It's pretty cruel, particularly for non-native English speakers, that 'lose' and 'loose' seemingly switched spellings, meanings and pronunciations with each other when no one was looking
It's pretty cruel, particularly for non-native English speakers, that 'lose' and 'loose' seemingly switched spellings, meanings and pronunciations with each other when no one was looking
'Choose' rhymes with 'lose'? I mean c'mon, someone did that shit on purpose đź‘€
Loose rhymes with Goose
It's been years since I've seen people misspelling lose as loose, but I do remember when it was pretty common to see.
english is a very silly language that's evolved so you can do almost anything with it
it's a risky strat but it seems to have worked
Are you familiar with “The Chaos” by Gerard Nolst Trenité?
Deep breath:
This guy was British, rhyming "via" with "choir"
Previous, precious; fuchsia, via; Pipe, snipe, recipe and choir
I think he was Dutch - but they do tend to speak “better” English than the English.
The difference in UK/US (amongst other first language English nations) pronunciation is something I know effects hip-hop lyricism (i.e. rapping) as different pronunciations mean some words only rhyme in your own dialect.
I believe the generally accepted scientific term for the English language is "clusterfuck".
*kloostaphux
May as well combine words with the same pronunciation into one word and call it Simplified English (/s)
Honestly tho, this is one of the features of Simplified Chinese, which created the infamous "fuck vegetables" (干菜类).
It's meant to say "dried vegetables" (乾菜類 in TC), but 乾→干. Meanwhile, there exists 幹→干 as well, which means "fuck".
It's a miracle I know it, and having to teach someone how to read and spell was an eye opener for me trying to explain "this is like this except for this one word because... Reasons and sometimes there's a variation like this because...reasons" so many times.
I once had a roommate from Chile and he asked what the difference in pronunciation was for "juice" versus "Jews". I'm still not sure I properly got the difference across...
Also the difference between "to rob" and "to steal" was an interesting thing to think through and then explain.
Mostly the "reasons" just boil down to etymology. We spell things the way the languages we stole them from spelled them.
Having to explain to my spanish speaking friends why an english word is spelled one way but pronounced another entirely different way gave me the same experience. So many times i have to tell them: “i don’t know english is just weird.”
Agreed, I am teaching my second son to read.
I am having the same conversations as when I taught my first to read.
"ok, this word is a 'sight word' because it doesn't make the sounds you expect. It says won, but it looks like it says on-e"
The bigger problem is that lose should rhyme with pose or close. Loose is fine.
Don't get me started on ough and ead.
The lead soldier kneaded dough in the bough brush while they read the book that they previously read while taking a furlough in the rough.
How can the soldier knead anything if they're made of lead?
I read this and all I could think of was "Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo"
they are very different in my mind. perhaps because i first came across them in their respective contexts through reading.
even when speaking, to me, lose rhymes with booze and loose rhymes with goose.
this has never been a problem for me, personally.
And here's me, another non-native speaker, just learning that booze doesn't rhyme with goose.
oh, no, no, no! booze and a goose should never go together!
They didn't, except among the ignorant and autocorrect.
What about the words that are only different in tone.
Content and content
It is read like lead, not read like lead.
Or lede for that matter
Trust me, it is equally frustrating for most Americans...or almost, anyway.
If we start now, we can probably switch the pronunciations of Aristotle and chipotle within a generation.
Chip-ot-el
Okay TIL that these aren't pronounced the same.
Obviously the plural of foot is feet, so the plural of book should be beek.
Or one sheep should be a shoop.
There's also the English Vowel Shift. Which means words either side of it are inconsistent.
Only online and since I hear the words I read it is really fucking annoying.