fluentinfor:
"Nigerians speak good/bad English" Hmmm! This topic is about accent; however, if grammar is poor, it affects the speaker negatively.

Someone above wrote "Nigerians speak clearly and distinctly. Distinctly, I agree, but clearly, I am not so sure. I think she got so used to her dad's ways of saying his words in my own opinion. So, she has no difficulty to understand people who sound like her dad.

Nigerians speak good English. I agree if the speaker knows grammatical rules. Seriously, most Nigerians do not know tenses rules. But I have met some guys that are just super. Ok, just go through nairaland and you will see errors. Well, these errors will not have extreme negative effect if the mistakes are minor. There are some errors that can mislead listeners.

Nigerians speak good English. I disagree if the speaker does not pronounce his/her words well. It is why someone wrote above that they speak distinctly. How?

1. They speak too fast. Lol. Especially when Nigerians are debating political topics. Jeeeez! When Chelsea don dey hammer Arsenal.

2. A) 99% of Nigerians pronounce "thank" as "tank". Nigerians do not know where to place their tongues when pronuoucing th.

B) Hausas pronouce "People" as "Veevle" or "Feefle". Igbos have a unique way of pronoucing the letter R. They over roll it. Lol. Yoruba Language doesnt have the letter "h". It is why they write Sade instead of Shade, Sola instead of Shola, etc. So, do not expect a yoruba man to pronounce "house" correctly. He is going to say "ouse".

Also, pick and peak; hat and hart; bitch and beach; etc. are areas to watch out for. So when a naija is discussing soccer/football, he uses the shorter version of every word because he is in hurry to say many words on top of his voice. Lol.

It is not a bad idea to enrol in an accent reduction class when you find yourself in an environment you need to speak clearly so that majority can understand you without saying eh, what, repeat, etc. It may affect you if you need to make presentations to some groups of people.

I was bombard and seen as a barstard when I mentioned many nigerians don't speak good English. This is even not about accent. We just don't pronounce some words correctly and it has nothing to with our roll of tongue.

I want to believe this is how Pidgin English came about.

Nigerian English just sound so funny out of all the English speaking nations in the world (that's the result of our educational system and since independence we've been doing our own thing in a wrong direction). I won't expect you to agree if you're not in a country where their official language is English.

fluentinfor:
"Nigerians speak good/bad English" Hmmm! This topic is about accent; however, if grammar is poor, it affects the speaker negatively.

Someone above wrote "Nigerians speak clearly and distinctly. Distinctly, I agree, but clearly, I am not so sure. I think she got so used to her dad's ways of saying his words in my own opinion. So, she has no difficulty to understand people who sound like her dad.

Nigerians speak good English. I agree if the speaker knows grammatical rules. Seriously, most Nigerians do not know tenses rules. But I have met some guys that are just super. Ok, just go through nairaland and you will see errors. Well, these errors will not have extreme negative effect if the mistakes are minor. There are some errors that can mislead listeners.

Nigerians speak good English. I disagree if the speaker does not pronounce his/her words well. It is why someone wrote above that they speak distinctly. How?

Yes you have made some great points. I was initially trying to answer the OP's question...and focus on the "accent" part.
I, then, delved into the "grammatical" portion.
But you are correct...poor grammar can make the accent less-than-appealing.
My dad's English is nearly flawless (and he even corrects me at times)....it's just his pronunciation of some words in which I "attempt" to correct him....but to no avail...lol.
That never works with him.....
I also realize that it may just be a cultural thing that causes him to pronounce some words the way he does.
For example, he says "pizza" (with the actual "z" sound)...but Americans pronounce it as "peetsa"...more so with the "s'" sound.
My dad will say, "There's the letter "z' in the word...so I'm gonna pronounce it with the "z" sound!"

I do think he's had trouble pronouncing the "th" sound...though he's gotten so much better.
But for instance, he'll sound like he's saying "teef" instead of "thief"....with the emphasis on "th" as in the word "the".
I have tried to help him pronounce the "th" sound in the word.....so he's gotten so much better.
His accent isn't even as thick as many I've heard.
He even jokes and says he sounds American now...
But I quickly let him know that he does not...his accent is here to stay.

