|
Thank you for replying so quickly FizzyWater and Meera.
I agree that the reader can make a huge difference. I tend to realise when a direct quote is used or a proper noun but not every time.
Each week, I listen to the audio version of the newspaper The Economist (a word for word reading of each article) and the readers are absolutely brilliant. It's a British, standard voice with practically no injection of drama. I'm also very used to the genre so this helps. I rarely, if ever, have any problems. Even strange names sound so clear that I feel I instantly know how to spell them.
With other readers, I can have more problems. Bill Clinton again for example (sorry but he's the one on my mind because I have just been listening to him): 'I had to clear up the BRATCHES.' Oh, really? I'm sure he means branches but I feel the need to check it up to be sure. Of course it's branches but for some reason he uses a 'tch' sound. Maybe it's an Arkansas thing.
Or at another point, a boy smoking a cigarette flicks the we-something at him. Wait, why is he using a word starting with a 'w'. Surely, the things to flick when smoking a cigarette are either ash or the stub or maybe the filter. I look it up and the word turns out to be 'weed'.
Argh. It wasn't a joint or a marijuana cigarette that was being smoked so I'm not sure why that particular word was chosen but, in print, I get it. In audio, I got confused, and it's not even because I didn't hear the word. Sometimes I hear words properly and think I misheard them because they sound out of place.
These little things can really drive me up the wall.
|