Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Pedants' corner
Original poster

Running two words together with an "r" in the middle

26 replies

Glitterblue · 26/02/2021 12:41

This drives me crazy! I just saw an advert for Bella and Duke dog food. Not only do they talk about "Bellarand Duke" during the advert, they also sing "Bellarand Duke" at the end 😤😤 It makes me want to put my foot through the TV so I thought perhaps I should have a rant instead! How hard is it to separate "Bella" and "and"?!

OP posts:
Mamette · 26/02/2021 12:43

PepparandGeorge are in the garden.

Original poster
Glitterblue · 26/02/2021 13:30

@Mamette yes, that's another one that irritates me! Also RebeccarAdlington and JessicarEnnis 🤯

OP posts:
Rainallnight · 26/02/2021 13:32

This hugely irritates me. I’m a native English speaker from a different country and we just don’t have this as a thing. It’s Peppa and George. Just like that. Really easy!

Original poster
Glitterblue · 26/02/2021 14:27

@Rainallnight exactly!! I think it's just laziness.

OP posts:
Original poster
Glitterblue · 26/02/2021 14:30

I just had a rant to my 10 year old DD about Bellarand Duke, and she told me she used to get so annoyed by PepparandGeorge - she said "do you see George standing in the garden holding a pepper? No!" 😂😂

OP posts:
DuesToTheDirt · 26/02/2021 14:36

It's pretty difficult to do actually, I find. "The idea of it..." I just have to say "idea - r - of it". It has a name, by the way, "intrusive r". Can't get worked up about it.

NotYourReindeer · 26/02/2021 14:39

Isn't this an accent thing rather than laziness? Southern accents tend to have that extra ahr sound at the end of words ending in a?

StepOutOfLine · 26/02/2021 14:40

It's called intrusive /r/
It generally happens in fast connected speech. More common in British English than others.
It happens because /r/ as a sound isn't particularly strong in British English. If you look at your mouth when you say phrases where one word ends in a vowel and the next one begins with one, you can see why it happens as the points of articulation for /r/ and for vowels (especially neutral "schwa" ) are very near to each other.

Peridotty · 26/02/2021 14:43

Actually I was told by my speech and drama teacher that I should join my words together to make the words flow better.

ClaudiaWankleman · 26/02/2021 14:49

I think it's just laziness

Could you please explain what is lazy about it? How does it save energy?

It's a very normal feature of a number of British English.

ShowOfHands · 26/02/2021 14:53

It's bog all to do with laziness. It's just a feature of our language for some speakers. I know very few people who don't say drawRing for example and that's just normal for where I live.

DuesToTheDirt · 26/02/2021 19:41

It's not laziness, it's done by analogy with words that do contain a spooken /r/ historically, but which is now pronounced only when they precede a vowel (and is retained in the written form). For instance, in a non-rhotic accent:

Dear. (no /r/ pronounced)
Dear Abigail (/r/ pronounced)
More. (no /r/)
More and more (first /r/ pronounced)

This leads to the analogical pronunciations
idea. (no /r/)
idea of (intrusive /r/ pronounced)
Law. (no /r)
Law and order (intrusive /r/ pronounced)

KirstenBlest · 05/03/2021 16:20

Drawing. A former colleague wrote the word as 'drawring'.

Many from the part of the country where I hail from write lager as 'larger' and in speech pronounce the added r.
Other words that got letters added were licence (lincence), poultice (poultrice) and postrate (prostrate).

I can't get used to draw for drawer, especially as in Chester draws.

Labobo · 05/03/2021 16:35

The one that makes my teeth itch is tempchuz instead of temperatures. Every weather presenter says it, even on the BBC where you'd think they might enocurage a bit of old-fashioned RP. Grin

ArtfulPuss · 05/03/2021 16:46

'Dramaronfour' drives me mad between the ad breaks and the programme.

StepOutOfLine · 05/03/2021 16:50

@Labobo

The one that makes my teeth itch is tempchuz instead of temperatures. Every weather presenter says it, even on the BBC where you'd think they might enocurage a bit of old-fashioned RP. Grin
Actually, syllable elision (which is what you're hearing, as "temperature" often has the second "e" elided to give it 3 syllables instead of an unwieldy 4) is RP. If you listen to people who use RP (not the Royals, they don't anymore) like Boris Johnson, they use syllable elision a lot.
Labobo · 05/03/2021 17:28

I wouldn't call BJ's accent RP. It's toff, which does use a lot of ellision. RP is meant to be clearly articulated, far more so than upper class accents which swallow and ellide a lot. A 3-syllable 'temperature' is fine but two just sets my teeth on edge.

KirstenBlest · 05/03/2021 18:02

I say it as tempruh-chuhs.

Labobo · 05/03/2021 18:30

Then I wish you did the weather reports @KirstenBlest Grin. Not hard is it? That little 'ruh' in the middle of the word.

KirstenBlest · 05/03/2021 18:53

Thanks. I don't say sickth or seckitchry. I get the mick taken out of me when I say some words.

I think that some people don't 'see' the word or its meaning when they say it.

NotMeNoNo · 05/03/2021 19:00

There's such a thing as dialect, I'm sure a lot of this is regional styles.

Babdoc · 09/03/2021 10:24

It is indeed regional. Up here in Scotland, the r on the end of dear is certainly not silent, as DuesToTheDirt suggests, it is rolled with enthusiasm! As an English incomer, over forty years ago, I was mocked for pronouncing iron as ion.
Dialect is endlessly fascinating. I think the extra r between words is more of a southern English feature - I don’t hear it much here, apart from on tv/radio.

Gerla · 09/03/2021 10:32

Stepoutofline's explanation is spot on. It's not laziness. It's also taught in a lot of ELF textbooks.

Gerla · 09/03/2021 10:33

*EFL!!

Labobo · 09/03/2021 11:47

Oh but I want it to be the way elves are taught English, @Gerla.