Mobilia:

Yes you have made some great points. I was initially trying to answer the OP's question...and focus on the "accent" part.
I, then, delved into the "grammatical" portion.
But you are correct...poor grammar can make the accent less-than-appealing.
My dad's English is nearly flawless (and he even corrects me at times)....it's just his pronunciation of some words in which I "attempt" to correct him....but to no avail...lol.
That never works with him.....
I also realize that it may just be a cultural thing that causes him to pronounce some words the way he does.
For example, he says "pizza" (with the actual "z" sound)...but Americans pronounce it as "peetsa"...more so with the "s'" sound.
My dad will say, "There's the letter "z' in the word...so I'm gonna pronounce it with the "z" sound!"

I do think he's had trouble pronouncing the "th" sound...though he's gotten so much better.
But for instance, he'll sound like he's saying "teef" instead of "thief"....with the emphasis on "th" as in the word "the".
I have tried to help him pronounce the "th" sound in the word.....so he's gotten so much better.
His accent isn't even as thick as many I've heard.
He even jokes and says he sounds American now...
But I quickly let him know that he does not...his accent is here to stay.

Hahahaha!

"th" torments 99.9% Nigerians. Seriously, I do not get it why it is so difficult.

Yeah! The right adjective to describe people with strange ways of voicing certain sounds is people with "thick accent". You are so right.

Yea...pizza is a strange word to most Nigerians. Over 98% do not eat it; hence, I do not expect them to know how to pronounce it properly.

In addition, Nigerians do not know when to omit sounds in some words. For example they pronounce "debt" as it is written. But they are suppose to omit "b" sound. Even you correct them, they will argue and tell you that they are right. I always laugh over it.

And the strange thing is that most of them get intimidated with someone with a good flow of English. And many of them take advantage of it. If you find yourself in a Nigerian market, please shut your mouth. Do not talk. I learned the bitter way. I had to be told to not speak in market; else, price would increase 20 times the normal in just one second after hearing me talk in those days.

Thenafter, I sat down and I had to learn the Nigerian way of speaking it. Pidgin English sounds were easier for me to grab. But when I am out of the country, I switch to what my audience will not say eh, what, repeat. Lol

There is no need to correct anyone. If any of them finds opportunities crashing because of his/her thick accent while he is in another continent, no one will tell him/her to learn how to pronouce words clearly, to learn sounds that should omitted, to not say "z", when it is "s", to say "her" and not "ha", to say "thought" and not "taught", to know which syllable to stress and which not to, and to know how to make the the language flow flawlessly instead of using very "thick" sounds very often especially when debating.

Babaelemu:
I was bombard and seen as a barstard when I mentioned many nigerians don't speak good English. This is even not about accent. We just don't pronounce some words correctly and it has nothing to with our roll of tongue.

I want to believe this is how Pidgin English came about.

Nigerian English just sound so funny out of all the English speaking nations in the world (that's the result of our educational system and since independence we've been doing our own thing in a wrong direction). I won't expect you to agree if you're not in a country where their official language is English.

You make me laugh. Lol

Well, I advise you to love every kind of accent you hear. I am happy you are aware that some people have difficulties voicing out some sounds. Well, you still need to upgrade yourself too. You may still have to fix certain things.

Even in the US, people still go for accent reduction. I have a friend who used to speak ghetto black English. I spoke to him after he moved from NY to SD, and I noticed he had dropped some styles of his. Lol. My brother, have you noticed that top black rappers speak lesser gabbages than the street husslers? Cos they speak more to different people, and they do not like people saying eh, what, repeat.

Even there are different accents in the UK. The first time I heard a thick Scotish accent, I was like...what the heck are you talking guy?

Finally, I agree with you. I have gone through the Nigerian "Use of English" syllabus. I think more emphasis should be laid on good grammar. WAEC, NECO candidates who do not know tenses very well (if you want to know, just test them. Ask the difference between present simple and past simple, most test takers do not know. Even most newspapers writers do not know how to use past perfect. Again, 99% Nigerians do know know how to use the "if conditional" sentences. When should I say: " if + present simple, or if + past simple, or if + past perfect" and they are asked to identify noun clauses, advervial clauses of whatever. ; in WAEC and NECO English exams. D Seriously, I do not get it. The syllabus is super, and it is why JAMB is so hard, but believe me over 90% of JAMB test takers are not qualified to take English. JAMB English test is just too advance. Even SAT cannot near it in terms of grammar, but I think when it comes to logic, and test to show smartness and intelligence, SAT is far way better than JAMB. I give it to those who evented SAT. They are just too much.

