Pronounced words by TopQuark in Forvo.

Search for a word

Languages

User:
TopQuark

User profile: information, words and pronunciations.

Date	Word	Listen	Votes
2013-11-20	Apocalypse Now [en]	Apocalypse Now pronunciation	10 votes
2013-11-20	Armageddon [en]	Armageddon pronunciation	4 votes
2013-11-20	sorrow [en]	sorrow pronunciation	10 votes
2013-11-20	selfie [en]	selfie pronunciation	14 votes
2013-11-20	showrooming [en]	showrooming pronunciation	3 votes
2013-11-20	binge-watch [en]	binge-watch pronunciation	1 votes
2013-11-20	cataclysm [en]	cataclysm pronunciation	4 votes
2013-11-20	devastation [en]	devastation pronunciation	4 votes
2013-11-20	catastrophe [en]	catastrophe pronunciation	13 votes
2013-11-20	annihilation [en]	annihilation pronunciation	8 votes
2013-11-20	tragedy [en]	tragedy pronunciation	6 votes
2013-11-20	woe [en]	woe pronunciation	6 votes
2013-11-20	adversity [en]	adversity pronunciation	3 votes
2013-11-20	deteriorate [en]	deteriorate pronunciation	9 votes
2013-11-20	ruination [en]	ruination pronunciation	3 votes
2013-11-20	washout [en]	washout pronunciation	2 votes
2013-11-20	disregard [en]	disregard pronunciation	4 votes
2013-11-20	carelessness [en]	carelessness pronunciation	2 votes
2013-11-20	neglect [en]	neglect pronunciation	8 votes
2013-11-20	degeneration [en]	degeneration pronunciation	4 votes
2013-11-20	blight [en]	blight pronunciation	4 votes
2013-11-20	fiasco [en]	fiasco pronunciation	3 votes
2013-11-20	debacle [en]	debacle pronunciation	4 votes
2013-11-20	disaster [en]	disaster pronunciation	7 votes
2013-11-20	destructive [en]	destructive pronunciation	2 votes
2013-11-20	self-inflicted [en]	self-inflicted pronunciation	2 votes
2013-11-20	unimaginative [en]	unimaginative pronunciation	4 votes
2013-11-20	unworldly [en]	unworldly pronunciation	3 votes
2013-11-20	parochial [en]	parochial pronunciation	3 votes
2013-11-20	sectional [en]	sectional pronunciation	2 votes

User's info

Native of England, UK, so inevitably I speak British English (coded as en-GB under ISO standards). We'd probably call my regional accent RP (received pronunciation) which is spoken across London, the home counties and the south-east of England. I defer to guidance on world dialects of English given online in the Oxford English Dictionary at oxforddictionaries.com – though my Yorkshire roots are occasionally betrayed by an instinctive flat northern vowel, as in /wɒn/

Speakers of English as a second language often overlook the everyday intonations that that have produced some of the world's great poetry.

Two patterns of stress dominate spoken English. When emphasis falls on the second syllable in a two-syllable word (hell-O, be-GIN, to-DAY, ro-MANCE), the stressed vowel is usually louder and longer. This everyday pattern is captured perfectly by much of Shakespeare's output, written in what poets call the iambic pentameter (five beats to the line, where the stress is on the second of two syllables), as in:
"Shall I com-PARE thee TO a SUM-mer's DAY? " (stress the word I in second place), and:
"I KNOW a BANK where-ON the WILD thyme BLOWS" (no stress on I as the first word).

The opposite rhythm is the trochee - the poet's term for stressing the first of two syllables: ENG-lish, MON-day, TRO-chee, PO-em, SHAKE-speare, ANG-lo SAX-on.

“Trochee trips from long to short
From long to long in solemn sort..."
... as Coleridge wrote. It is the more formal and less comfortable of these two main rhythms in English, and it can come to sound rather relentless when spoken at length, as in Longfellow's poem The Song of Hiawatha:
"By the shore of Gitchie Gumee,
By the shining Big-Sea-Water..."

In longer, polysyllabic words, a general rule is to stress the third syllable counted leftwards from the end of the word: AN-i-mal, SAT-ur-day, mag-NIF-i-cent, Minn-e-A-pol-is, ARCH-i-tect, INT-er-est.

A final unstressed vowel is often thrown away with a non-specific "uh" sound /ə/, as with the final syllable in RIV-er, NEV-er, CAP-i-tal, CARR-ot, REG-u-lat-or, EX-tra, GARR-i-son, el-EC-tric-al. This neutral sound is the most common vowel in English pronunciation and is called a sheva.

For more about intonation and stress consult the EnglishClub.com online at tinyurl.com/2vlwzk

Many linguistic varieties of English exist all over the world – Standard English is itself only one dialect. The main dialects are identified online at tinyurl.com/kv5ny3

I don't attempt to pronounce US words, nor do I vote on American pronunciations, and trust other non-native speakers of British English to reciprocate.

Gender: Male
Accent/country: United Kingdom

Contact TopQuark

User's stats

Pronunciations: 20,617 (3,275 Best pronunciation)
Added words: 4,000
Votes: 9,119 votes
Visits: 1,128,303

User's ranking

Position by added words: 154
Position by pronunciations: 33

How to pronounce

Acceptance of Cookies

This website uses cookies to improve your user experience. You must accept before continuing to use the site