English 101 with Trihan sometimes!

[DoorKnobHandle]

Edit 2:
Dkh, in your current edit, you're way off.

EDIT: Yeah, sense - sence would be different. The quality of the final sound (the 's') is different, sense would be /s/ and sence /tz/ (can't use proper IPA symbols here unfortunately) basically, I guess.

sense would be /z/ and sence, whatever that word means, /s/.

Of course, sense would be /z/, typo there. Sence isn't a word, if it were I would actually pronounce it with a /tz/ I think but I'm not a native speaker.

EDIT: Actually, now that I think about it, you're probably right about sence too, let's not talk about non-existing words though...

[Andail]

Actually, neither word would be pronounced with /z/.
Sense is simply [sens].

But in other words, especially after vowels, and sometimes after consonants if it's a plural marker, s would be /z/.

Let's leave this boring chapter and move on to more interesting questions!

[TerranRich]

I never understood IPA all that well, but I personally pronounce "sense" as "sen-ss", pure "S" sounds.

[jetxl]

...
Let's leave this boring chapter and move on to more interesting questions!

Geez, did I opened a can of english teacher whoopass?
So even though the vowel in "pritty" and "pritty" are different, they are pronounced the same. And the last vowel in "sense" isn't even pronounced.
I though there might be some minute difference only noticeable by the natives, which would make writing the words easier but I once again conclude that language, unlike math, is just kaotik krep.

[DoorKnobHandle]

Yea, let's stop with the phonetic/phonology talk, it's not exactly my favorite chapter either...

jetxl, the problem is that language is really quite arbitrary at the level of letters (these are called graphemes in linguistics), at the level of phonemes you can actually recognize a lot of progresses and changes that work in a very mathematical, logical and predictable fashion.

Anyways, one thing I'm curious about, when you say the word 'advertisement', what syllable do you stress, ADvertisement (I'd always do this) or adVERtisemet (heard people do it), is this an AmE vs. BrE thing? Also, issue, do you pronounce the 's' as in the word 'sure' (basically ishyou) or as in 'scent' (isyou)? Again I'd never even consider saying the second but I've heard it, even in American TV, I think.

[Trihan]

I emphasise the VER myself, and pronounce it shoor.

[paolo]

Anyways, one thing I'm curious about, when you say the word 'advertisement', what syllable do you stress, ADvertisement (I'd always do this) or adVERtisemet (heard people do it), is this an AmE vs. BrE thing? Also, issue, do you pronounce the 's' as in the word 'sure' (basically ishyou) or as in 'scent' (isyou)? Again I'd never even consider saying the second but I've heard it, even in American TV, I think.

ad-VER-tiz-m'nt (SAMPA: /{d"v3:tIzm@nt/) is the standard British pronunciation. I can't vouch for the US pronunciation, but AD-ver-tize-m'nt (SAMPA: /"{dv3`taIzm@nt/) is considered incorrect in the UK.

"Issue" (and "tissue", etc) is usually "ISH-yoo" (SAMPA: /"ISju/) in UK English but some people prefer "ISS-yoo" (SAMPA: /"Isju/), which I believe is an earlier pronunciation.

Similarly, British English is starting to see the "tyoo" sound at the start of "Tuesday" change into "choo" (standard American English has "too" here, so the change is not happening there) and "dyoo" becoming "joo" (as in "dual", now pronounced identically to "jewel" by some speakers of British English), but these are currently considered non-standard.

[Trihan]

What that guy said.

BONUS LESSON: than/then
----------------------------------
I've seen many, many people stumble headlong into the pitfall that is than/then. I think it's mostly people whose mother tongue isn't English, but since the two words are so similar I'll take a little bit of time to explain what each one actually is, and what it's used for.

Than is used in comparison. For example "I have a better grasp of written English -than- you." In this case, I am saying that my grasp of written English is superior to yours. Than is mostly used in conjunction with two or more nouns/adjectives/verbs that are being compared, though there are exceptions. Rather than list them all, I'll simply put a subtle one in this very sentence. Did you spot it? A famous example in common proverbs would obviously be "better late than never" in which case I'm stating that being late is preferable to never turning up. This might all seem like old hat, but bear with me. (note that technically when we say "rather than X", it's a shortened way of saying "I would prefer to do X as opposed to not doing X" so it does follow the same rules, sort of)

Now to then. I most commonly see people using this in place of than, not so much the other way around. Then is used in statements involving time, pretty much, generally to declare the next item(s) in a list of actions that are being performed on an implicit or explicit timescale. To translate what I just said into English, some examples: "I'm going to go to the shops and then take a bath." this basically means that I'm going to take my bath after I've been to the shops. It can also be used as a qualifier: "If you did your homework then you can play video games." then in this case is pretty much superfluous and isn't actually needed, but technically it's grammatically correct to have it there. It can also be used in things like "Well then, I guess we'll stay home!", but in those cases the "then" is definitely superfluous and I'm not actually sure grammar cares whether it's there.

Hopefully I've shed some light on this problem. I'd rather confuse some people and possibly educate some others then suffer people constantly misusing these two words. Until next time!

[TerranRich]

We already went over than/then in this thread, I thought.

I've always been confounded by the pronunciation of "advertisement" with the stress on the "VER". After all, the word "advertise" is pronounced "AD-ver-tize", is it not? That's just my American logic though.

As for "issue", I pronounce it with a "sh" sound, as do all the people I've ever spoken to.

[Trihan]

You probably did, Terran, I've got a memory like a sieve.

[Oliwerko]

Is the following gramatically correct?

"There's not much more insane than my mind can get."

[TerranRich]

No. I don't even understand what point you're trying to get across with that sentence.

[Snarky]

"You can't get much more insane than my mind sometimes gets." (Still not a great sentence.)

I'm not sure there's an elegant way to say exactly, literally what you're trying to say, so I would rewrite it to something like: "There's nothing crazier than my mind at its craziest!"

I think the problem is that you're taking two phrases that are pretty awkward on their own, and sticking them together in a confusing way. Just to take the first part, "There's not much more insane..." doesn't work. I'm not sure why. "There's not much more we can do" is fine. "There's not much higher to go," likewise. "There's not much crazier you can get" is... acceptable, though awkward. "There's not much more insane you can get" is bad.

[Oliwerko]

That's exaclty what I thought, but I still can't think of any more elegant way. 

[Trihan]

How about "Few minds are as insane as mine." ?

[ThreeOhFour]

"My mind is approaching the upper limits of its maximum potential for insanity." 

[Trihan]

The verbosity of the preceding statement appeals greatly to my inherent penchant for obfuscation of simple sentences.

[TerranRich]

How about "I'm nucking futs."

[Atelier]

Isn't that called a spoonerism, after the famous Dr Spooner?

[Trihan]

Reverend Spooner, and yes. A spoonerism is taking the initial sounds of two words and swapping them around.

Other interesting nuances of English:

Mondegreens - misheard song lyrics. (for example, "she's got a chicken to ride")
Malapropisms - Words in a sentence replaced with other words that sound the same but mean something different. (for example: "If it's any consolidation, I'm not that great with English either.")