Extol, exalt, Laud

I want some help with those verbs

I think they have the same meaning which is to praise something or someone but exalt also has a wider meaning as to elevate or to promote? Am I right?

Also i’d like to know how you pronounce (and where are you from) laud because i found many pronunciations on the internet. I’d pronounce it lod (there is no such word i know) like rod with an L also like load but somehow shorter.

Check the american accent on this thefreedictionary.com/laud , it’s sounds to me like lad, is this right for americans?

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Both accents sound fine to me and you’re right re the meanings, but ‘exalt’ with that extra meaning is little used nowadays and would not be understood by most native speakers.

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Good morning Ben.
In England Laud is pronounced softly like Lord … Lawd.

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Lad and laud have different vowel sounds. English is renowned for the huge number of vowels in it - a whopping fifteen.
Lad has the same vowel sound as sad, dad, mad, glad, etc.
Laud has the same vowel sound as caught, taught, long, ball etc.

I agree it’s challenging to tell apart ‘lad’ and ‘laud’, at least for me, but if it’s any consolation, for native speakers it’s a piece of cake.

Also, in different countries (England, the USA) this word is pronounced differently, mind you. Heck, even within the bounds of one country the pronunciation varies, so small wonder you heard it pronounced in different ways. That’s another challenging aspect of English pronunciation - nobody’s pronunciation is alike.

I can’t find similarity between words laud and ball…

Look deeper :slight_smile:
Seriously though, they contain the same vowel sound and in that respect they sound alike. That is not to say that they sound completely alike, don’t get me wrong.

I’m a bit confused at the ‘similarity’ you hear in sound between ‘laud’ and ‘long’.

Alan

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I’m afraid it’s a losing proposition to try to communicate regional pronunciations without using our own voice message recordings or locating an on-line dictionary like Ben Dover linked at the beginning. Some native speakers will stick the same vowel sound in ‘laud’ and ‘ball’ and others won’t.

Good for you, Alan-- you did it before I got my suggestion posted!

Hello Alan,

Not hear, but rather see (my ear is not fine tuned, my English hearing is impaired, I can’t discern some English vowels, these included. So in time I’ve come to rely on visual aids to help me perceive how a particular word sounds).

Please refer to the transcriptions for
thefreedictionary.com/laud
thefreedictionary.com/long

According to this dictionary they have the same vowel: o with a ‘^’ on top of it.

From what I can hear in your recording, the ‘o’ sound is longer in ‘laud’ than in ‘long’, right?