Which dictionary gives the most reliable/common pronunciation in British and American English?

[unknown todler]

For example, the pronunciation of the word 'schedule' varies from dictionary to dictionary:

• https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/schedule
• https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/schedule
• https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/schedule_1
• https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/schedule
• https://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/schedule
• https://www.oed.com/dictionary/schedule_n

Which dictionary should I use if I want to look up the most common or standard pronunciation of British and American English?

 

[emsr2d2]

I wouldn't use a dictionary for that. I'd go to Forvo. Type in the word you're looking for and it will bring up several recordings by native speakers of most variants of English. Listen to a few from each variant. Bear in mind there's no such thing as a "most common" or "standard" pronunciation of any word. Most words (at least those longer than two or three letters) might be subject to regional accent variations.

 

[unknown todler]

I wouldn't use a dictionary for that. I'd go to Forvo. Type in the word you're looking for and it will bring up several recordings by native speakers of most variants of English. Listen to a few from each variant. Bear in mind there's no such thing as a "most common" or "standard" pronunciation of any word. Most words (at least those longer than two or three letters) might be subject to regional accent variations.

FORVO doesn't provide IPA so it's useless for me. Plus I'd like to use a dictionary as they are more reliable than content created by random users

Of course, there is such thing as the most common or standard pronounciation of every word: some pronunciations are used more frequently while others are used less frequently

 

[probus]

I agree with @emsr2d2 that Forvo is a better resource for pronunciation than any dictionary. That said, however, it is true that multiple correct pronunciations exist for many words. The differences are very often regional, so if you insist on using a dictionary for this choose an American dictionary like Webster's for American and a British one such as Oxford for British pronunciation.

 

[unknown todler]

I agree with @emsr2d2 that Forvo is a better resource for pronunciation than any dictionary. That said, however, it is true that multiple correct pronunciations exist for many words. The differences are very often regional, so if you insist on using a dictionary for this choose an American dictionary like Webster's for American and a British one such as Oxford for British pronunciation.

I agree that multiple correct pronounciations exist for many words. But only one of the is the most common one.

Forvo doesn't provide IPA, so it's completely useless for me.

 

[jutfrank]

There's no way to prove what the most common pronunciation of a word is. Most dictionaries would get their data from whatever corpora they use. The pronunciation listed would be whatever is the most common in those particular corpora.

 

[emsr2d2]

I agree that multiple correct pronounciations pronunciations exist for many words no full stop here but only one of them is the most common one.

Forvo doesn't provide IPA, so it's completely useless for me.

Why do you need IPA listings for each word? Are you studying phonetics (or similar) or are you simply trying to learn how to pronounce English words like a native speaker?

 

[Madman1981]

Why do you need IPA listings for each word? Are you studying phonetics (or similar) or are you simply trying to learn how to pronounce English words like a native speaker?

I also need IPA listings because what you -as a native speaker- hear from a pronunciation of an English word is not necessarily what I hear. I almost always, for example, heard the 'th' sound like 'd'; and never realized that there is a difference between the pronunciation of 'L' when it occurs at the beginning of a word and 'L' when occurs after a vowel until I see the differences in IPA and after that I try to listen more carefully to the words contain these letters. The same goes for the pronunciation of 'w' which I heard 'v'.

 

[unknown todler]

There's no way to prove what the most common pronunciation of a word is. Most dictionaries would get their data from whatever corpora they use. The pronunciation listed would be whatever is the most common in those particular corpora.

Why not judge/evaluate the quality of those corpora then?

 

[unknown todler]

Why do you need IPA listings for each word? Are you studying phonetics (or similar) or are you simply trying to learn how to pronounce English words like a native speaker?

I hope you want to answer the question not to impose your learning style on me. I want to use the IPA because it is unambiguous, easy to learn by heart, easy to check, commonly given in reputable sources and I don't have to rely on my hearing to guess what sounds I hear

 

[unknown todler]

I also need IPA listings because what you -as a native speaker- hear from a pronunciation of an English word is not necessarily what I hear. I almost always, for example, heard the 'th' sound like 'd'. and never realized that there is a difference between 'L' when it occurs at the beginning of a word and 'L' when occurs after a vowel until I see the differences in IPA and after that I try to listen more carefully to the words contain these letters. The same goes for the pronunciation of 'w' which I heard 'v'.

