When I had to study Spanish back in high school, I noticed a lot of Spanish words were similar to English. Most of the time, words describing foods, or animals were spelled the same. An example of a English word that was borrowed from Spanish is, “Coyote” phonetic translation being, [Kai Jəʊ ti]. While the spanish phonetic translation is, [Ko jo te]. The main differences being the ending pronouncation, when Spanish uses the [e] sound, English replaced that with [i]. Same goes with [o] in the Spanish translation, English uses [əʊ] to pronounce the middle of the word. The last difference is the sound after K, [ai] is seen in English, while Spanish once again uses [o]. Another example is the Spanish word “tornado” phonetic translation [toɾ na do]. While in English it is pronounced “tɔɹ nei doʊ]. The main difference I noticed between these two similar words is, in the Spanish pronouncation [a] is emphasized. While in English, [e] and [i] replaced that Spanish [a] sound. Although both words being spelled exactly the same, and having the same meaning,. The pronounciation between both languages differ.

One word that got borrowed from English language, to my native language (Urdu) is the word “bank”. In English it is pronounced as /bæŋk/ whereas in Urdu it is also pronounced as /bæŋk/.The pronunciation in both English and Urdu are quite similar. However a subtle difference is in the articulation of the vowel and the velar nasal, because the phonemes used in “bank” (/b/,/æ/,/ŋk/) are acceptable in Urdu. The only thing is articulation which is different due to the accent and phonetic tendencies of Urdu speakers. The adaptation here is quite minimal since most of these sounds are in Urdu’s phonemic inventory. For instance the use of /b/, the open front vowel /æ/ can also accommodate the /ŋk/ cluster. This is due to the presence of the /ŋ/ sound in the language. This is one of those examples where some words are borrowed to maintain familiar sounds and structures, but at times articulation comes into play and makes slight changes to the pronunciation of the word.

An example of a word borrowed from French into English is “rendezvous.” In French, it is pronounced [ʁɑ̃.de.vu]. However, in English, it is pronounced [ˈrɑndəvuː]. The adaptation of “rendezvous” from French to English involves several phonetic and phonological adjustments. Firstly, the French nasal vowel [ɑ̃] is replaced by the English non-nasal vowel [æ]. Secondly, the French uvular fricative [ʁ] is replaced by the English alveolar approximant [ɹ]. Additionally, the French vowel [e] is replaced by the English diphthong [eɪ]. Finally, the stress pattern is modified to fit English phonotactics, with primary stress on the second syllable in English compared to the final syllable in French. This adaptation reflects the differences in phonemic inventories and phonotactics between French and English, ensuring the word’s pronunciation aligns with English phonological norms while maintaining its original meaning and usage, thus highlighting the dynamic nature of language borrowing and adaptation across cultures. This word retains its meaning, while being pronounced differently across different ways of speech.

When I was in high school I would always mess up between past tense and present tense words. For example, “in new york city there are (currently) many home teams, going (present) to the Knicks game is (present) something I always look forward to.” then later on saying “my cousins and I went(past) all the time.” This is something I would always get corrected on by my English teachers because I would often mix up past and present-tense words. I would also mess up when I would write “yours” and “you’re” and “theirs” and “there”. I would also mess up comma placements because I wouldn’t know if it came before transitions or after.

During my school years, I would use many words that are considered informal like ‘gonna’ or ‘ain’t’. I do recall a moment in middle school where I was having a discussion between my friends and a teacher when I used the word ‘gonna’ during the conversation. I remember the teacher stopping me mid conversation to tell me gonna is an improper word. I remember this because it was my English teacher and she used this to create a lesson for the following class. She listed many words that were used during regular conversation but should not be used during formal essays. One of the reasons she gave is because ‘gonna’ is not standard English. We were thought about broken English, where it is a conversation between friends where ‘gonna’ can be used because it was more of a slang. She said it is better to use the full ‘going to’ instead because it was clearer in sending the message. This thought me about rules used in English.

During my early years in elementary school, I remember how difficult it was to learn two languages at a very young age. I was born in Egypt, and Arabic, being my first language, made learning English grammar very challenging, not to mention pronouncing words. One thing I will always remember is when I would ask the teacher, “Can I use the bathroom?” and they would always jokingly respond, “I don’t know, can you?” That used to irritate me as a child learning a new language because they knew exactly what I meant, yet they enforced grammatical rules that confused me. Additionally, I recall in fourth grade during math class when my teacher would get upset if I added “and” between large numbers, such as ‘one hundred AND one’ or ‘two thousand AND twenty.’ She would always correct me and explain that there’s no “and” when pronouncing these numbers.

In my past few years of going to school, there were plenty of prescriptive rules that my teachers have taught my class and I. I was repeatedly told that there was a difference in words with punctuation. for example, in elementary school, I was having a hard time understanding that “you’re” and “your” are two completely different words. Another way the prescriptive rule was taught to me was by “their” and “there”. I genuinely had a rough time understanding the differences between such words but I overcame those obstacles. in my school experience, I was indeed told that “ain’t” was less valid than “aren’t” because my teachers said that “ain’t” was not even a real word. In high school, people were so into talking with lingo and that’s what had set the teachers off. so many students started talking like one another and this is what led to the teachers always telling us students that most of the words we used were not proper. Although, I would say that my teachers correcting me has helped me in my life today. if it wasn’t for them correcting me then I would not be as professional as I am now. I also wouldn’t have been using the correct words in certain sentences. I have stopped using the wrong words in phrases in my sentences now. I also look out for the correct punctuation. over all, I don’t remember many of my teachers ever explaining double negative.

Throughout my years in school from a young age, I do recall every teacher always reminding students not to write/type in the way that we speak because it is considered improper. Almost all my English teachers as soon as they assign a writing or essay whether at home or in-class, they would make sure to announce that we can’t use the word “gonna” or “ain’t” as it is considered improper. Teachers would say that if we wrote a paper for college or a resume using improper words that we would most likely not get the job or get a good grade on a college level paper. I always remember one of my English teachers in high school, she would assign a writing and then before she would allow us to write, she had to give us the improper writing speech and then let us begin our work. She would give this speech everyday! Till today i feel like i can still hear her saying ” we most defiantly can not use the word ain’t because that is not a word”. I also remember her saying how when we write ” don’t write like you’re talking to a friend” so therefore you can’t use words like “gonna” and “ain’t”. I can say that every English teacher I had would say the same thing. How we won’t get a job if we wrote improper words on a resume. The reasons given were very vague. The reasoning was just always that that form was improper English and not a professional way to show yourself. “It just doesn’t sound right” was also a reasoning behind why we can’t use “gonna”. Even though I was taught that these words are improper just because it doesn’t sound right, I still use them everyday when I speak with friends but not on a professional level like at work or writing a paper.