The English Language

Poirot

Poirot

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Speaking it is one thing.....reading and writing it...something else entirely. For instance

There.......Their pronounced the same, different meanings. Same goes for
red..........read
sale.........sail
tale.........tail
while.......wile

And then we have those words that are spelled the same, but pronounced differently
like bow. It can be coupled with an arrow and pronounced one way, or lowering your head (or body) to pay homage
tear that we cry, and tear that we rip apart
we read a book that you have already read


And then we have those wonderful words that are sort of spelled the same, but all pronounced completely different. (Desi Arnaz demonstated this in a fantastic way on an I Love Lucy show)
bough, cough, dough, enough, rough, tough, through, though

How about bear and bare
bore and boar
dear and deer
hear and here
pear and pare

Along those lines....hear, pear, (more of those spelled nearly the same and pronounced differently.

There is so much more, so I am giving great credit to our members here who were not born and raised in the U.S. but took the time to learn the language.
And then, to those born and raised in the U.S. studying English in school was hard, wasn't it? LOL
 
Well, not nearly as hard as math, for me, Poirot. :) But it definitely is not an easy language. I admire anyone who learns it as a second language. Some of the folks on here have done an outstanding job of mastering it.

You thought up lots of good examples. The pronunciation thing gets even more tricky when accents are heavy, like mine.
 
Having just spent several weeks in the UK, I now understand the phrase " America and England are two countries separated by a common language!". Most of my time was spent in the Northwest, and the dialects and accents are quite unique. I had a hard time understanding them, and found they had a hard time understanding each other! Funny story: There was a man who called the paper to place an ad selling his home. The ad said "nice three bed semi detached, parking, garden, school and park nearby. No Asians please."

This sent out an investigative reporting team to film this racist person and expose him! When told his action was illegal, the man sputtered "Why can't I stop "Asians" from coming 'round? I don't like the bloody "Asians", lazy sods just won't do any work, all they want is ta put a sign in me garden, then take me money for doing naught!"

The reporter than started laughing as he realized the man had meant "Agents", and the person at the ad agency had misheard him.

I spent a lot of time there asking people to repeat what they said!
 
Heck, here in the U.S. accents make a difference, too. Once, years ago on Candid Camera, Alan Funt went to ...well, it was either north or south Carolina, he had two words on different pieces of paper, which he gave to people, one at a time, asking them to read what it said.
The words were all and oil. And every single person pronounced them both exactly the same.
Now in most places those words are pronounced differently. But there, they were being pronounced exactly alike. And to this one man, Alan Funt questioned him, noting the completely different spelling of the words, and then pronouncing them himself. ALL, and then OIL. And the man said, with that wonderful southern drawl..... "well, there's your problem, you are pronuncin' the " i ".
 
Lol, I love that story, Poirot. That man sure got it right. Terribly awkward to try to insert that useless "i" in oil.

I also totally agree with KathyLu about "their" and "there." I often wonder why people get the two confused.

The one my Yankee husband and I go round and round about all the time is "wh" and "w" at the beginning of words. He is always making word play jokes with words like "whine" and "wine" or "which" and "witch." I never "get" the jokes because I don't pronounce those words the same at all. In my world, "wh" has a sort of blowing sound, in an effort to pronounce the "h." After the "w," I might add. Hubby argues that even if you want to pronounce the "h" the sound would come before the "w." Uh, no, and I don't care what kind of reasoning you give me, that will never be the case! :)
 
Wow ! Pretty interesting thread ! I want to participate ! :D

If it helps, while you are all right, English is quite difficult, I can assure you it's easier than French. The French language has so many rules and exceptions, people who try to learn it often get discouraged. And even now, my daughters learn to write it in school, but still make so many spelling mistakes, I constantly have to help them and correct them. Fortunately, like my brother always says, I'm a human dictionary. :D (But I'm terrible in maths !)

For instance, in English, you only have one word, or should I say one way, to address people : "You". No matter who one talks to, "you" is the proper word, whether a toddler or an elderly. "How are you ?" There you go, simple.
But in French, we have two words, one more formal, "vous", the other, more familiar, "tu". So "How are you" can be "Comment vas-tu ?" for a youngster or a good friend. Or it can be "Comment allez-vous ?" when talking to an elderly person, or someone less familiar, or in a position of authority, like a boss. Crazy, right ? And that' s just an example.

