Talk:watch

Japanese Transalations

• Not sure we need so many Japanese transalations. It seems silly to include every word for a variant of a watch, or every verb having to do with looking. It'd be analogous to including an English translation like (look, watch, stare, examine... etc.), or (watch, pocketwatch, wristwatch, timepiece, clock..etc.). Just a thought. Ian Lewis 16:11, 1 September 2005 (UTC)

Active object?

When using this verb, the direct object must be active, right? e.g

Watch the movie. (a movie is a series of pictures, so it's active); but:

Watch the picture. (inactive); compare with:

Look at the picture.

Here, the watching sounds incorrect by intuition. Is this a requirement for this verb to be grammatically correct? -- De novo 11:35, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

No. There simply must be the possibility or potential for some change. You can "watch the sky" for signs of a change in the weather, even if that change does not occur. You can "watch the grass grow", which (while active) is not visibly changing at all. --EncycloPetey 13:59, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for clarifying. I actually meant precisely what you're saying: just worded it unusually. I think this would be relevant to add to usage notes, because a friend of mine makes this mistake a lot. I'll go ahead and add it. -- De novo 15:17, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

General American pronunciation of watch

I do not have the cot-caught merger, but I've never heard myself or anyone around me use the /ˈwɔt͡ʃ/ pronunciation in the General American listing. Is this accurate to other non cot-caught merger regions? Mustard, huh? (talk) 16:43, 7 April 2023 (UTC)

It is possible that this might be another case of a phenomenon also seen in a few other words that have a medial A.

A few words which have a medial A, for which the historical pronunciation would have been /ɒ/, can have either /ɑ/ or /ɔ/ in American speech. One example of that is want. Whether it is because in the minds of some speakers the spelling of the word reinforces an /ɑ/ pronunciation that they have already heard previously, or whether it is simply because of some of the inconsistencies seen in pronunciations throughout North America with regard to historic /ɒ/, I couldn't tell you.

Related to that is the curious treatment in American English of a word such as morrow. That can be either /ˈmɔɹ.oʊ/ or /ˈmɑɹ.oʊ/, and a speaker who on the one hand pronounces tomorrow as /tʊˈmɑɹoʊ/ could potentially also be a speaker who pronounces morrow as /ˈmɔɹ.oʊ/. Tharthan (talk) 22:29, 7 April 2023 (UTC)