Look THAT up in your Funk & Wagnells!

“Look that up in your Funk and Wagnalls...
I did. To my surprise (and certainly not Geobeet's) I was wrong. The word "fire" is one syllable. To doubt someone who makes their $ from the written, was a grievous mistake. Sorry Geoman.

(my office mates think I've lost it. I've been muttering "fire, fire, fire, fire, fire" trying to make it sound monosyllabic. Gotta go, the guys in the white jackets are h”

“Just say fahr!”

“At least you found out from the dictionary and not from realizing on your way out the door that "You're fired" is two syllables.”

“Those who thought fire has two syllable must be Jim Morrison fans.”

“I think in Texas, 'bread' has at least two syllables. bray-id”

“in the south - and especially in Texas, most every word has at least two syllables.”

“Except git.”

“Most words in the South have two syllables.


With the noted exeption of "beer"

....stictly one syllable.”

“and yup

but the emphatic version of yup is ye-up and thats got two.”

“screw your Funk & Wagnells, Limpster! how about a webpage from a linguistics professor?
http://cspeech.ucd.ie/~fred/teaching/oldcourses/phonetics/syllables.html

it clearly says that for some words, including "fire," there is no obvious number of syllables, SO THERE.

:-)”

“For the longest time in Texas, I couldn't understand when someone was talking about what I knew as 'fire'...they would say something like "are you going to light the far?"”

“What about a tar far? That can be serious stuff.”

“Right lyra, Fred is an unimpeachable source compared to the dictionary.”

“fire is a two syllable word where I come from, so's store and beer, and many others.”

“well if "the dictionary" is right, then i'll take it!
http://www.speech.cs.cmu.edu/cgi-bin/cmudict?in=fire

mooo haa haa!!”

“How many syllables in Tire?”

“how many in "higher"?”

“Maybe we should change the speilling of "Fire" to "Figher" and end this controversy before it gets really ugly?”

“Shouldn't this thread be categorized under the Spanish word for "fire"?”

“Two many syllables.”

“The word is fire, not fi-yer!”

“The word beer transcends phonics. Have you noticed of all US accents any that say it differently???”

“Old World English has it as Fiyre. Obviously this word has been mutilated by the damn Normans and we should go back to pronouncing it correctly as in "Higher".”

“dhutch: I think ynami says "Bitter"”

“And speaking of those silly Brits I came across the word "Gobsmacked" in the Post.

Sentence: I met these lasses after me pub shut down. I thought I was doing great with them and we were all gonna 'ave a go at it at me flat. Come to find out, they were harlots!

I was Gobsmacked!”

“I wonder whether I should mention that it's Funk and Wagnall's ...”

“I spelled it both ways to cover all my bases. (see first post)
And NO, there is no apostrophy (sp?)

AND Acme has three syllables.


(geez, ya try to apologize around here and you get your head bitten off) ;-)”

“Hey, why should you be different?”

“Do you go to the Ac-a-me in Ol-i-ney for a fi-yer sale? That's in Phluphya.”

“I was wondering when that "Wagnall's" business would rear its ugly head. I hear they have a really nice porch.

Alas, I do not have a porch; I have a stoop. It's only a slight stoop, though....


Pass the aluminum foil, please.”

“Tilt. Wasn't that on the other side? Oh, never mind.
Stoop, what stoop?”