Difference between revisions 8410 and 8429 on enwiki

The '''decibel''' is a "dimensionless unit" (like [[percent]]) that is a measure of ratios on a logarithmic scale.
Usually, it is ten times the base-10 logarithm of the ratio.
It's not an [[SI]] unit, although the [[Bureau International des Poids et Mesures|International Committee for Weights and Measures]] (BIPM) has recommended its inclusion in the SI system.  The d is therefore lowercase, as it is the SI prefix ''deci-'', and the B is capitalized, as it is an abbreviation of a name-derived unit, the ''bel'', named for [[Alexander Graham Bell]].  Written out it becomes ''decibel''.  This is standard [[English language|English]] capitalization.

Basically, the use of decibels has three different merits:
* It is convenient to add the decibel values e.g. of two subsequent [[amplifier]]s rather than to multiply their amplification factors.
* A very large range of ratios can be expressed with decibel values in a range of moderate size, allowing e.g. to clearly visualize huge changes of some quantity.
* In acoustics, the decibel as a logarithmic measure of ratios fits well to the logarithmic dependence of perceived loudness on sound intensity.

== History of bels and decibels ==

A '''bel''' (symbol '''B''') is a [[unit]] of measure of [[ratio]]s; (such as [[power (physics)|power]] levels and [[voltage]] levels). It is mostly used in [[telecommunication]], [[electronics]], and [[acoustics]]. Invented by engineers of the [[Bell Labs|Bell Telephone Laboratory]], it was originally called the ''transmission unit'' or ''TU'', but was renamed in [[1923]] or [[1924]] in honour of the [[laboratory]]'s founder and telecommunications pioneer [[Alexander Graham Bell]].

The bel was too large for everyday use, so the '''decibel (dB)''', equal to 0.1 '''B''', became more commonly used:
:decibels = 10 log<sub>10</sub>(ratio)

(However, note that ratios of voltages and currents are calculated differently, because of the historical use of decibels to measure ''power'' ratios. See below.)

The [[neper]] is a similar unit which uses the [[natural logarithm]]. The [[Richter scale]] uses numbers expressed in bels as well, though this is implied by definition rather than explicitly stated. In spectrometry and optics, the absorbance unit used to measure [[optical density]] is equivalent to -1&nbsp;B.

== Uses ==
=== Acoustics ===

The '''decibel''' unit is often used in acoustics to quantify [[sound]] levels relative to some 0 dB reference. The reference may be defined as a [[sound pressure level]] (SPL), commonly 20 micropascals (20 &mu;Pa). To avoid confusion with other decibel measures, the term dB(SPL) is used for this. The reference sound pressure (corresponding to a sound pressure level of 0 dB) can also be defined as the sound pressure at the threshold of [[human]] [[Hearing (sense)|hearing]], which is conventionally taken to be 2&times;10<sup>&minus;5</sup> newton per [[square metre]], 2&times;10<sup>&minus;5</sup> N/m&sup2; or 20 micropascals. That is roughly the sound of a [[mosquito]] flying 3 m away. The ears are only sensitive to sound '''pressure''' deviations.

The reason for using the decibel is that the [[ear]] is capable of detecting a very large range of [[sound pressure]]s. The ratio of the sound ''pressure'' that causes permanent damage from short exposure to the limit that (undamaged) ears can hear is more than a [[million]]. Because the ''power'' in a sound wave is proportional to the square of the pressure, the ratio of the maximum power to the minimum power is more than one ([[short scale]]) [[trillion]]. To deal with such a range, logarithmic units are useful: the log of a trillion is 12, so this ratio represents a difference of 120 dB.  

[[Psychologist]]s have found that our perception of [[loudness]] is roughly logarithmic &mdash; see the [[Weber-Fechner Law]]. In other words, you have to multiply the sound pressure by the same factor to have the same increase in loudness.  This is why the numbers around the volume control dial on a typical [[Electronic amplifier|audio amplifier]] are related not to the voltage amplification, but to its logarithm. 

