this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2024
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[–] [email protected] 104 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Wait until he notices the C's in “Pacific Ocean”.

[–] [email protected] 62 points 2 months ago (3 children)

I never did understand how an ocean can contain multiple seas.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Did you recently become a father? Because that was one of the better dad jokes.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago

I earned my dad joke card in 1985 when I came around the corner carrying a joke book and like 7 kids groaned.

is old

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

In terms of geography, seas are smaller than oceans and are usually located where the land and ocean meet. Typically, seas are partially enclosed by land. Seas are found on the margins of the ocean and are partially enclosed by land.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That's why I prefer the Dead Sea.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago
[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

Give me more of these!

[–] [email protected] 87 points 2 months ago (5 children)

It's the same in German: /mɛʁˈt͡seːdəs/

Despite what other commentators say who are evil and eager to spread lies about the German language

[–] [email protected] 35 points 2 months ago (2 children)

However, in Spanish, which is the name's language of origin despite being a German car, they're the same. All e as in red. Mercedes.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

True, it's a common female name, or was idk. Iirc the car is named after the daughter of the inventor. The German pronunciation is the butchered version of the Spanish first name so I'm on no moral high ground

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

Iirc the car is named after the daughter of the inventor.

Not the inventor and it's a bit more complicated. Emil Jellinek was selling Daimler cars, and had them participate in races for publicity. His daughter was called Mercédès Adrienne Ramona Jellinek. The historical record is a bit unclear, either he used her name as a pseudonym for a racer, or he christened one of the cars after her. In any case they won that race, gaining the name some notority which he and the Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft used for further marketing later on.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 months ago
[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago

E is super flexible in German

e, ae, oe, ue, eu, ie, ei, ee all make distinct consistent sounds

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

On a phonetic level, some specialist will be able to discern the different E-sounds, but they're still very similar. It's definitely not like the English pronunciation where it's completely different sounds.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

It's basically the three E sounds we have in German (short, long and "unstressed") but I see that to the untrained ear, this isn't obvious

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The difference is so narrow that I wouldn't notice any difference apart from the length, the first and last e are very slightly shorter than the middle e. And of course you have the usual going-down-with-your-voice-at-the-end-of-the-word

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Yes, we often call them "long" and "short" E but the short E is actually halfway to A. It's a different vowel even though it's written the same. The last E is the vowel we often have in unstressed syllables like gekommen, same in English upon, about. We write it as E but it's basically the most relaxed vowel possible.

Look at this vowel chart to see and hear the differences.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

Wouldn't e halfway to a be ä

The short e in Mercedes is much closer to e than to ä

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 2 months ago (4 children)

not true in German, there all Es sound exactly the same

[–] [email protected] 30 points 2 months ago

When I, as a German speaker, pronounce Mercedes, every e is slightly different.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

At this point this thread is just making fun of English having no phonetical uniformity at all.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago

The first E in Mercedes sounds slightly different from the other two in German, mostly because the rhotic sound [r] modifies the tongue placement for the preceding E, forcing you to say it as either an open-mid front unrounded vowel [ɛ], or a mid near-front unrounded [ɛ̽]. The [r] prevents the vowel from being a Close-mid front unrounded vowel [e] like the 2nd and 3rd occurrences of E.

Or more simply, the first e sounds more like "bed" while the second and third sound more like "may", assuming you're reading this with a standard American dialect.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Me as a kid, having just learned english, listening to Janis Joplin: "What the fuck is a mercy dispense!?"

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

When you pray for the lord to have mercy, they have to dispense it somehow. That part made sense to me as a kid.

However why would God have to buy one? And from whom? Who manufactures these mercy dispensers for God? Why wouldn't God just make them into existence?

When I learned that it was Mercedes Benz I came to understand that even God needs to abide by trademark law.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 months ago (9 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

Same in Poland.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago (6 children)

But only in English. In the original German, all three e's are actually the same.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

Diese Kommentarsektion ist nun Eigentum der Bundesrepublik Deutschland

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago

What the hell, it's originally Spanish where all the Es sound the same, then it got popularized by a German brand, where all the Es sound the same, how did it become Merceydees in English?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago
[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Not if you pronounce it the way Germans do

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago
[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago

If you add Benz you get a 4th E sound

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago

mercedeez nuts lmao gottem

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I’m fighting an urge right now…

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

Abraham is another

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago
[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

In Spanish the e's are pronounced the same way, and the same applies for German! It's only in English that the e's are all pronounced differently! English is such a weird language, I love it but it's things like this which are hilarious to me.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

I pronounce the last e like the second one

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

this confused me, I speak too many languages

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