General Chat

This was posted a while ago on here by an Italian called Viv who lives in London! I thought it was relevant after the thread about words that sound the same but are spelt differently. It's a bit long, but try to read to the end! Sue

Dearest creature in creation Study English pronunciation I will teach you in my verse Sounds like corpse, corps, horse and worse. I will keep you, Suzy, busy Make your head with heat go dizzy. Tear in eye, your dress will tear So shall I, oh hear my prayer. 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.) Now I surely will not plague you With such words as plaque and ague. But be careful how you speak, Say break and steak, but bleak and streak. Cloven, oven, how and low Script, receipt, show, poem and toe. Hear me say, devoid of trickery, Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore. Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles, Exiles, smiles and reviles. Scholar, vicar and cigar, Solar, mica, war and far. One, anemone, Balmoral, Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel, Gertrude, German, wind and mind, Scene, Melopmene, mankind. Billet does not rhyme with ballet, Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet. Blood and flood are not like food, Nor is mould like should or would. Viscous, viscount, load and broad, Toward, to forward, to reward. And your pronunciation's OK When you correctly say croquet. Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve, Friend and fiend, alive and live. Ivy, privy, famous, clamour, And enamour rhymes with hammer! River, rival, tomb, bomb,comb, Doll and roll and some and home. Stranger does not rhyme with anger Neither does devour with clangour. Sounds but foul, haunt but Aunt, Font, front, wont, want, grand and grant. Shoes, goes, does - now say finger, And then singer, ginger, linger. Real, zeal, mauve,gauze, gouge and guage Marriage, foliage, mirage and age. Query does not rhyme with very, Nor does fury sound like bury. Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth. Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath. Though the differences seem little, We say actual but victual. Refer does not rhyme with dealer, Foeffer does, and zephyr - heifer. Mint, pint, senate and sedate, Dull, bull and George ate late. Scenic, Arabic, Pacific, Science, consience, scientific. 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, cover, clover. Leeches, breeches, wise, precise, Chalice, but police and lice. Camel, constable, unstable, Principle, disciple, label. Petal, panel and canal, Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal. Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair, Senator, spectator, mayor. Tour, but our and succour, four, Gas, alas and Arkansas. Sea, idea, Korea, 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 and key. Say aver but ever, fever, Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver. Heron, granary, canary, Crevice and device and aerie. Face, but preface, not efface, Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass. Large but target, gin, give, verging, Ear but earn and wear and tear, Do not rhyme with here but ere. Seven is right but so is even, Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen. Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk, Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work. Pronunciation..think of Psyche! Is a palin 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, stowed, solace, gunwale. Islington and Isle of Wight, Housewife, verdict and indict. Finally, which rhymes with enough - Though, through, plough, dough or cough? Hiccough has the sound of cup, My advice is just give up!

very true!! :O)

Very good!..