Various [[frequency]] weightings are used to allow the result of an acoustical measurement to be expressed as a single sound level. The weightings approximate the changes in sensitivity of the ear to different frequencies at different levels. The two most commonly used weightings are the A and C weightings; other examples are the B and Z weightings.

Sound levels above 85 dB are considered harmful, while 120 dB is unsafe and 150 dB causes physical damage to the human [[body]]. [[Window]]s break at about 163 dB. [[Jet airplane]]s cause A-weighted levels of about 133 dB at 33 m, or 100 dB at 170 m. [[Eardrum]]s rupture at 190 dB to 198 dB. [[Shock wave]]s and [[sonic boom]]s cause levels of about 200 dB at 330 m. Sound levels of around 200 dB can cause [[death]] to humans and are generated near [[bomb]] [[explosion]]s (e.g. 23 kg of [[Trinitrotoluene|TNT]] detonated 3 m away). The [[space shuttle]] generates levels of around 215 dB (or an A-weighted level of about 175 dB at a distance of 17 m). Even louder are [[nuclear bomb]]s, [[earthquake]]s, [[tornado]]es, [[hurricane]]s and [[volcano]]es.

Some other values:

{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpading="2"
|dBSPL||Source (with distance!)
|-
|180||[[Rocket]] engine at 30 m
|-
|150||[[Jet]] [[engine]] at 30 m
|-
|130||Threshold of [[pain]]
|-
|120||[[Rock and roll|Rock]] [[concert]]; jet aircraft taking off at 100 m
|-
|110||Accelerating [[motorcycle]] at 5 m; chainsaw at 1 m
|-
|100||[[Jackhammer|Pneumatic hammer]] at 2 m; inside [[disco]]
|-
|90||Loud [[factory]], heavy [[lorry|lorries]] at 1 m
|-
|80||[[Vacuum cleaner]] at 1 m, kerbside of busy street
|-
|70||Busy [[traffic]] at 5 m
|-
|60||[[Office]] or restaurant inside
|-
|50||Quiet [[restaurant]] inside
|-
|40||Residential area at [[night]]
|-
|30||Theatre, no talking
|-
|20||Only Rustling of [[Leaf|leaves]]
|-
|10||Human breathing at 3 m
|-
|0||Threshold of hearing (human with good ears)
|}

Under controlled conditions, in an acoustical laboratory, the trained healthy human ear is able to discern changes in sound levels of 1 dB, when exposed to steady, single frequency ("pure tone") signals in the mid-frequency range. It is widely accepted that the average [[health]]y ear, however, can barely perceive noise level changes of 3 dB. 

On this scale, the normal range of human hearing extends from about 0 dB to about 140 dB. 0 dB is the [[threshold]] of hearing in healthy, undamaged human ears; 0 dB is not an absence of sound, and it is possible for people with exceptionally good hearing to hear sounds at -10 dB.  A 10 dB increase in the level of a continuous noise is said to represent a perceived doubling of loudness; a 5 dB increase is a readily noticeable change, while a 3 dB increase is barely noticeable to most [[people]].

Sound pressure levels are applicable to the specific position at which they are measured. The levels change with the distance from the source of the sound; in general, the level decreases as the distance from the source increases. If the distance from the source is unknown, it is difficult to estimate the sound pressure level at the source.

==== Frequency weighting ==== 

Since the human ear is not equally sensitive to all the frequencies of sound within the entire spectrum, noise levels at maximum human sensitivity &mdash; middle A and its higher [[harmonic]]s (between 2,000 and 4,000 [[hertz]]) &mdash; are factored more heavily into sound descriptions using a process called frequency weighting.

The most widely used frequency weighting is the "[[A-weighting]]", which roughly corresponds to the inverse of the 40 dB (at 1 kHz) equal-loudness curve. Using this filter, the sound level [[Measuring instrument|meter]] is less sensitive to very high and very low frequencies. The A weighting parallels the sensitivity of the human ear when it is exposed to normal levels, and frequency weighting C is suitable for use when the ear is exposed to higher sound levels. Other defined frequency weightings, such as B and Z, are rarely used.

