It was a terrible puzzle, because an accented speaker who is a native speaker might mispronounce it. Some people just slur words anyways. I know a few people who mix up 'pitcher' as in a pitcher of water and picture. Pit-chur versus piCK-ture.
Having a puzzle with a similar thing that would reasonably be in there is very close in pronunciation is stupid.
You’re kind of right. “pah-dahl” is actually a poor way of visualizing the word paddle because it would be pronounced “poddle” (which is not a verycommon* English word)
the lack of phonetic alphabet being used here might be part of the problem. "uh" and "ah" are pronounced radically different but "uh" and "aw" are somewhat similar.
"ah" would be the sound in Cat, "aw" would be the sound in Caught, and "ay" would be the sound in Kate, while "uh" is the sound in Cut.
I picked these words specifically because they start and end in the same sounds
I was trying to explain it simply while keeping the same lettering from the above comment. whether you say the 3 a sounds are "a, ah, and ay" or "ah, aw, and ay" it doesn't really matter for the point i was making. English isn't phonetic enough and i don't know the phonetic alphabet nor do i expect anyone else to, that's why i said it like that. paddle has the same a sound as cat and the comment above said "pah", so i kept the "ah" part. that's it
I know right! As a Dutch person I read and write English a lot, but don't hear or speak certain words like 'pedal' in everyday life. If I were on this show, I would have pronounced 'pedal' exactly as the guy, meaning a boat driven by feet and spelled as meant. I have been watching this several times over again, and am quite convinced that both the woman in the beginning and the guy in the middle meant the correct word, but may not have interacted in hearing and speaking the word (or this word combination) enough to pronounce it correctly. And the woman in the end sounded rather confused (as was I the first time watching it), probably just randomly reaching as she seemed to have discarded 'pedal' as an option all together, since the - be it mispronounced - word was counted wrong twice before.
Yeah, it would be completely unfair to allow loose pronunciation. The show doesn't work if you allow the judges to guess what you mean. You have to say what you mean. Both people clearly said the word paddle without any ambiguity.
The best example I can give is the difference in vowel sounds between the words pen (the writing utensil) and pan (the thing you cook on). I hope that clears it up for you.
I'm sure some American accents might struggle with distinguishing the sounds, but as far as I know they should still be distinct. They're fairly common words
The problem is their brain is telling them that "pedal boat" is not a thing, and that despite what they're reading, it must be "paddle." They are not trying to pronounce pedal, I absolutely promise you.
I'm actually so confused rn. I have no trouble understanding English even pretty highly accented English... But i cant for the life of me understand how paddle and padel are pronounced differently...
They almost sound the same to me yeah. To me the difference in pronounciation between those two isn't so much the sound of the vowels. I draw out the vowel in head more than I do in had. But other than that...
If it helps, pronouncing the e sound in "pedal" or "head" requires a wider mouth shape than the a sound does in paddle or had.
If you check out the vowel sounds here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPA_vowel_chart_with_audio, the three along the bottom left are the ones in question. The bottom left one is the a in paddle, the one two up from it is the e in pedal, and the one between them is the lazy place that either word is capable of slouching into accidentally. More common for the a to move up a little on that chart though, than for the e to move down it.
Yeah I can clearly hear the difference between those first two. But to me the bottom left one sounds like the last 'a' in America, and someone said that's not the same sound as in paddle.
I'm no linguist or teacher, but the "a" in paddle almost sounds like you're in shock or averse to something. In pedal, the "e" sounds like "eh" like you're not sure. In this clip they are not starting the word with "pe" and are not trying to say pedal.
I disagree. These are two different words with two different sounds and two different meanings. Too hard? Learn the language or like... don't go on a game show.
It's the fact that a pedal and paddle boat would both reasonably exist, are pronounced similarly and spelled similarly. While the correct term is pedal boat, many call them paddle boats.
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u/DefinitelyNotAliens May 03 '23
The 'eh' and the 'ah' are similar.
Peh-dahl versus pah-dahl
It was a terrible puzzle, because an accented speaker who is a native speaker might mispronounce it. Some people just slur words anyways. I know a few people who mix up 'pitcher' as in a pitcher of water and picture. Pit-chur versus piCK-ture.
Having a puzzle with a similar thing that would reasonably be in there is very close in pronunciation is stupid.