You are a dumbfuck. “Aural”, which means pertaining to the ear, is pronounced exactly like “oral”, which means pertaining to the mouth. THIS IS TOO FUCKING CONFUSING!
Sorry, I just had to take my rage out on this linguistic quirk.
I pronounce “aural” more as AW-rul, while “oral” gets pronounced like ORE-ul. Maybe that’s just me, though.
Nope. I pronounce aural aw-ral and oral o-ral, too.
Or you could be like the moron in my 11th grade lit class who always pronounced it “a-yooral,” despite repeated corrections.
This thread reminds me of my little sister, who couldn’t tell the difference between the names “Aaron” and “Erin.” They sounded exactly the same to her ears.
“Aural” and “oral” are a little further apart than “Aaron” and “Erin,” IMO.
Or-ril
Aw-ril
A-rin
Eh-rin
Well, I’ll back up the OP and say that I pronounce ‘oral’ and ‘aural’ the same. And I pronounce ‘Aaron’ and ‘Erin’ the same. Hooray for merged vowels!
Well, your just going to have to figure out there meaning from context, I guess.
In general, anglophone Canadians (except English speakers born and raised in Montreal, for some weird reason) pronounce Aaron and Erin as homonyms, as well as merry, marry, and Mary (those three are all homonyms for me).
Um…Erin and Aaron aren’t supposed to sound the same? I’ve never heard it any other way, how is it supposed to sound? Same for aural and oral…they’ve always been pronounced exactly the same to me when I’ve heard them…
Given the amount of linguistic laziness here, I suppose it’s for the best 1-900 numbers don’t advertise aural sex.
I kill me.
Extended ‘aww’ (like ‘paw’) in aural. Rhymes with … nothing I can think of at present. 
short ‘o’ (like ‘hot’) in ‘oral’. Rhymes with ‘coral’.
They don’t sound at all alike, really.
Aaron and Erin - well, both of those sound different too, though not so dramatically.
Aaron tends to be pronounced ‘Arran’ here, but it’s definitely a short ‘a’ like ‘bat’, whereas Erin is very definitely an ‘eh’ (like in ‘heh’).
Must be a regional quirk that makes them sound alike to some people.
Fond memories of the Advanced Placement Music Theory Exam:
“This concludes the section with aural stimulus.”
When was aural coined relative to oral?
I pronounce them differently, but apparently I’m not supposed to. But I think the vowel sounds are ones that shift enough in different accents that I wouldn’t be surprised if some people should and shouldn’t.
shrug Maybe it’s just because I’m from the Midwest, and we tend to drawl our vowels some. Still sounds the same to me.
“Ass” and “Ice” are homonyms for me, but hell, I’m a redneck.
Never ever ask Bruce_Daddy for a glass of ice for fear of what he’ll give me. :eek:
“Aural” sounds like “owl”.
I’m aware of context!!! I’m aware of context!!!
Like an accent?
Omigod, people pronounce words differently!