Frequency weighted sound levels are still expressed in decibels (with unit symbol dB), although it is common to see the incorrect unit symbols dBA or dB(A) used for A-weighted sound levels.

=== Electronics ===

The decibel is used rather than [[Arithmetic|arithmetic]] ratios or [[percent]]ages because when certain types of [[Electrical network|circuits]], such as amplifiers and [[attenuator]]s, are connected in series, expressions of power level in decibels may be arithmetically added and subtracted.  It is also common in disciplines such as audio, in which the properties of the signal are best expressed in logarithms due to the response of the ear.

In [[radio]] electronics, the decibel is used to describe the ratio between two measurements of [[electrical power]].  It can also be combined with a suffix to create an absolute unit of electrical power.  For example, it can be combined with "m" for "milliwatt" to produce the "dBm".  Zero dBm is one milliwatt, and 1 dBm is one decibel greater than 0 dBm, or about 1.259 mW.

Although decibels were originally used for power ratios, they are nowadays commonly used in electronics to describe voltage or current ratios. In a constant resistive load, power is proportional to the square of the voltage or current in the circuit. Therefore, the decibel ratio of two voltages ''V''<sub>1</sub> and ''V''<sub>2</sub> is defined as 20 log<sub>10</sub>(''V''<sub>1</sub>/''V''<sub>2</sub>), and similarly for current ratios. Thus, for example, a factor of 2.0 in voltage is equivalent to 6.02 dB (not 3.01 dB!).

This practice is fully consistent with power-based decibels, provided the circuit [[Electrical resistance|resistance]] remains constant. However, voltage-based decibels are frequently used to express such quantities as the voltage gain of an amplifier, where the two voltages are measured in different circuits which may have very different resistances. For example, a unity-gain [[buffer amplifier]] with a high [[input resistance]] and a low [[output resistance]] may be said to have a "voltage gain of 0 dB", even though it is actually providing a considerable power gain when driving a low-resistance load.

In professional audio, a popular unit is the dBu (see below for all the units).  The "u" stands for "unloaded", and was probably chosen to be similar to lowercase "v", as dBv was the older name for the same thing.  It was changed to avoid confusion with dBV. This unit (dBv) is an [[RMS]] measurement of voltage which uses as its reference 0.775 V<sub>RMS</sub>.  Chosen for historical reasons, it is the voltage level at which you get 1 mW of power in a 600 ohm resistor, which used to be the standard impedance in almost all professional audio circuits. <!--what's a "professional audio circuit"?-->  <!-- a circuit that uses 600 ohms for everything. :-)  they mean stuff for professional audio like recording and live sound.  microphones, mixers, etc.  i think. -->

=== Optics ===

In an [[optical link]], if a known amount of [[Optics|optical]] power, in [[dBm]] (referenced to 1 mW), is launched into a [[Optical fiber|fibre]], and the losses, in dB (decibels), of each [[component]] (e.g. connectors, splices, and lengths of fibre) are known, the overall link [[loss]] may be quickly calculated by simple addition and subtraction of decibel quantities.

=== Telecommunications ===

In telecommunications, decibels are commonly used to measure [[signal-to-noise ratio]]s and other ratio measurements.

=== Seismology ===

Earthquakes are measured on the [[Richter magnitude scale|Richter scale]], which is expressed in bels.  (The units in this case are always assumed, rather than explicit.)

== Typical abbreviations ==

=== Absolute measurements ===

==== Electric power ====

; [[dBm]] ''or'' dBmW : dB(1 mW@600 &Omega;) &mdash; in [[analog]] audio, power measurement relative to 1 milliwatt into a 600 [[ohm]] [[load]]
; [[dBW]] : dB(1 W@600 &Omega;) &mdash; same as dBm, with reference level of 1 [[watt]].

==== Electric voltage ====

; dBu ''or'' dBv : dB(0.775 V) &mdash; (usually [[root mean square|RMS]]) [[volt]]age [[amplitude]] referenced to 0.775 volts, not related to any impedance.  dBu is preferable, since dBv is easily confused with dBV.  The "u" comes from "unloaded".
; dBV : dB(1 V) &mdash; (usually RMS) voltage amplitude of an audio signal in a [[wire]], relative to 1 volt, not related to any impedance.

