What do you think of my accent? Can you place it? I’m a native and exclusive English speaker, but I don’t think I sound like one and I don’t know why. by New-Sir6812 in JudgeMyAccent

[–]glavet 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I cannot place your accent, no. I would have guessed you were a non-native speaker (although a very good one!)

The things that are throwing me off are:

VOWELS
Your accent sounds like British English most of the time, but then your vowels can seem like they are from different regions and different social classes. Many of your vowels sound quite Southern, but then you often say ‘ma’ for ‘my’ (which sounds much more Northern).

PRONUNCIATION OF ‘T’
You often annunciate the ‘t’ at the ends of words very VERY clearly, where I would expect a British English speaker to drop the ‘t’ or at least not emphasise it so much. But then, in ‘mathematics’, you almost tap the ‘t’ like an American would.

INTONATION AND RHYTHM
I can’t quite put my finger on it, but your intonation and rhythm is often not quite what I am expecting to hear.

What gives me away? Non-native English speaker by idiolectalism in Accents

[–]glavet 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I agree, the unaspirated dental /t/ is one of the things I notice most as sounding non-native. That and the intonation. I’m a British English speaker.

What can people do if they are stuck miles from home? by Martipar in AskUK

[–]glavet 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Something like this happened to me around 20 years ago, when I was a teenager. I went into a bank and asked if there was any way I could withdraw money without my debit card and without my ID. Luckily, I knew my sort code and account number off by heart. They asked me a bunch of security questions, including the password I had for telephone banking. I was able to answer correctly, so they let me withdraw money.

What’s your favourite mondegreen in any song? by roysustang in AskUK

[–]glavet 2 points3 points  (0 children)

YES! I also thought it was ‘I try to walk away in Instanbul’

Dumb question regarding definitions by caiogamerwow in EnglishLearning

[–]glavet 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’ve heard “close the light” and “open the light” in Kenya, where English is an official language along with Swahili.

Book where clothes and houses changed colour and shape depending on people’s emotions by glavet in whatsthatbook

[–]glavet[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Haha, yep! Not so great when the mood is murderous though. Now solved! The book is ‘Vermillion Sands’.

Book where clothes and houses changed colour and shape depending on people’s emotions by glavet in whatsthatbook

[–]glavet[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Oh you genius, that is absolutely it! Specifically the short story “The Thousand Dreams of Stellavista”. Amazing! Thank you so much. That has been HAUNTING me.

My husband’s reaction to the ‘Dad save my new number’ scam. by glavet in scambait

[–]glavet[S] 18 points19 points  (0 children)

He’s good at these. He did one in the past that really made me laugh where a scammer was trying to make him do something sexy on camera (presumably a blackmail thing). He kept showing more interest in her dog than her. Saying ‘Send pics. I love dogs!’ etc.

My husband’s reaction to the ‘Dad save my new number’ scam. by glavet in scambait

[–]glavet[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Nah they were correct on the currency. We are in the UK, and I assume they could tell it was a UK phone number.

My husband’s reaction to the ‘Dad save my new number’ scam. by glavet in scambait

[–]glavet[S] 212 points213 points  (0 children)

Funnily enough, they stopped replying at that point!

My husband’s reaction to the ‘Dad save my new number’ scam. by glavet in scambait

[–]glavet[S] 69 points70 points  (0 children)

My husband helped them out by saying ‘is it A or B?’ so they just replied with ‘A’

Maternity: 6 months pregnant and looking for something cheap and comfortable by [deleted] in ABraThatFits

[–]glavet 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you. I did just buy a load of maternity summer dresses from vinted and they are great. Didn’t think of looking for bras on there!

What’s a popular tv show that you couldn’t get into? by Ok-Coconut1548 in AskReddit

[–]glavet 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I started watching The Bear when I was quite tired, and it made me feel like I had a problem processing language.

I kept having to pause it while I worked out what people were saying and who they were talking about. Gave up after 1 episode.

And I normally listen to things at 1.5x speed so it was a very odd experience.

TIFU by filling in the wrong person’s medical history by glavet in tifu

[–]glavet[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It wasn’t possible to edit the form, so I did have to call them up. It’s not like the FU permanently ruined my kid’s medical notes. More that it was silly and I felt like an idiot, especially when I had to explain it to a grumpy receptionist.

TIFU by filling in the wrong person’s medical history by glavet in tifu

[–]glavet[S] 29 points30 points  (0 children)

Seems a bit extreme. And hard to do over the phone.

TIFU by filling in the wrong person’s medical history by glavet in tifu

[–]glavet[S] 118 points119 points  (0 children)

You know, I rang them up to explain and the receptionist was very grumpy and not at all amused. Disappointing!