.

Richard Quest, the CNN "quest means business" anchor. I advise readers to check him out. Listen to him well. I was watching one of his nice, mind blowing interviews, and one of the ladies he was discussing with had to confess that she finds it too hard to understand him. Everyone in the room bursted into laughter. Lol.

fluentinfor:


Hahahaha!

"th" toments 99.9% Nigerians. Seriously, I do not get it why it is so difficult.

There is no need to correct anyone. If any of them finds opportunities crashing because of his/her thick accent while he is in another continent, no one will tell him/her to learn how to pronouce words clearly, to learn sounds that should omitted, to not say "z", when it is "s", to say "her" and not "ha", to say "thought" and not "taught", to know which syllable to stress and which not to, and to know how to make the the language flow flawlessly instead of using very "thick" sounds very often especially when debating.

I so love this! We (my siblings) have a ball with my dad going back and forth with him on pronunciations and accents...
He doesn't back down though...he fights until the end...lol! He always says that Americans don't know English....lol.
I just wanted to mention the following common words...and their pronunciations Nigerians vs. Americans.

Military
Nigerians-(miliTREE)
Americans- (mili-tar-ee)

Interested
Nigerians- (IntRESTing)
Americans- (In-ter-est-ing)

Exactly
Nigerians- (ehZATlee)
Americans- (exacKlee)

Particular
Nigerians-(partiCOOla)
Americans-(partiquler)

My favorites are the following:

Any words ending in "ER" are pronounced as ending in "A" for Nigerians

Examples: Suger= SUGA, Butter=BUTTA, Disaster=DISASTA, Timer=TIMA, Feather=FEATHA, Lover= LOVA

I constantly ask my dad why he won't pronounce the "ER" as in "her"....


I love it though! Different accents are what makes the world go 'round!

Mobilia:



I so love this! We (my siblings) have a ball with my dad going back and forth with him on pronunciations and accents...
He doesn't back down though...he fights until the end...lol! He always says that Americans don't know English....lol.
I just wanted to mention the following common words...and their pronunciations Nigerians vs. Americans.

Military
Nigerians-(miliTREE)
Americans- (mili-tar-ee)

Interested
Nigerians- (IntRESTing)
Americans- (In-ter-est-ing)

Exactly
Nigerians- (ehZATlee)
Americans- (exacKlee)

Particular
Nigerians-(partiCOOla)
Americans-(partiquler)

My favorites are the following:

Any words ending in "ER" are pronounced as ending in "A" for Nigerians

Examples: Suger= SUGA, Butter=BUTTA, Disaster=DISASTA, Timer=TIMA, Feather=FEATHA, Lover= LOVA

I constantly ask my dad why he won't pronounce the "ER" as in "her"....


I love it though! Different accents are what makes the world go 'round!

Very interesting examples. And Nigerians are beginning to write like they pronounce. Eg. Father - they say and write Fada. Yeah. Different accents make the world go round. I agree.

Babaelemu:
get out of here, get of Nigeria shores and come back to prove your argument. Good English comes with accent. When you pronounce words like come, can, what, water, love, her, and, must, Fanta, chair, cut, Anthony, missile, and the person you talking to frequently saying excuse me. Then you must know your English is poor. I bet 97% of Nigerian excluding the northerners can't pronounce the words mentioned above correctly.

Bro, trust me, this is just about you. Since I came to the United States here, people have been asking me where I learned English from. Recently, I made a speech in my Public Speaking class, and someone walked up to me after the class to say, "I like your voice and the way you speak." In the peer evaluations, two of my classmates made excellent comments about my accent. I went for a job interview, and after everything was over, the interviewers started asking questions about my English. This has been a very common occurrence for me here. Meanwhile, take away the accent and I can assure you that Americans do not speak better English at all.

clitlicker:
babaelemu is obviously a teenager filled with self loath.

when u dont know your worth, you'll sell yourself short.

u said northers pronounce english correctly?

buhari calls people fifu and u are endorsing that?

have u heard chinese people speak english?

have u heard indians speak English?

even the french give wrong pronunciation.

i agree we mispronounce a lot of things, we call missile meside, imbe.cile imbecide, those are common errors but or accent cant get in the way of your eloquence.

if v. president osibanjo speaks and donald trump speak who do you think will be rated higher ?

can a bad accent cannot produce a melodious rendition? listen to bez, praize, asa and tell me their accent is substandard .

im proud of my accent, i will only try to pronounce correctly, but i will speak this way till i die regardless of where i travel to.

im black and proud.
im Nigerian and proud
im yoruba and proud
im ekiti and proud.