==== Acoustics ====

; dB(SPL) : dB(Sound Pressure Level) &mdash; relative to 20 micropascals (&mu;Pa) = 2&times;10<sup>-5</sup> Pa, the quietest sound a human can hear.  This is roughly the sound of a mosquito flying 3 metres away.  This is often abbreviated to just "dB", which gives some the erroneous notion that a dB is an absolute unit by itself.

==== Radio power ====

; dBm : dB(mV/m&sup2;) &mdash; [[milli]]volts per square metre.  [[Signal strength]] of a radio [[signal]].
; dB&mu; ''or'' dBu : dB(&mu;V/m&sup2;) &mdash; [[micro]]volts per square metre. The strength of a radio signal.
; dBf : dB(fW) &mdash; [[femto]]watts. The amount of [[Power (physics)|power]] required to drive a radio [[receiver]].
; dBW : dB(W) &mdash; watts. The amount of power [[transmit]]ted by a low-power [[radio station]].
; dBk : dB(kW) &mdash; [[kilowatt]]s. The amount of power transmitted by a [[broadcast]] radio station.

=== Relative measurements ===

; [[dB(A)|dB(A), dB(B), and dB(C)]] weighting : These symbols are often used to denote the use of different [[frequency weighting]]s, used to approximate the human ear's [[response]] to sound, although the measurement is still in dB (SPL). Other variations that may be seen are dB<sub>A</sub> or dBA. According to ANSI standards, the preferred usage is to write L<sub>A</sub> = x dB, as dBA implies a reference to an "A" unit, not an A-weighting.  They are still used commonly as a shorthand for A-weighted measurements, however.
; dBd : dB(dipole) &mdash; the [[effective radiated power]] compared to a [[dipole]] [[antenna (electronics)|antenna]].
; dBi : dB(isotropic) &mdash; the effective radiated power compared to an imaginary [[isotropic]] antenna.
; dBFS ''or'' dBfs : dB([[full scale]]) &mdash; the [[amplitude]] of a signal (usually audio) compared to the maximum which a device can handle before [[clipping]] occurs.  In digital systems, 0 dBFS would equal the highest level (number) the processor is capable of representing.  (Measured values are negative, since they are less than the maximum.)
; dBr : dB(relative) &mdash; simply a relative difference to something else, which is made apparent in context.  The difference of a filter's response to nominal levels, for instance.
; [[dBrn]] : dB above [[reference noise]].

== Reckoning ==

Decibels are handy for mental calculation, because adding them is easier than multiplying ratios.
First, however, one has to be able to convert easily between ratios and decibels.
The most obvious way is to memorize the logs of small primes, but there are a few other tricks that can help.

=== The 4 &rarr; 6 energy rule ===

To one decimal place of precision, 4.x is 6.x in dB (energy).

Examples:
* 4.0 &rarr; 6.0 dB
* 4.3 &rarr; 6.3 dB
* 4.7 &rarr; 6.7 dB

=== The "789" rule ===

To one decimal place of precision, x &rarr; (&frac12; x + 5.0 dB) for 7.0 &le; x &le; 10.

Examples:
* 7.0 &rarr; &frac12; 7.0 + 5.0 dB = 3.5 + 5.0 dB = 8.5 dB
* 7.5 &rarr; &frac12; 7.5 + 5.0 dB = 3.75 + 5.0 dB = 8.75 dB
* 8.2 &rarr; &frac12; 8.2 + 5.0 dB = 4.1 + 5.0 dB = 9.1 dB
* 9.9 &rarr; &frac12; 9.9 + 5.0 dB = 4.95 + 5.0 dB = 9.95 dB
* 10.0 &rarr; &frac12; 10.0 + 5.0 dB = 5.0 + 5.0 dB = 10 dB

=== &minus;3 dB = ½ power ===

A level difference of ±3 dB is roughly double/half power (equal to a ratio of 1.995). That is why it is commonly used as a marking on sound equipment and the like. 

