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Message board > Native speakers, help please....
Native speakers, help please....
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Mar0919
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Native speakers, help please....
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Hello, dear colleagues! Hoping you are all doing well. Can native speakers please help me out with this doubt. I know that many of us have "almost" native pronunciation, but even though I have a tiny doubt. The words in question are "court" and "quart". For a native speaker, are they pronounced EXACTLY the same? To me, there WAS a slight difference that made it easy to the listener distinguish which word was pronounced, but in a spelling bee contest that I took my kids to, the speaker pronounced the words exactly the same, and my student was confused. What do you think? Hugs, Mar |
28 Jan 2015
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cunliffe
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Hi there. No, they are not the same. I can �t do phonetic transcription, so this is the best I can do: court = kort and quart= kwort. |
28 Jan 2015
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MoodyMoody
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As a speaker of American English, I �ll second Lynne �s explanation. I don �t know of any dialects in which court and quart are pronounced the same. |
28 Jan 2015
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Mar0919
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Ahhhhhhh! Thanks! You saved my self-esteem! LOL! I was beginning to think I had been wrong all my life! I grew up in the US, and learned English as a native speaker, so I was very confused when I heard the word quart pronounced as court. Unfortunately, my student student did not make it to the finals, because he heard the word COURT, and spelled it as such, and the word on the screen was QUART....
THANKS for your help! |
28 Jan 2015
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FrauSue
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In fact, I would say court "cort" (long "o" as in "core" and quart "kwart" ("a" as in "walk"). Listen on www.forvo.com to hear the difference more clearly. |
29 Jan 2015
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yanogator
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There are many regional pronunciations in the US, and in some rural areas, "court" and "quart" are both pronounced "kort". However, this is definitely non-standard pronunciation, and in a spelling bee, that is unacceptable. I �ve deinitely heard people say "a kort of milk". Although "kwort" is more common here, some people also say "kwart", as FrauSue said. There was a comedy group (Canadian, I think) called Kids in the Hall, and a character in one of their skits repeatedly said, "Give me a quarter" (but pronounced it "korter"), so I guess it �s found in Canada, too. Bruce |
29 Jan 2015
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Mar0919
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Thanks everyone! I feel better now. Even though my student, did not make it, I feel better knowing I was 98% right in teaching him the two words pronounced with that slight difference. But, hey, at least with one of my 5th graders and one of my 6th graders, I did get first place! :) Thanks again to all!!! Hugs! Mar |
29 Jan 2015
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yanogator
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Hey, Mar, You should probably point this out to those who run the spelling bee, so that maybe they �ll be more careful in the future. In spelling bees here, if a contestant is uncertain, he or she can ask for the word to be used in a sentence, and to ask for the definition. That would have eliminated the confusion. Bruce |
30 Jan 2015
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