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Pronunciation Poem.
posted by dystopianfuturetoday 3 months ago • 243 views
This is a funny little anonymous poem I found (on reddit) that illustrates the confusing nature of the English language. Try and read it aloud for fun.

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 bear and pear.
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 and thwart and cart –
Come, come, I’ve hardly made a start! A dreadful language? Why man alive!
I’d mastered it when I was five.























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Poetry is for sissies.


written by kronosposeidon  | 3 months ago | CH
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There once was a girl from Nantuket......


written by dystopianfuturetoday  | 3 months ago | CH
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Words are my second favorite friends, besides numbers. But I must admit, they're much better in other languages. English is a bitch. American is even worse.


written by thinker247  | 3 months ago | CH
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We studied a lot of the origins of English in highschool. It used to sound a whole-lot more like German. For example, "knight" used to be pronounced as it is spelled "kanigt" or "kanikt" perhaps. It just evolved until the printing press and dictionaries locked it into something close to its current dialects.

Great poem though.


written by Doc_M  | 3 months ago | CH
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Whats odd about pronunciation is i "hear" that silent K at the start of knight, amoungst other things. atleast my mind registers it when said.


written by Thylan  | 3 months ago | CH
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That's really cool man!


written by Ryjkyj  | 2 months 4 weeks ago | CH
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Poetry is for manly men with enough confidence to not care what lesser men say.

Good poem, you stud you.


written by gwiz665  | 2 months 3 weeks ago | CH
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*quality


written by kronosposeidon  | 2 weeks 5 days ago | CH
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Awarding dystopianfuturetoday with one star point for this contribution to Sift Talk - declared quality by kronosposeidon.


written by siftbot  | 2 weeks 5 days ago | CH
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