Another example, to illustrate the differences between English and French : the verbs. Take the verb "to be" :

I am
You are
He/She is
We are
You are
They are

Now in French, same verb : être

Je suis
Tu es
Il/Elle est
Nous sommes
Vous êtes
Ils/Elles sont

So just learning the verbs is quite the task in French. Just ask my girls !

Oh, and to get back on the subject of words who sound the same, I remember a funny little anecdote, back when I was in elementary school. I had trouble with the words "three" and "tree". Then one English teacher told me "Trees hate Hatchets". Anyway, it helped me, thus I never had a problem after that. :)
 
TheWriter, Spanish & Italian are like that too. You have "tu" used as a familiar you, yet "usted" used as more of a formal you, then "ustedes" in a plural you.

Then there's the different "to be" verbs for temporary or permanent, ser & estar. Soy calor is saying I am hot (sexy, good looking hot) yet estoy calor is I am hot (temperature). lol. What a difference!

I've been learning some Korean. What a challenge that is, but fun at the same time.
 
I only mentioned this because we do have members from other countries - Germany, Israel, India, Great Britain, Canada, plus those here in the U.S. who were born in other countries.
I lived in a multi-ethnic neighborhood as a kid, with many adults having come from other countries - Italy, Russia, Poland, Syria, Germany...among others. And the adults did not have much of a problem learning to speak English, but reading and writing it was a different matter.
And yes, I will agree that some languages may have the same sort of differences that the English language does. My one year of Spanish did not leave me with much except Como esta usted? LOL (How are you?) Oh, there are a few other words, but my daughter speaks it fluently, even thinks in Spanish at times (took it for years and taught it as well)

@JS...I ended up remembering the difference in principle & principal, somehow, by thinking that the le at the end of one was for rule. LOL
 
@ Writer - I remember learning French in school and it was definitely difficult to remember all of the different verbs like passe compose, futur compatif (?) present, etc.

My sister went on a 3 month exchange to St. Felicienne/Felician (?) Quebec and the other girl came to live with us. In keeping with misunderstanding pronounciations, I was downstairs vaccuuming and she comes up to me in a frantic state saying, "I lost my hearing, I lost my hearing" I asked, "Pardon me"? And she repeated, "I lost my hearing"> With a puzzled look, I asked, "You lost your hearing"? She said , "yes, yes, I can't find my hearing"!! I looked at her again and said, "How can you lose your hearing, when you are hearing everything I am saying"? She looked at me and we both laughed when I realized she was trying to tell me she lost her, "EARRING"! LOL! LOL! We found the "Hearing" on the floor of her bedroom.
 
My personal favorites are:

there, their, they're
your, you're
to, too
then, than
lose, loose

And then there is the misuse of phrases:

"I could care less" should be "I couldn't care less"
"for all intensive purposes" should be "for all intents and purposes"

Also, "irregardless" isn't a word. Just use "regardless".
 
My buddy came to Alberta where we worked in a National park called Waterton and where he learned to speak English. He said he always had problems when trying to listen and understand what people were saying with so many of the english words that sound the same but have different spelling. It was difficult to understand what a sentence meant. Example: Stares, Stairs, Steer (a vehicle) Steer (a cow).
 
Stairs and steers are pronounced the same there Muzzaman? You would certainly think my accent was weird, lol!
 
No, no, they are not pronounced the same here but for my buddy who was learning english, he heard the same pronounciation for each of those words because they were similar to him. It's the same for me when I am trying to understand what someone is trying to say to me in French. I hear one word but really three words were said.

Hmmmm.....I don't think I am explaining myself very well or doing a good job of trying to relay what I am thinking. Sorry, I was out back with JJ and he brought some his doughnuts!! LOL!
 
ktspirit said:
Stairs and steers are pronounced the same there Muzzaman? You would certainly think my accent was weird, lol!
Click to expand...
I don't think that is what he meant. Stairs that you climb, and stare at a person.......plus steer a car (steering wheel) and steer that is a cow.....

It got confusing for his friend.
That is what I was trying to point out in this thread. That English is a very confusing language, and it is very hard when words that are pronounced the same, have different meanings.

A merchant sells his wares, but we do wear different types of clothing. We saw wood, but look at the pretty birds we saw the other day. We can run fast, but then come Lent, we fast to atone
 
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