Thing is, Americans do not even speak better English. Yemi Osinbajo's English is way better than Donald Trump's. Since I came to the US, I have not met anyone (even among university professors) who speak better English than Wole Soyinka. Not even anywhere close. The accent of these Americans is what makes people think that they speak really good English, but that is not true at all.

Babaelemu:
for God sake they laugh at our spoken English. Admit it and get out of your cave. Our English is bad but we can learn and improve. Deal with the truth boy

Just say, "they laugh at yours," because no one has ever laughed at mine. Instead, they commend me for the way I speak.

yemiosinbajo:


Just say, "they laugh at yours," because no one has ever laughed at mine. Instead, they commend me for the way I speak.

please let’s just leave the guy, I told him check himself not to speak up for us. I told him where I went for interview, my interviewer told me that he like my English and I got the job because of my good communication with my interviewer. Forget the accent, we speak correct English.Kalas

Babaelemu:
get out of here, get of Nigeria shores and come back to prove your argument. Good English comes with accent. When you pronounce words like come, can, what, water, love, her, and, must, Fanta, chair, cut, Anthony, missile, and the person you talking to frequently saying excuse me. Then you must know your English is poor. I bet 97% of Nigerian excluding the northerners can't pronounce the words mentioned above correctly.

Very true bro, i sometimes find it hard to understand naijas when speaking or writing,you have your own version of english

Babaelemu:
because we are lazy mentally, stubborn, less resourceful, we like short cut to success, we don't care about passion we care about survival, our problems weighs us so much down to improve to think logically, to progress. I have been gone for too long but whenever I watch Nigerian movies produced in 2017 I see no goddamn improvement the new generation already inherited the bad lifestyles and ways of life and so they will pass it on. The only solution to our problems we must just start to change the way we reason, think and feel things.

Some of you just be talking nonsense ...your mate wey dey Yankee dey feel our English even though eh no pure, You wey go common S/A dey make mouth like say dem speak English pass us , Inferiority complex Kee you there ..... When you don carry your frustrated intonation go spoil our show.... why dem no go beef us

PREEK HOLE

Babaelemu:
don't make me laugh. I'm not ashamed to say it cos I have our educational system controlled by our government to blame. Basically from experience I think I have improve my spoken English and still learning.

An argument will always go two ways so I really don't expect you to support my motions. I want to believe I have given you all to those who believe we speak good English enough prove to digest from one on one encounter, words of mouth and writes up by other people rather than being bais.

I'm not disputing we don't speak English we do and it our official language but outsiders don't consider our spoken english as a good one point blank.

I love my country and I really wish her well.

You call this bullshit you just wrote " Improved English"

Who the heck was your teacher

You're just busy using your " cut and join English " to insult people who are way exposed than you are.....don't you think you're the one who is "Stubborn" as you always scream.

perhaps your goat head and dead brain cells translates your trashy and battered English/accent into something nice for your inferior consumption.....

If you cannot argue intelligently next time go to Facebook or somewhere else.

PRINCE OF ZULU KINGDOM!!

I can only speak for Nigerians in UK.Honestly,they are good with English.
If you want to go deaf,talk with a Pakistani/Indian that just arrived UK.

lordOM:
I can only speak for Nigerians in UK.Honestly,they are good with English.
If you want to go deaf,talk with a Pakistani/Indian that just arrived UK.

I am so wrong for laughing at this.....but I do understand what you mean.
The accent is very thick at times....

As a Nigerian American, I find the Nigerian accent interesting. Those ehs" and "ohs" and "nas" that Nigerians make especially at the end of words or sentences jell really well with the language while producing a unique sound that could pass for an ear candy. Eg; if I catch you eh... A foreigner might have a hard time understanding Nigerians when they use those ehs and ohs, just like it took me a while to understand what my former colleague meant by "if I was in the mood eh" the eh blended with "mood" that it sounded like "moodeh" but now I know better lol...should I also not talk about how Nigerians pronounce the letters in every world? Might sound a bit mechanical but I LIKE IT.