Another common sequence is 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50 ... . These numbers are very close to being equally spaced in terms of their logarithms. The actual values would be 1, 2.15, 4.64, 10 ... .

The conversion for decibels is often simplified to: "+3 dB means two times the power and 1.414 times the voltage", and "+6 dB means four times the power and two times the voltage ".

While this is accurate for many situations, it is not exact.  As stated above, decibels are defined so that +10 dB means "ten times the power". From this, we calculate that +3 dB actually multiplies the power by 10<sup>3/10</sup>. This is a power ratio of 1.9953 or about 0.25% different from the "times 2" power ratio that is sometimes assumed. A level difference of +6 dB is 3.9811, about 0.5% different from 4.

To contrive a more serious example, consider converting a large decibel figure into its linear ratio, for example 120 dB. The power ratio is correctly calculated as a ratio of 10<sup>12</sup> or one trillion. But if we use the assumption that 3 dB means "times 2", we would calculate a power ratio of 2<sup>120/3</sup> = 2<sup>40</sup> = 1.0995 × 10<sup>12</sup>, for a 10% error.

== See also ==

*[[Noise]]
*[[Sound pressure level]]

== External links ==

*[http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/~jw/dB.html What is a dB?]
*[http://www.sizes.com/units/decibel.htm Description of some abbreviations] 
*[http://www.uoguelph.ca/HR/ehs/policies/10-01.pdf Noise Control and Hearing Conservation]
*[http://www.osha.gov/dts/osta/otm/otm_iii/otm_iii_5.html Noise Measurement OSHA 1]
*[http://www.environmental-center.com/articles/article138/article138.htm Noise Measurement OSHA 2]
*[http://www.jimprice.com/prosound/db.htm Understanding dB]

=== Converters ===

*[http://www.analog.com/Analog_Root/static/techSupport/designTools/interactiveTools/dbconvert/dbconvert.html V<sub>peak</sub>, V<sub>RMS</sub>, Power, dBm, dBu, dBV converter]
*[http://www.sengpielaudio.com/calculator-db-volt.htm Conversion: dBu &#8594; volts, dBV &#8594; volts, and volts &#8594; dBu, and dBV]
*[http://www.sengpielaudio.com/calculator-soundlevel.htm Conversion of sound level units:  dBSPL or dBA  &#8594; sound pressure p and sound intensity J]
*[http://www.sengpielaudio.com/calculator-volt.htm Conversion: Voltage V &#8594; dB, dBu, dBV, and dBm]
*[http://www.moonblinkwifi.com/dbm_to_watt_conversion.cfm Strange dBm to mW Conversion]

==Reference==

*Martin, W. H., "DeciBel &#8211; The New Name for the Transmission Unit", ''Bell System Technical Journal'', January 1929.


[[Category:Units of measure]]
[[Category:Sound]]
[[Category:Acoustics]]

[[da:Bel]]
[[de:Dezibel]]
[[es:Decibelio]]
[[fr:Bel]]
[[he:&#1491;&#1510;&#1497;&#1489;&#1500;]]
[[it:Decibel]]
[[ja:&#12487;&#12471;&#12505;&#12523;]]
[[nl:Decibel]]
[[no:Desibel]]
[[pl:Decybel]]
[[pt:Decibel]]
[[sv:Decibel]]Re: Japanese

?à?µ?à?µ (moshi moshi) should only be used on the telephone; it's not a general "hello," and the article should reflect this in some way. ?¡?ú?Í (konnichiwa) is probably better here.

