I took this screenshot back in 2018 and just stumbled across it again today. I thought you might find it to be an interesting lesson in the English language.
@sentientdessert @paxterrarum it's interesting though right because the order delivers potential information about a person's grasp of the English language that's probably relatively impervious to cultural variations. Reminds me a little bit of the scene in Inglorious Basterds when they hold up three fingers in the bar.
@hallmarc @paxterrarum I know one of the smaller tests to check for spies from germany was to ask them about squirrels.
It is a really difficult pronunciation, like a native english speaker saying Eyjafjallajökull.
The squirrel use could be an urban legend though. But it is not easy, you can find videos of people trying.
@sentientdessert @paxterrarum is that Icelandic?
@paxterrarum @hallmarc double L in icelandic is pronounced tl
@sentientdessert @paxterrarum it "sparked" something in the back of my head as the volcano in Iceland that stopped European air travel one time, what 13 years ago? Yep.
Btw, squirrel is not ready to pronounce on French either. It's one of my wife's favorite foreign words!
@sentientdessert @paxterrarum that was supposed to say not easy to pronounce in French...
@paxterrarum A green great dragon can exist, if great dragon is the full noun.
But yes, this throws off so many new speakers to the language.