What's the letter that corresponds the second syllable then?

[Silverobama]

Hi,

Please help me with the following sentence:

What's the letter that corresponds the second syllable then?

Context: I was arguing with someone (Let's call him A) about the pronunciation of the word "animation". A said it should be "amination" and I said it's wrong. He said people in the UK pronounce the word animation as "amination". Then I asked him to spell out the word for me and he said he didn't need to. Then I asked him the above question. The question was intended to mean "If you think the word is pronounced as "amination", then what would be the second syllable of the word?" However, on second thoughts, the question wasn't good because the second syllable reads in either "amination" or "animation" would be an "uh" sound. Could you please tell me the natural way to ask the question?

 

[emsr2d2]

Don't bother asking him a question. Simply tell him that he's wrong. We pronounce "animation" exactly as written. We never swap the "n" and "m" around.

 

[Silverobama]

I appreciate your sincerity and will follow your suggestion, emsr2d2.

Part of the story went like: I debated with him and he was trying to persuade people who were listening to buy his nonsense. He insisted that "amination" is how British people pronounced.

The only question I asked was "Could you please spell the word?" Perhaps he knew that he was wrong so he didn't dare to spell it out. But he kept saying that "amination" was right.

I wonder if I can say "Don't make up words when there isn't such a word".

 

[Tarheel]

@Silverobama Yes, you can say that, but he probably wouldn't appreciate it. You could try, "The first syllable is spelled with an "a" followed by an "n" and that's the way it's pronounced." You probably shouldn't bother though. People can be quite stubborn.

 

[emsr2d2]

I wonder if I can say "Don't make up words when there isn't such a word".

That doesn't make sense. The fact that there isn't such a word is contained within the phrase "Don't make up words". I wouldn't bother arguing with him. Send him links to online dictionaries and pronunciation sites (such as Forvo) and he can work it out for himself.