:Done
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For some reason the top left cell of this table (A1 which should be blank or say "Language") isn't coming out right (it shifts the entire row to the left); or when it does someone edits back out.  Or maybe my browser is the only one that notices this? - Justfred
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"esta" is not a good translation for "this one" because it assumes the object to be feminine, which isn't necessarily the case. The tradition in Spanish textbooks is to use the masculine form of an adjective as the generic, indicating that the adjective must agree with the noun: that is, one would say "sensitivo" for sensitive and the understanding would be e.g. "este tipo sensitivo, esta tipa sensitiva, estos tipos sensitivos, estas tipas sensitivas." If the adjective is listed in the generic as ending in -a, that means the adjective will ''always'' be feminine, regardless of the object or person it's referring to; and that is not the case here.  Furthermore, if you mean "this one" by itself, as in "Which one?" "This one." You need an accent on the E and the masculine is "&eacute;ste" while the feminine is "&eacute;sta."  But what you have is ''that'' one, which is ''&eacute;se'' and ''&eacute;sa''.  For that reason I'm changing it. --[[:Koyaanis Qatsi|Koyaanis Qatsi]]
: So if you are in a store and you are pointing at something behind the counter that you want to buy (and you have no idea what it is called or what gender it is) would it be correct (or at least understandable) to say "''ése, por favor''"? --[[:Eob|Eob]]
Yes.  But if you're saying "That car," it would be "ese coche," without the accent.  "Ese" and "este" and their variants only carry accents when they're used without the noun.
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We need to conform to some other, established way of transcription: the way "gracias" is mangled currently, it seems in any Spanish-speaking country all you have to do is say "grassy Ass" in response to a kindness.  That doesn't capture the sound correctly; we also need a way of indicating where the stress falls in a word, since it does sometimes make a difference.

: I agree that a proper phonetic transctiption would be more accurate.  The problem with some phonetic notations is that most people cannot read them, or at least not without continuous checking back-and-forth to some key.   As for emphasis how about we just capitalize an emphasized syllable: ''hola'' [[:Common_phrases_in_different_languages/OH|/OH]]-la/, ''por favor'' [[:Common_phrases_in_different_languages/pour|/pour]] fav-OAR/, ''gracias'' [[:Common_phrases_in_different_languages/GRASS|/GRASS]]-ee-ass/, ''ése'' [[:Common_phrases_in_different_languages/AY|/AY]]-say/, ''cuánto'' [[:Common_phrases_in_different_languages/KWAN|/KWAN]]-toe/, ''Inglés'' [[:Common_phrases_in_different_languages/in|/in]]-GLAZE/, ''sí'' [[:Common_phrases_in_different_languages/see|/see]]/, ''no'' [[:Common_phrases_in_different_languages/no|/no]]/.

::grAHseeus or grAHs-yus would be closer to correct; and it's only barely three syllables; more like two.  Otherwise it sounds like "Grassy ass for the tay-koes and tuh-males."  Which may be correct in Texas...

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Two points:

1) this seems to be, as written, a very English-centric page. This web is world-wide, yes? Perhaps we should move the "English" column out of the "phrases" table and put a whole "words for languages in other languages" table. How do you say "japanese" in Dutch? kind of a thing.
:This is deliberately written in an English-centric way because it is part of the English-language version of wikipedia.  I suggest that other versions of this table be put in the [[:Non-English Wikipedias|Non-English Wikipedias]]. --[[:Eob|Eob]]

2) How do we get proper characters on the screen. I mean cyrillic, Japenese, etc. Specifically, how do you write a web page that changes character codepages (iso-8859-? or windows-12??) in mid-stream? That way we could see many more languages, correctly spelled in the native tongue, up on the page.
: As far as I know we can can in general only use latin letters, that is mostly English letters plus the various accented versions of them.  See [[:Wiki special characters|Wiki special characters]].  I think we will just have to use some standard transliteration: someone mentioned Romaji for Japanese; we could use pinyin for Chinese; I assume there are standard transliterations for other languages like Greek, Russian, Hindi, ...  --[[:Eob|Eob]]
::Well, the fact is that the iso-8859-1 special characters are not enough for all the acents even for all European languages, even excluding those that use cyrillic. Specifically, Lithuanian uses characters like a-ogonek, u-makron and s-caron that are in iso-8859-4, but not iso-8859-1. I _think_ that iso-8859-1, iso-8859-2 and iso-8859-4 suffice for all European non-cyrillic languages, and I am certain that they are all necessary. So even without the "more difficult" problems surrounding Russian and Japanese, we need more characters. Does anyone know how to do this? Perhaps it exists in Unicode? [[:Tamulis|Tamulis]] 
:::All these things are in Unicode. The ISO 8859 character sets are not relevant. The N-th Unicode character can be encoded as &amp;#N;. For example, &amp;#265; comes out as &#265; (c with a circumflex -- although it's possible it may not work on your browser). There are some problems if the language isn't written left to right, however (see [[talk:The name of God in Judaism]]). --[[:Zundark|Zundark]], 2001 Oct 10

