I teach at university in Japan. I don't know how to feel about this. My students are self-conscious enough about speaking English without knowing that their accent is being ridiculed on the Internets. It doesn't help that what you're seeing in this vid is a valid pronunciation practice technique called "shadowing." This kind of practice (recording what you're saying so you can compare it with the actor) helps the learners spot their intonation, rhythm, and other errors.

EDIT: Sorry, after more thought I have to downvote. I think it just promotes racial stereotyping (if the YouTube comments are any indication).

i've never heard that pronunciation of "pythagorean"

pith-a-gorian?
i've always heard pie-thag-or-eeeean

[redacted]

See, that's how I pronounced it, "Lee-nooks". Because Linus in Finnish is "Lee-noos". And probably because I was living in Sweden when I first encountered Linux.

But I suppose as far as Linus Torvalds is concerned the more common pronunciation of "Lin-ucks" is correct.

Only idiots will correct people on pronunciation of brand names that the company insists on. Most of my techie contacts in computer hardware wholesale or retail call it "Ay-sus", the way it's called since it... forever. Only the idiot sales and marketing people insists that it's called "Ah-soos". Similar things occurs with "SuSE linux" and "Ubuntu linux".

From Wikipedia:

"The company explains the name Asus as originating from Pegasus, the winged horse of Greek mythology.[6][7] The new organization used only the last four letters of the word in order to give the resulting name a high position in alphabetical listings."

Though, the origin of the name clearly has no bearing on its accepted pronunciation.

>> ^Stu:

why oh why would someone spend weeks doing this when they could just go outside and play in the sun...


From Wiki:
Asperger syndrome or Asperger's syndrome (English pronunciation: /æspɜrɡɜrz/) is an autism spectrum disorder that is characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction.

Playing in the sun isn't generally a lot of fun by yourself. No more fun then a computer could give you, anyway.

>> ^mxxcon:

>> ^EMPIRE:
is it me, or is the guy singing closer to the camera saying "targé" instead of "target"? wtf?

because he's a smug asshole that thinks it's a french word


I think they are all pronouncing it like that for the chorus because it rhymes with "pay". I've heard people call it that as an alternative name before even when they know the real pronunciation.

Upvote for the clever song and the pronunciation of Target, but not really for the cause. I'll more than likely shop there and maybe even Walmart if it's 4 AM and I really need a bathrobe or a desk lamp or a gallon of milk or something. God, I really wish there were 24 hour Ikeas...

>> ^MarineGunrock:

Very cool, but having a garden does not make one a farmer.


Well, according to the English language, yes it does

Main Entry: farm·er
Pronunciation: \ˈfär-mər\
Function: noun
Date: 14th century
1 : a person who pays a fixed sum for some privilege or source of income
2 : a person who cultivates land or crops or raises animals (as livestock or fish)


And what is a "Farm" you may ask?

Main Entry: 1farm
Pronunciation: \ˈfärm\
Function: noun
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: Middle English ferme, from Anglo-French, from fermer to fix, rent, from Latin firmare to make firm, from firmus firm
Date: 14th century
4 : a tract of land devoted to agricultural purposes
5 a : a plot of land devoted to the raising of animals and especially domestic livestock b : a tract of water reserved for the artificial cultivation of some aquatic life form (a fish farm)


But you're probably wanting to use the lesser-term "Gardener" for what these people are doing, which is historically inaccurate. See, everywhere else on the planet other than good ole USA, a "garden" is a yard. And the actual term "Gardener" really means:

Gardener
Function: noun
Date: circa 1763
: a person who is engaged in the development and decorative planting of gardens and grounds


Yep, decorative planting of gardens and grounds. Not the cultivation of food and livestock/fish.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'david mitchell, robert webb, pronunciation, grammar, violent correction' to 'david mitchell, robert webb, pronunciation, grammar, violent correction, whomever' - edited by ponceleon

This cracked me up when he says WTF at :30. I have a friend in Chile whose daughter is studying English at college and I wrote up a list of English curse words and their meanings. And sent them some audio mp3s of me giving the proper pronunciation and inflection. It was a fun project.

Eh, this is Top Gear. Rational people can easily see why the test doesn't tell you anything about the relative environmental impacts of construction or use.

@blankfist, I do own a Prius, though it's mintbbb's daily driver, not mine. Great car.

Oh, and BTW, Clarkson's pronunciation of Prius is actually intentionally wrong. The UK pronounces it the way we do.

He just wants to make it sound as close as possible to "priapism" as possible.

*eco
*comedy
*lies

I couldn't care less about our differences in pronunciation and spelling, but I could care less about your dental hygiene.

I was unaware of the British "Lieutenant" pronunciation. That's a strange one, and dictionary.com says it's only "left-" in non-navy use.

Aluminum was first referred to as Alumium by Humphry Davy. He later settled on Aluminum. The Quarterly Review decided that wasn't classy enough and opted to call it Aluminium, as seen here in the 4th paragraph.

>> ^CheshireSmile:

American: lieutenant, British: left tenant
American: a-loo-mi-num, British: a-loo-mi-nee-um
American: plow, British: plough
American: tidbit, British: titbit
American: color, British: colour
American: trunk, British: boot
American: sidewalk, British: ???????????
American: REsearch, British: reSEARCH
American: bernard, British: ???????
answers please