Question
Updated on
21 Mar 2016
- Japanese
-
English (US)
-
Simplified Chinese (China)
-
Spanish (Spain)
Question about English (US)
Hi "I have an awful headache." "Take an aspirin." Does this sound natural?
Hi "I have an awful headache." "Take an aspirin." Does this sound natural?
Answers
21 Mar 2016
Featured answer
- English (US)
- English (UK)
Unnatural
"Awful" wasn't said quite right. It sounded like "awbul". Please work on your "ff" sounds. "Headache" was OK but make sure you finish the word with the "che" (keh) sound.
In terms of the actual sentence, it should be:
Take SOME aspirin. Not "take A aspirin". Even if you do say "A", it has to be "an" to be grammatically correct. But even then, 'take an aspirin' just isn't natural. Although please note that "an aspirin" CAN be natural depending on the sentence. For example:
"I take an aspirin a day." or "I take one aspirin a day."
In this context, however, stick with 'some'. Even if it's not 100% grammatically correct, it sounds more natural to me.
Aspirin sounded too much like: "as" and then "プリン". Don't have the イ part of リ in then, it blends together (I'm sure you know this).
As... PRIN (even though it's aspirin) ○
As...PURIN x
As... PIRIN (better than PURIN, and natural but DON'T emphasize the 'i' in the 'pi' sound)
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- English (US)
- English (UK)
Unnatural
"Awful" wasn't said quite right. It sounded like "awbul". Please work on your "ff" sounds. "Headache" was OK but make sure you finish the word with the "che" (keh) sound.
In terms of the actual sentence, it should be:
Take SOME aspirin. Not "take A aspirin". Even if you do say "A", it has to be "an" to be grammatically correct. But even then, 'take an aspirin' just isn't natural. Although please note that "an aspirin" CAN be natural depending on the sentence. For example:
"I take an aspirin a day." or "I take one aspirin a day."
In this context, however, stick with 'some'. Even if it's not 100% grammatically correct, it sounds more natural to me.
Aspirin sounded too much like: "as" and then "プリン". Don't have the イ part of リ in then, it blends together (I'm sure you know this).
As... PRIN (even though it's aspirin) ○
As...PURIN x
As... PIRIN (better than PURIN, and natural but DON'T emphasize the 'i' in the 'pi' sound)
Was this answer helpful?
- Japanese
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