, translated by the author, helped and sped up by suggestions from Google Translate.
This morning I pointed out a fallacy to someone again, the fallacy of the single cause, and I suddenly wondered, “how do you really say that, ‘fallacy’?” I knew almost 100% it has the same vowel as folly *), fall, ball, call, hall and wall. But better look it up to be certain.
It is just not the case. Fallacy in its first syllable has the vowel of Valerie and valley. Just look: Collins, Merriam-Webster. So it’s /fæləsi/, in the IPA.
I haven't known the word for very long, maybe 15 years. But I have been working on my English for over 50 years, with a special interest in English pronunciation. And then still make such a mistake? Unbelievable. Luckily I never actually pronounced the word in English speaking company, I only ever wrote it. It would have been a bit of a let down. I rarely speak English anyway. But I can do it quite well, even if I say so myself.
Which one exactly? In both American and British English, ‘folly’ and ‘fall’ do not have the same vowel. ‘Knowledgeable’ is a better example, with a similar word meter. It has the vowel of ‘folly’, ‘dolly’, and ‘holly’.