Dear ESA members,

I am busy studying, and this might not be the platform to ask this... but here goes.

@ Ben Layden and any other users that have a passion for language, specifically English.

Please give me your thoughts on the following...

"Hints on pronunciation for foreigners"

George Bernard Shaw


I take it you already know
of tough and bough and cough and dough.
Others may stumble, but not you,
On hiccough, thorough, laugh and through.
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps,
To learn of less familiar traps.

Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird.
And dead-it's said like bed, not bead.
For goodness sake, don't call it deed!
Watch out for meat and great and threat.
They rhyme with suite and straight and debt.

A moth is not a moth in mother,
Nor both in bother, broth in brother,
And here is not a match for there,
Nor dear and fear for pear and bear.
And then there's dose and rose and lose
Just look them up--and goose and choose.
And cork and work and card and ward.
And font and front and word and sword.
And do and go, then thwart and cart.
Come, come I've hardly made a start.

A dreadful language? Man alive,
I'd mastered it when I was five!

Thanks

Arz

Love it Arz

Now let me try while being pleasured and see how well I do!

As laughter becomes fearful in slaughter

If "tomb" is pronounced "toom" and "womb" is pronounced "woom", then why isn't "bomb" pronounced "boom" ?!

Morning Arz,

There are some interesting ones:

Cholmondeley (town in England, proncounced "chumley")
Leicester (city in England, pronounced "Lester")
St. John (English boy's name, pronounced "sinjin")
Marjoriebanks (English girl's name, pronounced "Marshbanks")
Cherwell (river in Oxford, pronounced "Charwell")
Belvoir (castle in England, pronounced "beever")
Althorp (as in Viscount - Princess Diana's brother, pronounced "Althrup")
Sir Alec Douglas-Home (former British Prime Minister, pronounced "Douglas-Hume")
Magdalen (college at Oxford University, pronounced "mawdlin")
Berkeley (famous London square, pronounced "Barkly")
Beaconsfield (English town, pronounced "Beckonsfield"
Mainwaring (English surname, pronounced "Mannering")
Bicester (English town, pronounced "Bicester")

Even the Americans have their anomalies. Houston is generally pronounced "hughston" but any New York taxi driver will know that you have not been to New York before if you pronounce that way - Houston Drive is a major freeway in Manhattan and New Yorkers pronounce it "house-ton"

Past tense of "take" is "took" but of "bake" is not "book"

Nice one @Mynx.

On a slightly different vein, Arz, I have the following perplexing questions:
(1) why does the word "stutter" have so many "stutter-able" letters in it?
(2) why is the word "abbreviate" so long?

One "tooth" but many "teeth".
Why is it called a "toothbrush" and not a "teethbrush"??

Love this thread-
there is PUBIC hair all over that PUBLIC toilet sit.

On 2018-07-20 07:14:48 If Only said:
One "tooth" but many "teeth".
Why is it called a "toothbrush" and not a "teethbrush"??

I always asked myself that question

Slighrly offbeat here, but I always thought Whoever decided to add an 'S' in the word 'lisp' was one cruel SoB!