Marc: In English (as opposed to, say, Dutch) it is important to distinguish voiced / unvoiced consonants even at the end of a syllable. Luckily, there are some tricks that native speakers use unconsciously — they’ll deny it, but you’ll hear it once you know what to listen for. 1. Other things being equal, the vowel before an unvoiced consonant sounds shorter than before a voiced consonant. If you say “believe” but shorten the vowel in the second syllable, people will hear “belief” even if you actually use a V, just because you clipped the vowel. The reverse is also true. 2. Voiced consonants generally have more friction than unvoiced ones. An unvoiced fricative will also tend to last longer: belief / believe /bəlɪiff/ /bəlɪiːv/ If you follow the preceding two rules, you don’t even have to worry about whether or not your English fricatives /f/ /v/ /θ/ /ð/ or sibilants /s/ /z/ /(t)ʃ/ /(d)ʒ/ are actually voiced or not — the illusion is nearly perfect. Note: As you know, English and Dutch were the same language just hundreds of years ago (the blink of an eye), and the only time English speakers truly pronounce voiced fricatives and sibilants with full voicing is between vowels. (Just be careful, as a Dutchman, not to prolong the V too much at the beginning of a word, or it will sound like an F.)

Hello, this is a bit difficult to answer without sound :-), but live scores is pronounced slightly differently to life. The ending is ve which should sound the same as when you say live as in to live in a country, phonetically it is a v sound with a long I. Essentially its like saying the word Lie with a v on the end. The sound is slightly harsher than an f as pronounced in life. The two do sound very similar especially with some British accents, but they are different. I hope this helps

No, the words are pronounced differently, and (for once!) as written. If you heard "live" pronounced as "life", then it wasn't standard The Germans, who have adopted the word into their everyday language, tend to do this in accordance with their usual pronunciation of the letter. Perhaps the Dutch do, too? It's also possible some regional English accent does this, too, but I can't think of one that does.

It is definitely pronounced as 'live' ( /lʌɪv/, as in 'life', but with a 'v') whenever it's question of direct TV (or other) coverage. Different pronunciations may be a matter of accents, but 'life coverage' would have a whole different meaning (for instance, in a context of life insurance). The difference between 'I live in...' and 'live coverage' is that in the first case 'live' is a verb, whereas in the second case it's an adverb. It is pronounced differently in each case: 'I live ( /lɪv/ ) in...' and 'live (/lʌɪv/) coverage'.

You are correct. In the case of ''Live scores'', you pronounce ''live'' as ''life'' [laiv]. Anytime when the word ''live'' refers to the fact that something is happening now (a live show, a live football match, a live concert) you pronounce it as life [laiv].