How to pronounce "Viscosity"

hungdynasty · Dec 13, 2004

I watched the GM Checking Oil video , the woman pronounce 'viscosity' something like 'vi-CA-si'. I thought it should be like 'vis-CO-si-ti' by looking at the word but may be I'm wrong now.

Please tell me english speakers, thanks.

moribundman · Dec 13, 2004

vis'kositi

Matt_S · Dec 13, 2004

You're correct.

Pablo · Dec 13, 2004

You sound more correct: vi-skos-i-te

but the i's are like a light - eh
and the y is a high - e

It depends on the English accent! The lady may have been from SE USA (that's not really English

)

Soom people say: vis-cos-CITY but the accent should be on the cos.

Make sense?

moribundman · Dec 13, 2004

I can't post the phonetic script I learned, because I don't find the special letters in my key caps. Anyway, the phonetic script I know differs from the simplified one that, for example, Webster's uses.

moribundman · Dec 13, 2004

quote:

Soom people say: vis-cos-CITY but the accent should be on the cos.

Not the Soom people again! What do THEY know?

hungdynasty · Dec 13, 2004

quote:

Originally posted by Pablo:

It depends on the English accent! The lady may have been from SE USA (that's not really English

)

Soom people say: vis-cos-CITY but the accent should be on the cos.

Make sense?

No offence, just asking. If you guys talk to that lady in person and she says "vi-CA-si", would you guys understand that she's saying 'viscosity'?

eljefino · Dec 13, 2004

I'd understand "vi-CA-si" in context, for sure.

Find a Castrol GTX ad on the TV (usually during wrestling or nascar) and listen to how they say it-- they almost always mention fighting "viscosity breakdown".

Pablo · Dec 13, 2004

For all intents and purposes (intense porpoises):

soom = some

Sorry for the bloody typo. Won't happen agin.

Now, Mr. Hung (dude!)-

If she said this to me, I'd say (really rude like): "WHAT?"

Matt_S · Dec 13, 2004

quote:

Originally posted by hungdynasty:
No offence, just asking. If you guys talk to that lady in person and she says "vi-CA-si", would you guys understand that she's saying 'viscosity'?

I'd probably find some tactful way of correcting her, like "vi-CA-si, oh, you mean vis-KAAS-ity".

moribundman · Dec 13, 2004

If she were to say "vi CA si" to me in person, I might understand due to the context in which she said it, but I'd give her a hard time anyway and say "Ah lurve nuke-loo-are vi-CA-si" or something similar. Or I'll just yell something in random Swedish. Maybe she is the Swedish chef from the Muppets.

Gary Allan · Dec 13, 2004

quote:

would you guys understand that she's saying 'viscosity'?

absolutely. English, or American, has broad latitudes in anounciation. It isn't nearly as defined for inflection as the eastern languages are. English is the most butchered language known ..just listen to Arnold Swartzenegger in Konan the Destroyer ...the most tortured foe ..is the King's English.

One friendly waiter, to my ear, was named 'Consuit' ..but as many times as I repeated it ...I got it wrong. I could only faintly detect the "Con-su-e-ae-ut" (the complex vowels said seamlessly and very rapidly).

Northeastern US is the worst. The closer you get to NE ..the worse it gets. "Not far from here" sounds like "Naht fah frum he-ah" and "I saw a deer" sounds like "I sah a de-ah" ..I had an idea ..sounds like "I hahd an Idear". My mother went into a Kmart and asked for "Yahn" ..it took two sales people and her spelling it before they figured out that she was asking for "yarn". Y-A-AH-N .."yeah .. yahn"

hungdynasty · Dec 13, 2004

It's a very good english lesson from you guys, thanks a lot.

Actually I had to review the video a few times to find out "vi-CA-si" is "viscosity" but other than this I have no problem to understand all other words the lady says. I learned most of my english in Canada ten years ago and since english is not my mother language, I actually can't really hear the difference in different american accents, all are close enough. Talking about accent,when Pablo said in some previous posts that cantonese just make him crazy, this is not the worst case. There are probably a thousand cantonese accents in Hong Kong, sometimes I talk to indigenous accents people here I just can't even understand a word. Finally some "translaters" translate it to me and I just laugh out loud.

Pablo · Dec 14, 2004

Hung:

Shuo shénme???

(mandarin pinyin)

hungdynasty · Dec 14, 2004

quote:

Originally posted by Pablo:
Hung:

Shuo shénme???

(mandarin pinyin)

Now Pablo you make me crazy! What is it??????????

(better tell me in cantonese or english)

Pablo · Dec 14, 2004

Straight translation:

to say what??

English translation:

What are you saying?

Slang translation:

What are you talking about?

Mandarin (as I know it) pronounciation :

sho (rhymes with English go) shin ma

said fast but hold the sho....sho-shinma
(and the sh in sho almost sounds a z, but not)

hungdynasty · Dec 14, 2004

Does it sound crazy to you guys that Pablo is teaching a chinese guy mandarin?

Ahhahahahahahaa.a.a.a.a.a.a......

Pablo · Dec 15, 2004

I call a guy in HK.
I get some female message in Cantonese...but I don't know if she's saying the phone can't be connected or what??? No beep, though.

So he calls me the next day and says..."OH it was you trying to get through"....so I say:

"Why isn't your message in Mandarin, so I can understand it!?" (Imagine that)

He starts laughing.....yes we live in a mixed world!

BTW His answer was: If he put the message in Mandarin, none of his older relatives would understand!

How to pronounce "Viscosity"

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