English Is Dumb

Joanitude

English often makes no sense.

Exhibit A: how would you pronounce: ghoti


If you said "fish" you are right!

gh, pronounced /f/ as in tough /tʌf/;
o, pronounced /ɪ/ as in women /ˈwɪmɪn/; and
ti, pronounced /ʃ/ as in nation /ˈne͡ɪʃən/.

healthyinpink

This just made me LOL

MaryJane_8810002

We should just scrap English as the universal language and opt for Mandarin (preferably pin yin).

AnnaMC1977

There are no "rules" as in the romance languages (which for me, are easier to learn). English is a germanic language (which makes me wonder if it's difficult to learn German) Right now, I've got Spanish down, now I'm going for Mandarin Chinese....

LuccyH

Why is English such a complicated language? For example:

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

What the heck?

Than u never ever tried to speak Slovakian language ( I am from there) . Try that and then you will be happy with English.

e.g. The most difficult is grammar structure. Slovak language is the only one with seven grammar cases (nominativ, genitiv, dativ, accusativ, local, instrumental, vocativ), exquisite words, soft and hard "i", declension of adjectives and verbs, in other words almost each and every word in this language is being declinated. There are many other characteristics which are not found in other world languages. It is said, or estimated, that it takes about 12 years to learn it completely, but the linguists say, that there is no one on this earth who can speak this language perfectly knowing all the grammar rules.

jaxxie

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!

YA THIS!


PS German is much easier than English!

tigersword

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!

English isn't really all that old, compared to Chinese, French, German, Italian, Latin, or Greek. It's complicated because it's a derivative of German that borrowed heavily from all other European languages.

cfregon

I've worked in linguistics, and if you have even the most basic knowledge of the science/art of the field, you know that they're pronounced differently, because the words are each structured differently. A vowel following a fricative (f, v, etc) will behave in a different way than a vowel paired with another vowel, or a vowel following a bilabial (b, etc). Each unique phoneme is determined by those phonemes surrounding it. Just my two cents.

stardancer7

English is the Borg of languages.

gauchogirl

Why is English such a complicated language? For example:

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

What the heck?

And my last name: Doughty: ough = ow, like how

SoDamnHungry

Just break up.

magj0y

The 'ab' is in
cABin
fABric
tAB
fABulous
A'nd
stAB
lab
CAptain
CAt
CAffein


or you can say taxi

sleepytexan

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

Actually, it seems Armenian is the most complicated.

zephtalah

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

A "c" followed by an "i" or "e" has a soft "c" sound like an "s". So words like cinnamon and circus start with an "s" sound.

meshashesha2012

english is not hard .. if you want to talk hard pronunciation wise, try chinese. you intonate something the wrong way and you will say something completely different.

at least in english if you pronounce it incorrectly the worse that will happen is that no one understands you. in a language like chinese you will be understood as saying something you have no intention of saying

lachesissss

english iz hard. Dats y so many 'mericans haz truble wit it.

And it becomes even more difficult to understand when used by Canadians, eh?

zephtalah

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe

Even though the mind can decipher the words, it absolutely makes a difference in reading speed. And for people with dyslexia it is all the more confusing!

zephtalah

In response to the OP, English has so many ways of pronouncing the same sounds because our language is an amalgamation of so many other languages. There are people who want to standarize the spelling, but I really doubt that will ever happen.

pixiestick

Spoken English: easy
Written English: more difficult

Nowhere near as difficult as Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Russian, Hungarian, Euskara, etc., etc..

I say this as a native English speaker: the truth is that we are lazy and not that our language is difficult.

Someone who speaks three languages: trilingual
Someone who speaks two languages: bilingual
Someone who speaks one: only speaks English

fine_frenzy

bump