hairy, hurry and harry

[san2612]

Hi, everyone.
How to pronounce "hairy, hurry and harry"?. I'm preparing for Toefl_ibt and have some problem with pronunciation. Can you suggest me some useful free websites? :roll:

 

[euncu]

ˈheəri
ˈhʌri (BE) ˈhɜːri (AE)
ˈhæri

 

[acslater017]

"Hairy" and "Harry" sound exactly the same when I pronounce them (I am from California)

"Hurry" should sound like "her".

Hope this helps. It's a bit hard to demonstrate without speaking.

 

[EhabIsaac]

Hey, I'm from Palestine .. and i pronounce Hairy, hurry and harry like this :

Hairy :

zSHARE - Hairy.wma

Hurry :

hurry.wma

And Harry :

Harry.wma

How can you use Hairy in a sentence :

Wow man! you are too Hairy. That means he have too much hair on his body.

How can you use Hurry in a sentence :

Hurry up, we don't want to miss the bus! Hurry means you should speed up or go quickly.

How can you use harry in a sentence : " Harry is a name. "

Harry Potter is an awesome charachter! " Harry, it's a name. "

I Hope i helped..

And that records " Media " it's my voice .. I Hope i helped.:up:

 

[duiter]

"Hairy" and "Harry" sound exactly the same when I pronounce them (I am from California)

"Hurry" should sound like "her".

Hope this helps. It's a bit hard to demonstrate without speaking.

To acslater017,

Does it mean that Californian says bad and bed the same sounds ?

Likewise, bat and bet is similarly pronounced ?

How common is this dialect ?

Because 'æ' does not exist in my language ( Malay and perhaps Indonesian ) and it has been always a big problem - I know how to make it but whenever I say 'bad', native speaker thinks that I say 'bud' or 'bed'. 'ʌ' sound does exist in my language
I know 'æ' sound but whenever I listen and watch american movies the word 'bad' sounds like 'bed'

 

[Tdol]

If a sound doesn't exist in a language, it's not uncommon to hear it as a sound that is close to your language, and when there are differences that don't exist, it can be difficult to hear them. There are different /k/ sounds in Khmer, but when I was living there, they sounded exactly the same to me. ;-)

 

[SoothingDave]

To acslater017,

Does it mean that Californian says bad and bed the same sounds ?

Likewise, bat and bet is similarly pronounced ?

How common is this dialect ?

Because 'æ' does not exist in my language ( Malay and perhaps Indonesian ) and it has been always a big problem - I know how to make it but whenever I say 'bad', native speaker thinks that I say 'bud' or 'bed'. 'ʌ' sound does exist in my language
I know 'æ' sound but whenever I listen and watch american movies the word 'bad' sounds like 'bed'

I'm from Pennsylvania. I say "hairy" and "Harry" the same.

I'm not sure about your logic. "Bed" and "Bad" are different pronunciations to me. I don't know how you jump from the first set of data to the second.

With "hairy" and "Harry" you are talking about the vowel sound for "a." "Ai" in the word "hairy" is pronounced just like it was simply an "a" and not an "ai."

As a child we are taught a "rule" in English that "when two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking."

(Like all rules in English, they are not valid for every word.)

 

[duiter]

I'm from Pennsylvania. I say "hairy" and "Harry" the same.

I'm not sure about your logic. "Bed" and "Bad" are different pronunciations to me. I don't know how you jump from the first set of data to the second.

With "hairy" and "Harry" you are talking about the vowel sound for "a." "Ai" in the word "hairy" is pronounced just like it was simply an "a" and not an "ai."

As a child we are taught a "rule" in English that "when two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking."

(Like all rules in English, they are not valid for every word.)

Well, 'hairy' has phonetic //ˈher.i// according to Definition of hairy adjective (WITH HAIR) from Cambridge Dictionary Online: Free English Dictionary and Thesaurus - see US 'speaker'

and 'harry' has phonetic /ˈhær.i/ according Definition of harry verb from Cambridge Dictionary Online: Free English Dictionary and Thesaurus - see US 'speaker' too

If phonetic letter h,r and i are taken, so only /e/ and /æ/ are left respectively --- does it mean that /e/ can be pronounced with /æ/ and vice versa ?

Similar logic : bad / bæd/ and bed /bed/

Definition of bad adjective (UNPLEASANT) from Cambridge Dictionary Online: Free English Dictionary and Thesaurus

Definition of bed noun (FURNITURE) from Cambridge Dictionary Online: Free English Dictionary and Thesaurus


See the phonetic letter for both 'bad' and 'bed'

 

[SoothingDave]

Sorry, I am not a teacher and don't know the symbols. I was just relating my own experiences. I don't know any American accent that says "bed" and "bad" the same.

I do know those who say "Harry" and "hairy" the same.

And despite what the dictionary tells you there is no such thing as an "American speaker." We have regional dialects.

 

[alexandermoir]

I know this is an old post now, I wish I had been here to discuss this...so I will now, in case anyone wants to know, to include the author.

The Californian who answered that Harry and Hairy sound the same to him (and the PA person too) were right that in the majority of American dialects, the vowel sound in both of those words has become [ɛʌ], making both of those words sound like [hɛʌri]. It's a quick diphthong for them.

Now, where I am from- the metro New York area- we pronounce them quite differently. Harry = [hæri] and Hairy = [hɛʌri]. As far as I can tell from my studies, travels, interstate moves, and friends from other areas, the ONLY parts of the the US that recognize the distinction are metro NY and the northern half of New Jersey. Funny, growing up I thought it was normal, but when I went to college in Connecticut and then lived around the South, I got laughed at for making that distinction. Anyway, I like the distinction, and consider it correct, especially since it is distinguished in England to this day.

A second example of a distinction you will only see in metro New York is Mary/marry/merry. Most of the US considers those all to be [mɛʌri] but for me, they are three completely distinct words:

Mary = [mɛʌri]
marry = [mæri]
merry = [mɛri]

A complicated language, to be sure.