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What’s the difference in meaning between the following pairs of words?

How do you pronounce the following...?

  • Is there a difference in the way the following words are pronounced singly and spoken as part of a conversation? I am trying to find out the pronunciation that is most commonly used locally and/or abroad. Words ending with ~sts eg There are <guests> in the living room. Should it be something more akin to "guess" (meaning that the t is silient) or "guest-s" (with a "tuh" sound followed by "s" sound and causing a slight pause in between)? Do you have any references on how names should be pronounced? eg Is J

  • Answer:

    The t isn't silent, but neither is it fully included. Try this... make a t sound. Now do it again, but pause as soon as your tongue is in position to produce the hard t. When you say guests, your tongue should reach that position, and then go directly back to the s sound. The result should be a subtle ts sound, and should negate the feeling that you need to say tuhs...

tom t at Yahoo! Answers Visit the source

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no "uh" in between

IthinkFramptonisstillahottie

'Guests' is always pronounced as /gests/ . As it is a single syllabic word, the stress is at the beginning on it. Source Oxford Advance Learner's Dictionary

doubtingTom

The t and s are pronounced guess is a different word

Jerry T

Oh,what a difficult question?

khan a

You are supposed to pronounce the full word, "guest" and and it with the "s". There does tend to be a slight pause in between while your mouth forms the 2nd "S" .

lizziemrocks

'unknown user' has it down fairly well as for the names...you probably should ask someone what their name is and then repeat what they say...spanish rendered names are hard because the J in Jose is pronounced as an H (Hoe-say) and the J in Juan is like the WH in when...most people will correct you if you get it wrong

uranus2mars

I like the combination of Butch and Doubting Tom's answers. Also, yes, there is a difference in the way a word is pronounced when it is said by itself (more strictly correct) and when it is used in a sentence or conversation (more quickly and lazily). For example, the sound of the letter E is often "uh" when used quickly in the middle of a sentence Then it is referred to as the schwa sound. For example, "Enough!" has a strong long E when said alone. But when used in a sentence, such as, "I don't have enough money to pay for that." then it is pronounced "uh-nuff." Well now...Enough!

g

These people are right, but if you're still having trouble may I suggest an online dictonary in english. Some of them have a sample so you can hear someone say it next to the defenition http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/guests ^^^^listen to the man say the word, then add an "s" to the end.

Ali

No silent t and the pronunciation of names vary with the owner (it's better to ask so as not to cause offense).

butch

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