"-ate" and the long "a"?

[BobK]

Not in any dialect I've ever heard. The only place I'd expect to hear it is if someone was correcting a misspelling such as "accurit".

b

[MikeNewYork]

Originally Posted by dihen

Another one:
`
"accurate" as "accurayte" (acceptable or not?)

I've never heard that.

[dihen]

Why does English has so much vowel reduction? It rarely has a long vowel with an unstressed syllable. And it's so easy to mispronounce a word by simply following its spelling. Does pronouncing too many words with spelling pronucation make someone sound foreign? It certainly does, does it? Imagine if I pronounced every word in English (maybe not every) by spelling pronunciation. It would certainly sound very very strange wouldn't it, and you would probably also not understand some words either.
`
By the way, is having a foreign accent considered mispronuciation?

[BobK]

Originally Posted by dihen

Why does English has so much vowel reduction? Because it wasn't designed for the convenience of ESLs. In fact, it wasn't designed at all.It rarely has a long vowel with an unstressed syllable. And it's so easy to mispronounce a word by simply following its spelling. Does pronouncing too many words with spelling pronucation make someone sound foreign? Not always, but it's an indicator.It certainly does, does it? Imagine if I pronounced every word in English (maybe not every) by spelling pronunciation. It would certainly sound very very strange wouldn't it, and you would probably also not understand some words either. Yes and yes [that is, no - there's the chance that some words would be misunderstood].
`
By the way, is having a foreign accent considered mispronuciation?

I can't conceive of a definition of 'mispronunciation' that accepted foreign pronunciations. But we won't hold it against you!

b

[dihen]

Originally Posted by BobK

I can't conceive of a definition of 'mispronunciation' that accepted foreign pronunciations. But we won't hold it against you!
b

What's "conceive of"?, something similar to "find"? And what do you mean by "we won't hold it against you!"?, "that you will tell me what you think no matter what"?

[MikeNewYork]

Originally Posted by dihen

What's "conceive of"?, something similar to "find"? And what do you mean by "we won't hold it against you!"?, "that you will tell me what you think no matter what"?

"Conceive of" means "imagine".

[BobK]

Originally Posted by dihen

What's "conceive of"?, something similar to "find"? And what do you mean by "we won't hold it against you!"?, "that you will tell me what you think no matter what"?

Mike has explained conceive.

'Hold sth against someone' is an idiom; it means 'think badly or with hostility towards someone because of something':

His mother wouldn't let him go out with his friends, and he held it against her for the rest of the holiday.

What I was saying was that most people are not unfriendly towards people who have trouble with pronunciation; and some people (especially teachers in this forum) understand your difficulties - as my father used to say 'If you never made a mistake you'd never make anything'.

b

[dihen]

another question: words ending with "-ication"
`
Can I pronounce them as "-/aɪkeɪʃən/" instead of "-/ɪkeɪʃən"?
`
such as in:
modify-cation
multiply-cation
specify-cation

[Tdol]

I wouldn't.

[Englishuser]

Originally Posted by dihen

another question: words ending with "-ication"
`
Can I pronounce them as "-/aɪkeɪʃən/" instead of "-/ɪkeɪʃən"?
`
such as in:
modify-cation
multiply-cation
specify-cation

No.

Modification = [mɔdəfəkeʃən] ([mOd@f@keS@n])