Why often has two ways of pronunciation?

English as a Second Language What do you want to talk about?
21

Do you have proof of it being stigmatised? By whom is it seen a stigmatised?

22

Hi Mrpedantic,Yankee,Jamie, Molly ,

Thanks a lot for replies which i appreciated too much . Be sure that any reply you post learns me a thing and makes my English better .

Best regards,

23

Hi Molly,

Your comments have been missed.

At times it’s hard to provide proof of instinctive feel for your own language. I’m sure you think you know a thing or two about your own language as well, and so do Jamie, MrP and Amy. The only difference here is that said people express expert opinions. Are you an expert on any language, Molly?

Good luck,

Ralf

24

Najlaa, be careful about the difference between “very much” and “too much”. “Very much” expresses a positive idea, and “too much” is negative.

For example:

“He likes football very much.” = He gets a lot of enjoyment from football.
“He likes football too much.” = He likes football so much that it causes problems in his life.

This is a very common mistake for Arabic speakers, so you should pay special attention to this.

25

Hi Jamie,

Thanks for paying my attention to :oops: my mistake :oops: that`s why i am in the forum with great teachers like you :slight_smile:

sorry guys i meant “very much” :slight_smile:

Best regards,

26

Some ESL students prefer to avoid shibboleths; even mild ones, as in this instance.

For examples of stigmatisation, you could turn to this thread, at English Forums.

MrP

27

Would you call that a qualified source?

28

It was such a pleasant vacation, wasn’t it folks!

29

.
That it was.
.

30

Confucius he says: If you don’t like the programme, switch off the TV.

31

Have you repaired that faulty test yet, Alan?

32

Confucius born in the days before viewer feedback?

33

Nope. English-test.net seems to have chosen to turn off the TV rather than to eliminate the errors in the dumb vs. stupid test or the have to vs. will have to test. Those tests have not been corrected.
.

34

It contains of-tenist utterances.

MrP

35

Hi Guys,

Just to say thank you very much for answering my question which i think makes a problem here.

Sorry to all,

36

Najlaa –

You are NOT the problem! There is another person on the forum who nitpicks everyone’s sensible responses. He or she has been doing this for a very long time. You did not cause any problem at all.

37

I agree. It was a perfectly reasonable question, Najlaa.

MrP

38

Would you that I agree with your every statement, Jamie? I’ve had my fill of poorly thought out native-speaker replies to language use questions. Many such replies are based on popular myth or, more often than not, on prescriptivists’ dreams and have no bearing in the world of linguistics or in that of day-to-day usage.

39

As Jamie says, you are not the problem. The question itself brings out differences in opinion and variation in stance. Seems some people here don’t like that fact.

40

I’m sure I’ve posted my fair share of poorly thought-out replies, M; but I don’t understand your doubts in this instance.

Where this question is discussed on ESL forums, you will often find strongly worded objections to the pronunciation “of-ten”, but seldom to “offen”, as the threads I mentioned show.

You can also find historic objections. Thus (if I remember correctly) Fowler in the 1926 edition calls “of-ten” semi-literate.

If you are an ESL student, it is as well to be aware of these mild shibboleths.

MrP