Thread: Check my phrasing (short dialogue)

Thanks very much for your help, Doomer!

I'm not 100% sure about the Latin -- I believe you're right that a gerundive form (horrendum) might be more correct if you were constructing a grammatically complete sentence in Latin, but the adjective horribilis is definitely used in biological taxonomy -- for example, the N. American "grizzly bear" is Ursus arctos horribilis. (But there's actually no such wolf species as Canis lupus horribilis.)

Also, "to go for a волк" is a silly phonetic pun on "to take a dog for a walk." (гулять с собакой). It's meant to be a not-very-clever pun, because the wolf's own collar has betrayed him and he needs to invent an explanation very quickly.

Originally Posted by Throbert McGee

Also, "to go for a волк" is a silly phonetic pun on "to take a dog for a walk." (гулять с собакой). It's meant to be a not-very-clever pun, because the wolf's own collar has betrayed him and he needs to invent an explanation very quickly.

I always thought "L" is not pronounced in English "walk", is it?

Originally Posted by Боб Уайтман

I always thought "L" is not pronounced in English "walk", is it?

It depends on the speaker -- many people don't pronounce the "L" at all, and many others "reduce" it to a sort of W sound. Thus "walk" sounds something like wawk, and the vowel has a subtly different quality than in "wok" (the bowl-shaped Chinese frying pan). But other people would pronounce "walk" and "wok" as perfect homonyms (this is partly a matter of "regional dialect").

But it's not "wrong" if you do pronounce the L, and neither is it wrong if you don't pronounce it. For example, a schoolteacher giving a dictation exercise to children might say "walk" with a very clear "L" in order to help the kids remember the spelling. But the same teacher might pronounce the word as "wok" when speaking to another adult.

I would consider the "L" in words like walk, talk, chalk, palm, golf, etc. to be "semi-silent" or "pseudo-silent" -- because some pronounce the "L" and others don't. (Thus, some speakers rhyme "golf" with "off" and "cough", without the "L" sound.)

This is in contrast to, for example, the "K" and "E" in knife -- which are really, truly 100% silent letters, and are not pronounced by any native speaker even in the most careful speech. (A teacher giving dictation would never ever pronounce "knife" as к'нифэй, with an audible "K" and two syllables! And the "p" in psychology is also 100% silent under all circumstances, etc.)

Originally Posted by Throbert McGee

It depends on the speaker -- many people don't pronounce the "L" at all, and many others "reduce" it to a sort of W sound. Thus "walk" sounds something like wawk, and the vowel has a subtly different quality than in "wok" (the bowl-shaped Chinese frying pan). But other people would pronounce "walk" and "wok" as perfect homonyms (this is partly a matter of "regional dialect").

But it's not "wrong" if you do pronounce the L, and neither is it wrong if you don't pronounce it. For example, a schoolteacher giving a dictation exercise to children might say "walk" with a very clear "L" in order to help the kids remember the spelling. But the same teacher might pronounce the word as "wok" when speaking to another adult.

I would consider the "L" in words like walk, talk, chalk, palm, golf, etc. to be "semi-silent" or "pseudo-silent" -- because some pronounce the "L" and others don't. (Thus, some speakers rhyme "golf" with "off" and "cough", without the "L" sound.)

This is in contrast to, for example, the "K" and "E" in knife -- which are really, truly 100% silent letters, and are not pronounced by any native speaker even in the most careful speech. (A teacher giving dictation would never ever pronounce "knife" as к'нифэй, with an audible "K" and two syllables! And the "p" in psychology is also 100% silent under all circumstances, etc.)

Thank you for the clarification, I did not know that.
When I learned English both at school and in the university, I was never told about the difference between "truly silent" and "pseudo-silent" letters. So, I was taught exactly the same way about "K" in "knife, knit, knock" etc. and about "L" in "talk, walk, chalk" etc. And many similar rules as well.
But that's a problem of our education. I'd rather trust what natives say