• lugal@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      4 days ago

      All languages have their difficulties. English pronunciation and spelling is a mess but grammar is easy for example. My native language has 3 genders and 4 cases for example and there are languages with more.

    • TabbsTheBat (they/them)@pawb.social
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      4 days ago

      It really is illogical lol :3 I tried teaching my parents before and trying to explain why all 3 Es in mercedes or all 3 Cs in pacific ocean make different sounds like “they just do”

      Though my native language is quite hard for non-native speakers as well

      • Zagorath@aussie.zone
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        4 days ago

        mercedes

        In English’s defence, it’s not an English word. It’s a German company named after a Spanish name. And at least to my ear, the Spanish and German pronunciations also have 3 different Es. One helpful Redditor also provided an IPA guide to the German pronunciation, agreeing with my ears:

        mɛrˈtseːdɛs

        The “e” in the middle is long and stressed.

        Edit: I would also say, that most of the times it is even pronounced like this:

        məˈtseːdɛs

        But I can’t even begin to justify the letter c sounding like /s/, /k/, and /ʃ/.

        • lugal@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          4 days ago

          məˈtseːdɛs

          Don’t know about other Germans but for me, the last e is a schwa. So it’s more [mɛɐ̯ˈtseːdəs] I think but I’m not completely sure.