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''Cu&aacute;nto'' does carry an accent, but only when used by itself, as a question: "How much?" Otherwise, without the accent, it means "as much as" or "as many as": cuanto como quieras: "as much as you want."

''&Eacute;se'' and ''&eacute;sa'' do carry accents when used by themselves, as do ''&eacute;sos'' and ''&eacute;sas''.  They don't when used with a noun, as in "ese &aacute;rbol."  The same goes for ''&eacute;ste'' and their variants.  --[[:KQ|KQ]]

You're right; it's been a few years. I do remember, though, that it's "cuanto c&oacute;mo quieras" :-)
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(Humor) Too ridiculous to add to the main page (and not necessarily correct) but:

Dutch-"De enige manier om Godzilla nu nog te doden is met een atoombom."<br> 
English-"The only way to kill [[:Godzilla|Godzilla]] now is with a nuclear weapon."<br>
French-"Maintenant, le seul method pour tuer Godzilla c'est utilizet une arme atomique."<br>
German-"Das einzige weg Godzilla jetst zu to:ten is mit einem atomwaffe."<br>
Japanese-"Ima Gojira o koroshu hoho wa genshi buki shika nai."<br>
Spanish-"El solo posibilidad para matar Godzilla es con una bomba atomico."<br>
Russian-"Ubeet Godzilla tolka obraz yadernee oruzhee."<br>

I know there are a bunch of other polytranslated bizarre phrases on the 'net; maybe links would be appropriate? - [[:justfred|justfred]]
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Maybe we should stop using this "pseudo-English" pronunciation system and agree on some more coherent one?
This problem applies to all Wikipedia pages involving pronunciation, not only "common phrases" --[[:Taw|Taw]]
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Dutch nee is said to be pronounced [[:Common_phrases_in_different_languages/neh|/neh]]/, but how do you pronounce [[:Common_phrases_in_different_languages/neh|/neh]]/? As "nay", or "knee", or something else? -- [[:SJK|SJK]]
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The a in the Danish word "ja" is pronounced somewhat similarly to the English short a, rather than an "ah" sound.  I represented the pronunciation in the table as "ya", but I am not really sure how to represent it so that it is clear that it is more like the a in "cat" than the a in "father".

Is that "cat" when pronounced with a Southern English, or a Northern English accent ?  The "a" will have quite different sounds in each case.  Likewise an American speaker will pronounce "marry" in much the same way that I, with my Scottish accent, will pronounce "merry".   In short this type of "phonetic" spelling can lead to widely different pronunciations depending on what accent the English speaker has.  It's vital that the particular accent used to pronounce the English "phonetic" spelling is specified. -- [[:Derek Ross|Derek Ross]]
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Strange; someone (apparently [[:Guido|Guido]]) deleted beer and Toilet ("for asthetic reasons"?).  I can see leaving out beer (tho I personally think it's useful to know) but toilet (or "where's the toilet") seems like it should be included.--[[:justfred|justfred]]
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What is this "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn." for ? --[[:Taw|Taw]]

Deleted. H.P. Lovecraft nonsense.

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Wouldn't it be more useful to put the languages in alphabetical order? Makes it much easier to look for a certain language.The idea of keeping related languages together is that you can compare similar words, I guess, but this is not easily done in this table. And people are not sticking to the order in the Languages list, anyway. It is obviously not very convenient to have to check that list when you include a new language.
--[[Calypso]]
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