English Is Dumb

SeaRunner26

Why is English such a complicated language? For example:

through: ough = ooh
trough: ough = off
tough: ough = uff
though: ough = owe

What the heck?

HurricaneElaine

English is the HARDEST language to learn. It's a fact.

mmm_drop

You just made me laugh like mad (the crazy mad, not the angry mad). HA! Just another little tidbit of English stupidity...words with multiple meanings. :laugh:

tonightokayalright

English is a hybrid language that draws from all others.

So yeah, half the time it's nonsensical and contradictory. Homophones, for example (words that sound the same, but spelled differently - sent, cent, scent) You might live your whole life and on your death bed learn something new about it.

jg627

Blame the Anglo-saxons and franko-normans. We would be speaking french, but the Normans had to let Anglo-Saxons in the english court, because they were there first. Well the celts were technically there first, but I guess they didn't count. Don't forget to blame catholic priests too, since they did all the writing and poisoned our language with an alphabet and grammar. It doesn't end there either. It just keeps snowballing.

xxxray

Why is English such a complicated language? For example:

through: ough = ooh
trough: ough = off
tough: ough = uff
though: ough = owe

What the heck?

You missed out another six ways to pronounce it

plough: ough = ow
thorough: ough = uh (in America it might be pronounced slightly differently ... though)
lough: ough = och (this is an Irish version of the Scottish loch)
thought: ough = awe
hough: ough = ock
hiccough: ough = up

I don't claim to be interesting, I just know stuff

melaniecheeks

It's complicated because it's so old - it has evolved and changed and adapted over many centuries, and amalgamated several other language influences along the way. Languages are like living things, they constantly change, and no, they aren't easy or logical!

chubbygirl253

Blame the Anglo-saxons and franko-normans. We would be speaking french, but the Normans had to let Anglo-Saxons in the english court, because they were there first. Well the celts were technically there first, but I guess they didn't count. Don't forget to blame catholic priests too, since they did all the writing and poisoned our language with an alphabet and grammar. It doesn't end there either. It just keeps snowballing.

I knew it. I've been blaming them for years. This whole language fiasco has their handiwork written all over it.

wholelottarosa

The Chaos
by G. Nolst Trenite' a.k.a. "Charivarius" 1870 - 1946

Dearest creature in creation
Studying English pronunciation,
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse and worse
I will keep you, Susy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye your dress you'll tear,
So shall I! Oh, hear my prayer,
Pray, console your loving poet,
Make my coat look new, dear, sew it!
Just compare heart, beard and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it's written).
Made has not the sound of bade,
Say said, pay-paid, laid, but plaid.
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as vague and ague,
But be careful how you speak,
Say break, steak, but bleak and streak.
Previous, precious, fuchsia, via,
Pipe, snipe, recipe and choir,
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, shoe, poem, toe.
Hear me say, devoid of trickery:
Daughter, laughter and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles.
Exiles, similes, reviles.
Wholly, holly, signal, signing.
Thames, examining, combining
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war, and far.
From "desire": desirable--admirable from "admire."
Lumber, plumber, bier, but brier.
Chatham, brougham, renown, but known.
Knowledge, done, but gone and tone,
One, anemone. Balmoral.
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel,
Gertrude, German, wind, and mind.
Scene, Melpomene, mankind,
Tortoise, turquoise, chamois-leather,
Reading, reading, heathen, heather.
This phonetic labyrinth
Gives moss, gross, brook, brooch, ninth, plinth.
Billet does not end like ballet;
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet;
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Banquet is not nearly parquet,
Which is said to rime with "darky."
Viscous, Viscount, load, and broad.
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation's O.K.,
When you say correctly: croquet.
Rounded, wounded, grieve, and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive, and live,
Liberty, library, heave, and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven,
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark the difference, moreover,
Between mover, plover, Dover,
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police, and lice.
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label,
Petal, penal, and canal,
Wait, surmise, plait, promise, pal.
Suit, suite, ruin, circuit, conduit,
Rime with "shirk it" and "beyond it."
But it is not hard to tell,
Why it's pall, mall, but Pall Mall.
Muscle, muscular, gaol, iron,
Timber, climber, bullion, lion,
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, and chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor,
Ivy, privy, famous, clamour
And enamour rime with hammer.
*****, hussy, and possess,
Desert, but dessert, address.
Golf, wolf, countenance, lieutenants.
Hoist, in lieu of flags, left pennants.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rime with anger.
Neither does devour with clangour.
Soul, but foul and gaunt but aunt.
Font, front, won't, want, grand, and grant.
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say: finger.
And then: singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, age.
Query does not rime with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post; and doth, cloth, loth;
Job, Job; blossom, bosom, oath.
Though the difference seems little,
We say actual, but victual.
Seat, sweat; chaste, caste.; Leigh, eight, height;
Put, nut; granite, and unite.
Reefer does not rime with deafer,
Feoffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Dull, bull, Geoffrey, George, ate, late,
Hint, pint, Senate, but sedate.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific,
Tour, but our and succour, four,
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, guinea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria,
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean,
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.
Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion with battalion.
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, key, quay.
Say aver, but ever, fever.
Neither, leisure, skein, receiver.
Never guess--it is not safe:
We say calves, valves, half, but Ralph.
Heron, granary, canary,
Crevice and device, and eyrie,
Face but preface, but efface,
Phlegm, phlegmatic, *kitten*, glass, bass.
Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust, and scour, but scourging,
Ear but earn, and wear and bear
Do not rime with here, but ere.
Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew, Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, clerk, and jerk,
Asp, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.
Pronunciation--think of psyche--!
Is a paling, stout and spikey,
Won't it make you lose your wits,
Writing "groats" and saying "grits"?
It's a dark abyss or tunnel,
Strewn with stones, like rowlock, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict, and indict!
Don't you think so, reader, rather,
Saying lather, bather, father?
Finally: which rimes with "enough"
Though, through, plough, cough, hough, or tough?
Hiccough has the sound of "cup."
My advice is--give it up!