As for whether Nigerians speak good English or not, well, the Nigerians that I worked alongside with while I lived in Nigeria few years ago spoke very good English. I guess it's becos they all went to good schools, however I cannot say the same about the majority of the population whose English aren't on the same pedestal with that of Native speakers

@babaelemu please I need palm wine please help me get original palm wine....I am original Yoruba please I can't sleep since yesterday I really want to drink emu please..as your name implied it show you are palm wine seller please.[color=#000099][/color]

iRyan:
As a Nigerian American, I find the Nigerian accent interesting. Those ehs" and "ohs" and "nas" that Nigerians make especially at the end of words or sentences jell really well with the language while producing a unique sound that could pass for an ear candy. Eg; if I catch you eh... A foreigner might have a hard time understanding Nigerians when they use those ehs and ohs, just like it took me a while to understand what my former colleague meant by "if I was in the mood eh" the eh blended with "mood" that it sounded like "moodeh" but now I know better lol...should I also not talk about how Nigerians pronounce the letters in every world? Might sound a bit mechanical but I LIKE IT.

As for whether Nigerians speak good English or not, well, the Nigerians that I worked alongside with while I lived in Nigeria few years ago spoke very good English. I guess it's becos they all went to good schools, however I cannot say the same about the majority of the population whose English aren't on the same pedestal with that of Native speakers

Yes sir...those sounds you listed are hilarious! I love it! My dad has never used those words at the ends of his sentences....but I've heard that on all of the Nigerian movies that I've seen!
I love it too...so unique.
I was so excited cause the other day I heard my dad say "maltreatment"...which I've seen countless times here on N.L.
He also continuously uses the following (colorful and descriptive) words:
Useless
Bloody fool
Trash
Nonsense
No conscience...
Sorry folks ....you would think my dad's a mean man based on those 1st four words.....
But it's the Nigerian way...lol.

Nigerian American you say? So either you were born in Nigeria (but moved to the U.S. very early)
OR
Both of your parents are Nigerian but you were born in the U.S.
Am I correct? Do you mind me asking?

Mobilia:


Yes sir...those sounds you listed are hilarious! I love it! My dad has never used those words at the ends of his sentences....but I've heard that on all of the Nigerian movies that I've seen!
I love it too...so unique.
I was so excited cause the other day I heard my dad say "maltreatment"...which I've seen countless times here on N.L.
He also continuously uses the following (colorful and descriptive) words:
USELESS
BLOODY FOOL
TRASH
NONSENSE
NO CONSCIENCE...
Sorry folks ....you would think my dad's a mean man based on those 1st four words.....
But it's the Nigerian way...lol.

Nigerian American you say? So either you were born in Nigeria (but moved to the U.S. very early)
OR
Both of your parents are Nigerian but you were born in the U.S.
Am I correct? Do you mind me asking?

born in the U.S to Nigerian parents. I never met my biological parents though...

iRyan:
born in the U.S to Nigerian parents. I never met my biological parents though...

Ok...thanks for answering.

Babaelemu:
Nigerian speaks good what?? Get out of here even the Franco phone countries speaks better than Nigerian. When I was new in South Africa it took me fliping time like 4 years to adjust to simple polite English. Every time I speak they always say what?? what??

First of all, Americans don’t speak good English. They break a lot of grammatical rules speaking their English. Yes they are fluent with good ascent. But good English? No. I hear them speak and I would be like...what? It don’t matter. Instead of it doesn’t matter. That’s the way Americans speak. So many bad English like that. I need it bad. Instead of “badly “. Is that good English? Too many to count.

papulzil:
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Drop your WhatsApp contact.

drakeli:
First of all, Americans don’t speak good English. They break a lot of grammatical rules speaking their English. Yes they are fluent with good ascent. But good English? No. I hear them speak and I would be like...what? It don’t matter. Instead of it doesn’t matter. That’s the way Americans speak. So many bad English like that. I need it bad. Instead of “badly “. Is that good English? Too many to count.

Why do you think that is?
Perhaps you can teach them proper English....

Mobilia:


Why do you think that is?
Perhaps you can teach them proper English....