This is also one of my reasons to use IPA. By hearing it is difficult to distinguish /θ/ from /f/ and /ð/ sounds similar to /d/ or /v/

 

[jutfrank]

Why not judge/evaluate the quality of those corpora then?

What do you mean? They don't have 'quality'. They're just huge databases of samples of people speaking.

 

[Madman1981]

This is also one of my reasons to use IPA. By hearing it is difficult to distinguish /θ/ from /f/ and /ð/ sounds similar to /d/ or /v/

Yes, and what we hear from these sounds is related to the sounds of the letters in our native languages. You hear /θ/ like /f/ but I hear it like /s/.

 

[unknown todler]

What do you mean? They don't have 'quality'. They're just huge databases of samples of people speaking.

Um, you know that you can choose different people speaking, right? For example If you want to get samples of people speaking in the UK, you can choose people from all the country (you'll get better quality) but you can also choose only people from Edinburgh (you'll get worse quality)

 

[emsr2d2]

Um, you know that you can choose different people speaking, right? For example, if you want to get samples of people speaking in the UK, you can choose people from all over the country (you'll get better quality) but you can also choose only people from Edinburgh (you'll get worse quality).

Please note my corrections above. I notice that you frequently fail to put a full stop at the end of the final sentence of your posts. Punctuation is important!
I have no idea why you think that someone who speaks with an Edinburgh accent speaks English of "worse quality" than someone from somewhere else in the UK.

 

[jutfrank]

Um, you know that you can choose different people speaking, right? For example If you want to get samples of people speaking in the UK, you can choose people from all the country (you'll get better quality) but you can also choose only people from Edinburgh (you'll get worse quality)

Some dictionaries have their own corpora. A good example is Oxford, who use the Oxford English Corpus (OEC) as their main resource. Other dictionaries use corpora developed by third parties. Either way, these corpora are huge, typically consisting of several billions of words, and covering texts written and spoken by a very wide diversity of speakers, from all around the world and across a wide variety of registers. Obviously, no lexicographer in their right mind would include sources limited to people from Edinburgh, so you don't have to worry about that. Whether you use Oxford or Cambridge, Longman or Collins, or any of the other major dictionaries, makes very little difference in this regard. They're all reliable enough for your purposes.

 

[unknown todler]

Please note my corrections above. I notice that you frequently fail to put a full stop at the end of the final sentence of your posts. Punctuation is important!
I have no idea why you think that someone who speaks with an Edinburgh accent speaks English of "worse quality" than someone from somewhere else in the UK.

I don't think that someone with an Edinburgh accent speaks English of 'worse quality'. But if you want to have high quality corpora for British English, you shouldn't choose people from only one city.

A full stop at the end of the final sentence is generally a bad idea in non-formal communication. It suggests negative emotions. My first language has even a term for this kind of full stop

 

[unknown todler]

Are you asking how these corpora are compiled?

Some dictionaries have their own corpora. A good example is Oxford, who use the Oxford English Corpus (OEC) as their main resource. These corpora are huge, typically consisting of billions of words, and covering texts written and spoken by a very wide diversity of speakers and across a wide variety of registers. Obviously, no lexicographer in their right mind would include sources coming only from people from Edinburgh.

So some corpora are better than others! Therefore your argument wasn't right. You can check the most common pronounciation by using a dictionary based on the best corpus

 

[probus]

Please forgive this personal question which I ask only in the hope of helping you better @unknown todler: are you perhaps a bit hard of hearing?

 

[jutfrank]

A full stop at the end of the final sentence is generally a bad idea in non-formal communication. It suggests negative emotions. My first language has even a term for this kind of full stop

With respect, you're not going to get much out of this forum by arguing with the language experts here. If you want advice, please accept what we have to say, and understand that people here are giving up their free time to help you learn something.

So some corpora are better than others! Therefore your argument wasn't right. You can check the most common pronounciation by using a dictionary based on the best corpus

You're welcome. Since you seem to have answered your own question, shall we now close the thread?