Gidzmo

Why is English such a complicated language? For example:

through: ough = ooh
trough: ough = off
tough: ough = uff
though: ough = owe

What the heck?

If you think ENGLISH is tough, try Welsh. Looks like the words are made up of mostly consonants.

taunto

English is the HARDEST language to learn. It's a fact.

k011185

Check out Arabic, Hungarian or Icelandic if you want complicated
English actually wasn't so hard to learn, structure wise. Just some of the words, it's hard getting used to 'maid' not being the same as 'made'.

mollz007

I agree. I think that if you are American, you dont really realize how hard English is to learn until we take a foreign language, and even then we don't fully grasp it. Yet we Americans expect everyone in the world to know our language, nevermind that it makes very little sense to someone jsut learning it.

c2111

I had a big debate with my eight year old on how to say cinnamon, she says it should be sinnamon with an s, if its a c then it should be pronounced kinnamon lol

VanessaHeartsMasr

This whole thread is cracking me up. My husband, whose native language is not English, is a HORRIBLE English speller, and has a rant at least once a week about how the English language makes no sense.

Medwayguy

Why is English such a complicated language? For example:

through: ough = ooh
trough: ough = off
tough: ough = uff
though: ough = owe

What the heck?

Perhaps it is because you have not researched the evolution of the language and the history of the island....


English's closest relatives can be found right across the water in Holland and Germany. It's very closest relative is Frisian, spoken in northern Holland and the islands running along the coast from Holland up into Denmark. Notice some obvious similarities:

Examples :



English Frisian Dutch German

as as als als
bread brea brood Brot
chaff sjêf kaf Kaf
cheese tsiis kaas Käse
church tsjerke kerk Kirche
cow kou koe Kuh
day dei dag Tag
dove dou duif Taube
dream dream droom Traum
ear ear oor Ohr
flea flie vlo Floh
flown flein gevlogen geflogen
fly fleane vliegen fliegen
goose goes gans Gans
great great groot gross
ground groun grond Grund
hail heil hagel Hagel
head haed hooft Haupt
heap heap hoop Haufe
hear hear hoor Hören
him him hem ihm
is is is ist
it it het es
lain lein gelegen gelegen
lay lei lag lag
nail neil nagel Nagel
need noot noot Not
nose noas neus Nase
rain rein regen Regen
salt sâlt zout Salz
say sei zeg sag
seed sied zaad Saat
sleep sliepe slaap schlaff
soft sêft zacht sanft
think tinke denken denken
thought tocht dacht dachte
through troch door durch
thumb tomme duim Daum
to to toe zu
Tuesday tiisdei dinsdag Dienstag
under ûnder onder unter
us ús ons uns
way wei weg Weg
yesterday juster gisteren gestern


Ignorance is not an excuse

jmc0806

I had a big debate with my eight year old on how to say cinnamon, she says it should be sinnamon with an s, if its a c then it should be pronounced kinnamon lol

I've have to agree with your daughter, its phonetic spelling is ˈsi-nə-mən

wholelottarosa

English may be illogical, but it's not that hard compared to some of the other languages out there.

Take Hungarian for example, where they use suffixes instead of propositions and possessives.
friend - barát
my friend - barátom
with a friend - baráttal
with my friend - barátommal
with my friends - barátjaimmal

And you can keep on adding suffixes at the end, for example until you get to
megszentségteleníthetetlenségeskedéseitekért

The base word in there is szent, the rest are all case endings.

NocturnalGirl

English is the HARDEST language to learn. It's a fact.

Say what? It's one of the easiest languages to learn, hence why it is one of the most common languages spoken across the world.

skinnyinnotime

Yet they try to teach English by phonics here in the UK, it simply doesn't work. When the children question why certain letters are pronounced differently they are told "some words are just different and need to be learnt like that" um ok, pointless then.

Medwayguy

Yet they try to teach English by phonics here in the UK, it simply doesn't work. When the children question why certain letters are pronounced differently they are told "some words are just different and need to be learnt like that" um ok, pointless then.

Sweeping statement indeed: Did you never even take an hour to research basic linguistic anthropology! Shakes head and leaves the unenlightened to their fates....