“Fire” is one syllable if you roll your Rs, and in poetry by convention, but two syllables in my ordinary (N. Am. English) speech.
I see what you mean, but they arent clear or emphasized. Kinda like a syllable and a half.
Like iron (unless you’re Texan, in which they’re both on syllable: arn and fahr)
For me, as a Midwesterner, it comes out as roughly FYE(rhymes with “EYE”)-yer. But, as @DrDeth says,
The two syllables do tend to smoosh together a little bit.
In the TV series The Diplomat, an American woman is talking with a Scotswoman. The American says “water” has the same number of syllables as “fire.” The Scotswoman contradicts her, pronouncing “fire” in one syllable. Well, in her mouth it only had one.
When I was in 3rd grade the teacher put me on the spot, asking how many syllables in “fire.” I said two. Teacher said, “Are you sure? Did I say fi-…YER?” I guessed, “One?” Teacher said, “Oh, you’d never survive in pioneer days being so wishy-washy.” I was humiliated and never did find out what the teacher thought was the right answer. I love the responses to the poll: Nobody else knows either!
My thought on “fire” is that it depends how you pronounce it.
I happen to say it with one syllable. If someone were to pronounce it with a brief hitch, or pause, between the “fi” and the “er”, they would be doing the two-syllable version.
Either way is correct.
mmm
I think a lot of people don’t perceive syllabic R as a full syllable. (We learn about the vowels in school, but nobody ever tells you about syllabic resonants.) As I said above, one syllable works if you roll the R, and some speakers can make the long-I+schwa into a triphthong, in which case it’s also still one syllable.
An actual linguist might tell me that what my ears hear as two syllables is actually the triphthong, but I hear it as two syllables: bottle, bottom, fire, mountain—for me, each word has a final syllabic resonant, no schwas (California English).
If two syllables was good enough for Arthur Brown it’s good enough for me.
I really ought to update the will, though –
I’ve written a will and I need two witnesses. I’m having trouble getting two people in a room with me, especially during the holidays. So it may wait a few weeks.
We get all of Thanksgiving week off. One of the small joys of working for my district.
I just updated all of my legal documents.
I have an outdated will and no medical directive, but i also have an appointment to sign new documents with a lawyer on Dec 5th. Hopefully, nothing too exciting happens before then. I expect to have all that stuff in slightly over a week.
I had the same issue with finding witnesses for my will. I needed some documents notarized as well, so when I took them to the notary I just asked them if they could also witness the parts that needed witnessing. They were happy to do it, for an additional $10.
I’m American, but I’m not in the U.S. so neither Thursday nor Friday is a holiday.
Probably should update our wills and do the medical directives at the same time. Maybe next year.
I was fine getting all the legal documents updated.
I am dragging my feet going to the funeral home to get that part done.
But do it I must.
Movie director thread: It’s not a passion of mine, so if I’m suddenly a movie director, it’s because I’m seeking $$$. So, my answer depends on what sort of movie I’m directing. Am I doing something for the mass media and big box office? Then hell yes I’m going for the happy ending. I want the sweet money to continue.
Am I building my rep doing edgy, small scale arty movies? Then I’ll probably go for the angsty, unhappy ending that’s going to get me more attention, and eventually $$$.
Seriously, I’m not an artist. I don’t have ‘artistic integrity’. I want to get paid.
Did not vote.
All of my artistic ventures have unhappy endings so I suppose it wouldn’t be any different with movies.
I’m not a movie maker, but i care about art. And if I’m doing this at all i want to like the movie i worked on. What’s the right ending for that particular movie?
Didn’t vote.
And i listened to most of that song and couldn’t find words that sounded like either of those lines. Where are they supposed to be?
According to most of the lyric sites, they are supposed to be “dark grin.”
I’ve always heard it as “girlfriend”, as in he is so weird-looking that women won’t give him the time of day, esp. when he attempts to woo them. “Dark grin” doesn’t provide the same amount of lyrical depth, fwiw, plus what makes a grin “dark”, anyway?