The guy is right. I have heard a lot of blunders from many of them since I got here. The accent is just their shield; tell them to put their words in writing and you'll see for yourself. If you need proper English, listen to the British..

yemiosinbajo:


The guy is right. I have heard a lot of blunders from many of them since I got here. The accent is just their shield; tell them to put their words in writing and you'll see for yourself. If you need proper English, listen to the British..

Lol....sir I know....
English major here (and I fumble on some mechanics as well)....
Yes, many of them have challenges....but I hope you aren't discriminating against them because of that.
Well perhaps you should help them too..

P.S. Thanks for the advice...my dad repeatedly tells me the same thing

drakeli:
First of all, Americans don’t speak good English. They break a lot of grammatical rules speaking their English. Yes they are fluent with good ascent. But good English? No. I hear them speak and I would be like...what? It don’t matter. Instead of it doesn’t matter. That’s the way Americans speak. So many bad English like that. I need it bad. Instead of “badly “. Is that good English? Too many to count.

In my opinion, I think its rare for most native speakers of any language to speak grammatically correct in normal conversation. For instance when I was learning Spanish, I was taught to speak Grammatically correct but then learned native spanish speakers dont speak like that. I speak grammatically correct english majority of the time but switch it on and off when I choose to. Meaning I speak proper English professionally and when Im out but when Im with close family and friends I speak how I wish to.

Well I recently read somewhere that the Nigerian accent is one of the top 10 sexiest languages in the world. But do these foreigners understand us from personal experience a big phat no. Sometimes I speak and they tell me wow you speak good English and I’m like that’s my country’s official language. These peeps don change my name for me sef. Lol.

chukxie:


Do the Indians speak English with a British accent? Do the Pakistani? Even Northern Irish folks speak English with a northern Irish accent! How many countries in the Commonwealth state speak English like the Brits?

I was about asking the same.

fluentinfor:
"Nigerians speak good/bad English" Hmmm! This topic is about accent; however, if grammar is poor, it affects the speaker negatively.

Someone above wrote "Nigerians speak clearly and distinctly. Distinctly, I agree, but clearly, I am not so sure. I think she got so used to her dad's ways of saying his words in my own opinion. So, she has no difficulty to understand people who sound like her dad.

Nigerians speak good English. I agree if the speaker knows grammatical rules. Seriously, most Nigerians do not know tenses rules. But I have met some guys that are just super. Ok, just go through nairaland and you will see errors. Well, these errors will not have extreme negative effect if the mistakes are minor. There are some errors that can mislead listeners.

Nigerians speak good English. I disagree if the speaker does not pronounce his/her words well. It is why someone wrote above that they speak distinctly. How?

1. They speak too fast. Lol. Especially when Nigerians are debating political topics. Jeeeez! When Chelsea don dey hammer Arsenal.

2. A) 99% of Nigerians pronounce "thank" as "tank". Nigerians do not know where to place their tongues when pronuoucing th.

B) Hausas pronouce "People" as "Veevle" or "Feefle". Igbos have a unique way of pronoucing the letter R. They over roll it. Lol. Yoruba Language doesnt have the letter "h". It is why they write Sade instead of Shade, Sola instead of Shola, etc. So, do not expect a yoruba man to pronounce "house" correctly. He is going to say "ouse".

Also, pick and peak; hat and hart; bitch and beach; etc. are areas to watch out for. So when a naija is discussing soccer/football, he uses the shorter version of every word because he is in hurry to say many words on top of his voice. Lol.

It is not a bad idea to enrol in an accent reduction class when you find yourself in an environment you need to speak clearly so that majority can understand you without saying eh, what, repeat, etc. It may affect you if you need to make presentations to some groups of people.

Lol. Where did you get all these statistics you've been dishing out in your posts? 99% of this, 98%.

I'm a Yoruba man and I pronounce 'house' correctly. Lol.

You are only generalising, I believe it all boils down to one's educational background and your family/environment.

Going to good schools also help reduce mother-tongue interference as well as fluency when speaking.

Babaelemu:
Nigerian speaks good what?? Get out of here even the Franco phone countries speaks better than Nigerian. When I was new in South Africa it took me fliping time like 4 years to adjust to simple polite English. Every time I speak they always say what?? what??

I beg to differ. I worked (professionally) in England for a couple of years and never heard one person ask me "what??" or struggle with my accent or diction.