Why English is tough

Eats_With_A_Fist

When I taught English in Poland, I realized one day that while there are only two ways to spell the "oo" sound in Polish, we have at least six in English. Why? I remember teaching my advanced students how to spell "fish" as "ghoti". Gh = the f sound (like in rough), o = the i sound (like in women), ti = the sh sound (like in ration). English is a funny language.

BrewerGeorge

When I used to teach English, this was my favourite:

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I take it you already know
Of tough and bough and cough and dough?
...
A dreadful language? Man alive!
I'd mastered it when I was five!

A couple of them don't work in "American", but VERY cool.

HMonsterX

I couldn't decide whether the weather would be fine....

How do you spell FISH?

GHOTI!

Gh - Enough
O - Women
ti - Station.

Jade_Butterfly

When I used to teach English, this was my favourite:

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I take it you already know
Of tough and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble, but not you,
On hiccough, thorough, lough 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? Man alive!
I'd mastered it when I was five!

Totally love this!

Jade_Butterfly

You forgot the MFP classic: "You lose weight to get loose clothes"

Indeed:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: