“English is ‘proparoxytone’, which is to say the antepenult is accented by ‘default’.” Wrong. Listen to the audio pronunciation in several English accents. In this section of the website, you can learn how to pronounce difficult words in English. It wasn't Whitlam's only peeve: he was shocked, too, by a refusal to accept the 'soft g' in gynaecologist, and don't get him started on their preferred plural of platypus. How to say kilometre. 'min': 8.50, British English vs. American English: Pronunciation. { bidder: 'triplelift', params: { inventoryCode: 'Cambridge_Billboard' }}, Think about the way kilogram, kilowatt, and kilo-anything-else is pronounced. Lost in the hubbub was the part of the cable where Powell said something prescient: "Kilometre and other kilo-words are not Greek, but artificial formations … Correct stress is determined only by usage, not derivation.". I have documented many mispronounced words, however this entry concentrates on words you are probably saying correctly, as there are two ways to say them. Quote Locke at them: "Every man has so inviolable a liberty, to make words stand for what ideas he pleases.". Cited Source. { bidder: 'ix', params: { siteId: '195464', size: [300, 600] }}, "loggedIn": false (Copies of one pamphlet, "Metric Conversion and You", were distributed to all of Australia's 4 million-plus letterboxes.). arrow_drop_up. pbjsCfg = { 'cap': true iasLog("exclusion label : wprod"); googletag.cmd.push(function() { addPrebidAdUnits(pbAdUnits); { bidder: 'criteo', params: { networkId: 7100, publisherSubId: 'cdo_rightslot' }}, "authorizationTimeout": 10000 var pbjs = pbjs || {}; name: "idl_env", For his part, Whitlam never stopped advocating for his preferred variant of kilometre, debating the ABC's in-house usage committee and writing to the Macquarie's editor, Susan Butler, to argue the case. bidderSequence: "fixed" navigate_before. 'cap': true 'buckets': [{ googletag.pubads().addEventListener('slotRenderEnded', function(event) { if (!event.isEmpty && event.slot.renderCallback) { event.slot.renderCallback(event); } }); "error": true, One of the most common complaints to the ABC is that announcers don't pronounce 'kilometre' correctly. { bidder: 'sovrn', params: { tagid: '387232' }}, Here are 4 tips that should help you perfect your pronunciation of 'kilometer': Break 'kilometer' down into sounds:[KIL]+[UH]+[MEE]+[TUH]-say it out loud and exaggerate the sounds until you can consistently produce them. The first is favoured by logicians, members of the Metric Conversion Board and particularly enthusiastic ABC Language writer-innerers (Arthur Comer, from Sebastopol, springs to mind). { bidder: 'openx', params: { unit: '539971081', delDomain: 'idm-d.openx.net' }}, The word in the example sentence does not match the entry word. googletag.pubads().setTargeting("sfr", "cdo_pronunciation"); { bidder: 'pubmatic', params: { publisherId: '158679', adSlot: 'cdo_topslot' }}]}, dfpSlots['leftslot'] = googletag.defineSlot('/2863368/leftslot', [[120, 600], [160, 600]], 'ad_leftslot').defineSizeMapping(mapping_leftslot).setTargeting('sri', '0').setTargeting('vp', 'top').setTargeting('hp', 'left').addService(googletag.pubads()); The English stress both the first and third syllables of kilometer, making it 2 iambs. googletag.pubads().setTargeting("cdo_tc", "resp"); { bidder: 'openx', params: { unit: '539971080', delDomain: 'idm-d.openx.net' }}, ‘The appellant was informed that he had been clocked at 97 kilometers in a 50 kilometer per hour zone.’ ‘It ought to be pointed out that calculating passenger kilometres is an inexact science.’ ‘In the prairies where they live, they can be seen for a kilometer and a half (nearly a mile).’ Or, as the ABC pronunciation guide for announcers might have it, KIL-uh-mee-tuh. {code: 'ad_topslot_a', pubstack: { adUnitName: 'cdo_topslot', adUnitPath: '/2863368/topslot' }, mediaTypes: { banner: { sizes: [[300, 50], [320, 50], [320, 100]] } }, if(window.__tcfapi) Learn more. Add the power of Cambridge Dictionary to your website using our free search box widgets. Here are 4 tips that should help you perfect your pronunciation of 'kilometre':. dfpSlots['topslot_b'] = googletag.defineSlot('/2863368/topslot', [[728, 90]], 'ad_topslot_b').defineSizeMapping(mapping_topslot_b).setTargeting('sri', '0').setTargeting('vp', 'top').setTargeting('hp', 'center').addService(googletag.pubads()); { bidder: 'onemobile', params: { dcn: '8a969411017171829a5c82bb4deb000b', pos: 'cdo_leftslot_160x600' }}, googletag.pubads().setTargeting("cdo_l", "en"); The stress pattern of kuh-LOM-uh-tuh is hardly an aberration in English, either. { bidder: 'sovrn', params: { tagid: '346693' }}, Cameron — described at his death as "unrelenting in his enmities" — took the kilometre affair as an opportunity to publicly rebuke Whitlam for an earlier demotion. { bidder: 'triplelift', params: { inventoryCode: 'Cambridge_Billboard' }}, name: "pbjs-unifiedid", Kilogram and kilometer are pronounced differently because ‘kil’ in kilogram is the antepenult and ‘lom’ is the antepenult in kilometer. { bidder: 'onemobile', params: { dcn: '8a969411017171829a5c82bb4deb000b', pos: 'cdo_rightslot_flex' }}, { bidder: 'pubmatic', params: { publisherId: '158679', adSlot: 'cdo_topslot' }}]}]; How to say kilometer. syncDelay: 3000 The idea of Gough Whitlam as a progressive maverick can probably be traced back to his establishment of the Aboriginal Land Rights Commission, the introduction of no-fault divorce, or perhaps his involvement setting up, in Medibank, publicly funded universal healthcare. name: "_pubcid", "All English words ending in -meter or -metre derive from the Greek word metron," Whitlam told anyone who would listen during a sitting in parliament in 1975, "in which the penultimate syllable is short, the letter e in English reproducing epsilon". ; References “ kilometer ” in the example sentence does not match the entry word in... 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