky. - it just shows how rude people are, I had a friend from Dawlish who told me it happened to her the time, in the end she ignored them

I get annoyed with anyone who makes fun of our Devonian accent, especially when they finish with ‘ooh arrr’

Greta

^Alex Scott, the former Arsenal and England footballer and now an excellent sports presenter has been criticised for not pronouncing the 'g' at the end of words. She is an East End girl born and bred, so how is she supposed to speak? ^

I do think that people who speak in public/presenters etc should pay attention to their pronunciation/grammar. I'm sure they all care about their general grooming and how they dress. The same care needs to be taken with their speech.

I have a neighbour who always greets me with ”how is you?” I'm not sure if it's meant to be 'cool' or funny.

Why should that be expected? Can't people be proud of their roots and the dialects and accents that come with it? Reading some of these posts it seems that only people with a mouthful of plums should apply to be presenters and news readers. Some posters on here would have to have a lie down in a dark room and a quick rub down with the Radio Times if Kathy Burke ever gets to front the BBC News.

No it’s not a reasonable excuse for people being taught pronunciation incorrectly and in addition they are taught the four skills, Reading, writing, Listening and Speaking. However this is the way English is spoken by many. As far as watching a film is concerned, I think the only time they would hear correct pronunciation, that is RP, is if they were watching a film that was made in the 40’s or 50’s. Sometimes I need to put English subtitles on for more recently made films.

Hands up. I'm guilty,
Twenny Twenny,
Satdy, Sundy, Mundy etc
ent
kent
Ennit,
shenit
woonit
dint
Gooin
samwiges
tuday,
tumorra

Guess where I'm from lol

Alex Scott, the former Arsenal and England footballer and now an excellent sports presenter has been criticised for not pronouncing the 'g' at the end of words. She is an East End girl born and bred, so how is she supposed to speak?

I do think that people who speak in public/presenters etc should pay attention to their pronunciation/grammar. I'm sure they all care about their general grooming and how they dress. The same care needs to be taken with their speech.

I have a neighbour who always greets me with ”how is you?” I'm not sure if it's meant to be 'cool' or funny.

People pronounce things differently all the time. Covid-19 has been pronounced with an "0" sound and an "oh" sound as in cove id and cov as in o in "open" who the heck knows which is the correct one.

The one that irritates me the most is when people pronounce with an "f" instead of the th sound. As in fing instead of thing.

I'm a Birmingham girl born and bred, but I was taught (in the 70s) to speak propERly.

My accent is generally undetectable although my 'Brummie' accent does creep out occasionally but I do still pronounce my words correctly.

@grannygrumps1... the girl to whom you refer is 'Lady Leshur' (?my spelling), a 'rapper' from Birmingham, with a pretty broad accent.

@lovebeigecardigans1955... I totally agree, there are so many words in the English language that are lazily mispronounced, place names being something that makes my teeth curl.

One of the worst culprits of this is Eamonn Holmes. Yes, he has a Northern Irish accent but it's just sheer idleness saying Birminam and No'n'am instead of Birmingham and Nottingham. Every time I see him on TV and hear him say 'Birminam', I cringe and want to scream "It's Birmingham not Birminam you dullard!".

Yes, we have a variety of accents and dialects in the UK but there really is NO excuse for idle mispronunciation.

My bugbear is people who begin a sentence with "So" and when people say, "I was like"; "he was like"; " we WAS all like, down the pub". Why not say "We were all at the pub" ? Just me feeling my age I suppose. When I was young the word "like" was used to show a preference, as in "I like ice cream"

Being rather deaf I need people to enunciate and speak more slowly, whatever their accent.

As long as it is not grammatically incorrect like could of instead og could have I don’t mind too much even though I do laugh at my partners Yorkshire bath not Barth accent.

Boris annoys me when he says ter instead of to.
Also Bradly Walsh always says was instead of correctly saying were. I am a big fan of the Chase, but find myself waiting for his incorrect grammar.

Yes, we can all agree that language evolves. However none of us know how many of the forms we hear today will become the standard and how many will simply be the fashion of the 2020s and disappear again.

Teaching any language to foreign students, ,most teachers tend to stick to a more "correct" language than they might use when just chatting to friends.

No-one who has learned their English in Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Vienna of Cologne will have the slightest chance of understanding "Come oan, get aff, hen" or anything else said in broad Glesga'

My DH, a non-native English speaker couldn't fathom what a taxi driver from Paisley was asking us at Glasgow Airport - which really made me wonder how he would cope in Glasgow.

Short answer - he didn't - I having been born and bred outside Paisley did all the talking and I still do not fathom what was so incomprehensible about my conversation with the taxi driver, as Scots, as spoken in Paisley, is nothing like Glaswegian and far, far easier to understand, being nearer to RP.

My sister reduced herself and me to giggles by saying, "Shall we have a wee cae-ik wi' oor coffee?" and even that had to be translated for him to "Shall we have a little cake with our coffee?"

Apologies….Bellanonna!

Bellanono I think JRM comes from the dark ages ?!

It really annoys me when commentators pronounce sports personalities surnames and put 'y'' on the end........Wrighty for Wright, Smithy for Smith!

I don’t mind accents at all but the amount of people on tv lately who can’t seem to (or refuse to) pronounce ‘th’ and use ‘v’ or ‘f’ instead. I can’t believe their parents and teachers didn’t correct it as they were growing up saying “wiv”, “fink”, “somefink” & “bruvver”.
I have a 3 year old grandson who pronounces words better than some of these adults ? albeit with a midlands accent…

Most annoying for me is the dropped 't' often done for effect as it is believed to sound cool. It may be a natural way of speech for some but it is also used in a pretentious way. I love regional dialects but can't always understand them.

I have no problem with dialects and accents. I come from North Bucks and have a real London twang. It’s when people who are quite well spoken say twenny. I won’t mention names but it’s a fashion celebrity I follow and she says it constantly.
I certainly wasn’t moaning about regional dialects.