Tricky Words in this week‘s OVI

Watch out for English words with two syllables which can be used as nouns (things) or verbs (actions). There is a group of these words like “record” which change their pronunciation depending on their use. Luckily this follows a pattern based on the stress in the word, which falls on the first syllable when it's used as a noun (say /ә RE-kӧd/ when you mean „nový rekord“, „nový singel“ or „záznam“ like „evidencia“) and on the second when it's a verb (say /tә ri-KÓÓD/ when you mean „zaznamenať“). Other parts of the verb follow the same pattern, so for recording say /ri-KÓÓ-ding/ and for recorded say /ri-KÓÓ-did/. Import and export are typical examples in busines English. For „dovoz“ and „vývoz“ say /IM-pót/ and /EKS-pót/, and for „dovážať“ and „vyvážať“ say /im-PÓÓT/ and /iks-PÓÓT/.

Andy’s Wordshop

The time of year is fast approaching when a lot of adults are thinking about where to buy bowls of chrysanthemums /krys-AN-thimumz/, wreaths /rííths/ and night-lights to visit the graves of their relatives on All Souls Day (November 2), while many children are thinking instead about where to get pumpkins (big, round, orange vegetables), costumes and masks to visit their neighbors on Halloween (October 31). Little do they know that All Hallows Eve (predvečer Všetkých svätých) is a much older event than the two following Christian days. Its name in Gaelic (the original language of the Celts) is Samhain (say /SÁÁ-vin/) meaning either “summer's end” or “assembly”, so there's a lot of lights because the nights are getting longer, and funny masks to keep the spirits happy. Witches and wizards are a modern addition.