Language Learning Challenges

verb to double or repeat

adjective having a doubled or repeated consonant sound

• In phonetics, geminate refers to a double or long consonant sound.
• I heard that Italian has geminate consonants, which are pronounced for a longer duration.
• Some people find it hard to pronounce geminate sounds correctly.
• The geminate relationship between the two characters in the movie was evident in their on-screen chemistry.

verb a word used to describe an action, state, or occurrence, such as 'pronounce' in this case

• The guest speaker mispronounced several words during the presentation.
• I always mispronounce that actor's name, it's so hard to say.
• She totally butchered that word, mispronounced it completely.
• His attempt at speaking French was a disaster, every word was mispronounced.

adjective Retroflex is an adjective that describes a consonant sound produced with the tongue curled back towards the hard palate.

• The retroflex consonants are produced by curling the tip of the tongue backwards towards the roof of the mouth.
• Some people find it difficult to pronounce retroflex sounds correctly.
• I can't get the hang of those retroflex letters in the new language I'm learning.
• Her retroflex attitude towards change made it hard for her to adapt to new situations.

noun a breach of good manners or etiquette; a socially awkward or tactless act

• Using 'they' as a singular pronoun is considered a solecism in formal writing.
• Making grammatical errors like that is a big solecism.
• Don't be a solecism, dude.
• His lack of manners was a solecism in an otherwise elegant dinner party.

adjective not familiar with or used to something; unfamiliar or unused to something

• She felt unaccustomed to the strict rules of the new workplace.
• I'm unaccustomed to waking up early on weekends.
• He was totally unaccustomed to the party scene.
• The sudden fame left her feeling unaccustomed to the attention.

noun the use of an entirely different word or root for different forms of a given word

• Suppletion is a linguistic phenomenon where an irregular form is used to fill in a gap in a paradigm.
• I never realized how common suppletion is in English until I started studying linguistics.
• Who knew that language could have such crazy suppletion going on?
• In a way, suppletion is like finding a shortcut in a maze of grammar rules.