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Are you pronouncing ‘Harry Potter’ wrong?

Today I’ll be answering a load of your questions that you’ve been asking about the English language and about the UK in general on hinative.com.

I receive so many messages asking, “Can you check my pronunciation?” “Does this sound natural?”, those types of questions I would love to answer each one of you.

Fromb asks: “Please show me how to pronounce ‘this, that, these, and those’”. Well for you guys, I just have, but on the website I guess I’ll need a microphone Oh! I can answer with a microphone, a voice message! awesome! Okay. I hope this helps, have an awesome day! Okay next question, ooh okay. This question, I get a lot. Varitmaha says: “How do you say this in English (UK) “Schedule”. I’m gonna answer with a voice message again, this is fun. In British English, we pronounce it Schedule. But, in the U.S, they pronounce it Schedule. However British people also say Schedule, it’s fine. I’ve seen that you can check someone’s pronunciation, I want to do that. Okay BalwantSinghDanu41 is asking “How’s my pronunciation? Please record yours too”. Okay, so I can check your pronunciation as well. Let’s have a look! “Do you like to spend time with your friends? Why?”. I like these voice messages, they make answering these questions very easy. Do you like to spend time with your friends, why? The pronunciation wasn’t bad, I could understand him. But his native language is Hindi and for Hindi the tongue position tends to be a bit further back in the mouth, producing these quite hard consonant sounds. So my advice to you would be, try modelling your pronunciation on a native English speaker. Also be aware that the tongue position is quite different. It’s more down, it’s more relaxed. Try some YouTube pronunciation tutorials!

Okay, let’s find some questions about the UK. Chombarios from Mexico is asking “How are people in England? Are they happy, nice, serious, what?” Meh, we’re okay! We’re not great, we’re not bad. But give us a beer and we’ll be your best friend. IAmALearner asks “How is the weather like in London these days?”. You don’t even need to ask this question, everyone knows. Always assume it’s raining and sunny and windy and hot and cold, all in the same day. When you come to London you need to be prepared for every type of weather in one day.

Okay, FirdosGazmi1 is asking, What’s the difference between however and henceforth and used to and accustomed to. Ooh this is an interesting question! Okay, “However” that is another word for “But”. “I wanted to go out, however, I don’t like being social”. “Henceforth” is completely different, it doesn’t mean “but”. “Henceforth” means from now to the future. For example, “I’m leaving my job. Henceforth I no longer work here”. But it’s quite old-fashioned. We don’t really use it today. I don’t think I’ve heard it or seen it outside of a contract or legal stuff. So “however”, “henceforth” completely different meanings.

Used to and accustomed to, I see where the confusion is, this question happens a lot in my classes. Okay, first “Used to” talks about a past habit, a past regular action which doesn’t happen now. I’ll give you an example, “I used to smoke, now I don’t”, past action, now it’s different. Don’t confuse that with “BE USED TO”. With “BE USED TO”, “Living in London I am used to this crazy weather”. This means, this weather, it’s normal for me, it’s not strange, it’s not different, I am accustomed to it. That’s where the confusion is, “Accustomed to” is the same as “BE USED TO doing something or to BE USED TO, a noun.

Next! NadeemKahn0703 is asking, How do you pronounce “hoty, give me a huge”. I think he means ‘hug’. Hottie, give me a hug. Don’t say that to a girl, if you like a girl, be respectful, be yourself. Don’t say “Hottie give me a hug”. People often ask me “What should I say to a girl or a guy who I really like?”. Don’t say “Hottie, give me a hug!. Compliment her hair. She probably worked very hard to get it just right. Like I would know! Or shoes! Everyone likes a shoe compliment.

Rauchanrai369 is asking “How do you say this in English: ‘I am gone’, is it right or wrong? Please explain”. If you’re completely drunk, then you might say, “I’m gone!”. “I’m gone!”, it means you’re dead, you can’t do anything. But I don’t think you mean that. If you want to say, I’m not here anymore, “I’ve moved to a different place”, you should say “I have left”. Okay, MarsKBello wants his pronunciation checked. “My brother, my sister and me like watching Harry Potter”. Grammatically it should be my brother my sister and I, like watching Harry Potter. The reason is, you don’t say “Me like watching Harry Potter”. Grammatically it should be the subject pronoun first, right? So, “I like watching…” But pronunciation was great Except for the word “Potter”, it sounded a little bit unnatural. Dude, very good pronunciation, the only thing I would change is the “O” sound in Potter. The way you said it was a bit too long. It sounded like Porter. Should be Potter, Potter, very short sound, otherwise very good! Well that was really fun!