Maybe start with the fact that not all words in use in English are English words.
read deed redemption, the farm flipper spinoff.
Adultery is not the opposite of infantry; whimsy is not an adjective; you can live together in an apartment; and the Midwest is in the Eastern US.
the Midwest is in the Eastern US.
This explains some of my US geography confusion over the years…
“flammable” and “inflammable” mean the same thing
What a country!
‘Jam’ can mean a fruit preserve, to play music, a stuck door, traffic, to cram something into something else, a tense situation, or to block a radio signal. All spelled and pronounced the same.
Also door jambs
Jim should shim the jamb.
Why can I be overwhelmed or underwhelmed, but not perfectly adequately whelmed?
Nobody’s stopping you using “whelmed”. You can just start using it whenever the opportunity arises.
I use it occasionally, though normally not seriously, along with words where you have an “un” or "dis’, but no positive equivalent, e.g. “gusting” as a positive “disgusting”
lol I love “gusting.” Next time I eat someone else’s cooking, I’m throwing that out there.
Whelm and overwhelm are synonyms.
The way I learned it, is that people have a tendency to emphasize, so when became overwhelmed. You see the same thing with ‘good’, ‘great’, and 'epic’meaning the same thing within certain contexts.
If you want to get technical, I believe “whelm” originally came from waves hitting the hull of a ship, overwhelmed was when the waves crashed over the side and onto the deck.
It’s phunny how fotographs phunction in filosofy.
There is nothing more useless than ph.
until youre being eaten alive by acid
This is also funny.
Phuck ophph
🤣😂
Base and bass (sound the same) and bass (sounds different)
Foundation
Instrument /deep sound
A Fish
How anyone learns English is beyond me
i still remember the best joke i told my entire time in college. a professor was talking about turnpikes and asked if anyone knew what a pike was, with a specific answer in mind..
well, i knew what a pike was
worst part was i played DnD, i knew exactly what he was asking. i just saw a low hanging fruit and an opportunity to be a smartass and you really can’t set me up like that.“You said you were a great bass player!”
Me struggling to hold onto a huge wet slippery fish “Grimmie a second, geez!”
I would like to recommend Highly Irregular: Why Tough, Through, and Dough Don’t Rhyme—And Other Oddities of the English Language.
It’s a pretty quick read and it explains exactly how the English language became such a mess. For each thing that doesn’t make sense, it provides a reason that explains it. Short version: the timing of the Great Vowel Shift relative to the invention of the printing press really screwed it over. There’s quite a bit more (Norman invasion in particular), but that was what codified all the badness.
Learning the “why” of so many previously preposterous language and spelling rules was gratifying and enlightening. They’re still preposterous but slightly less maddening now.
There’s also an excellent podcast interview with the author on 99% Invisible. Check it out. It made me buy the book and I definitely recommend it every time a post like this comes up.
IMO, the more important reason is that English is crusty af. Lots of languages had massive changes since the printing press was invented, but that didn’t stop them from changing their orthography. Germany even had an official spelling reform in the 1990s.
In a way I think these things are what make English a beautiful and poetic language
To call any language shit immediately discredits any opinion on it you might have
English can certainly be difficult! It can understood through tough thorough thought though throughout the learning process.
I’m a fan of the phrase “before was was was, was was is”"
If y’all ain’t get the gist of it y’ain’t thunk it thru enuff.
This was the easiest sentence to parse out for me…
Reading that gave me a tough hiccough.
No. It’s shit
English is the most adaptable language in the world. England got colonised something like seven different times up until the mediaeval age. The language that came out of the end of that process is precision designed to accommodate unfamiliar words and grammar. There’s no better language to put a loanword into. And it’s really easy to invent new grammar for English, which is why English has the most neopronouns.
English has sacrificed its logic and structure to grow fluidity.
He said in English.
Do you speak other languages tho?
Yeah lol
past tense read and toxic lead vs reading and leading if somebody doesn’t underntand
Lol I did get it immediately after, but my instant thought was wait, read and lead don’t rhyme?
Careful, though: reading (past tense of ‘to read’) doesn’t rhyme with Reading (place name)
And leading (being in front) doesn’t rhyme with leading (the metal on a roof).
I feel like I walked on a rake after a perfect catwalk reading you. Love it.
At least English doesn’t have a “she” table, a “he” refrigerator, and a “neutral” lamp gender for everything.
Hes policemanning
I was going to say it’s different because police officers are people, but they’re not.
Would good food nude be lewd?
All languages are beautiful
Qu’est-ce que c’est ?
That’s the ubiquitous “what’s that” in French. All languages are evil to newcomers.
You’re welcome.
In German, “jemanden umfahren” means drive around someone,
while “jemanden umfahren” means run someone over.
I don’t think anything comes as close to showcasing the extend of this pronunciation ridiculousness as the poem “The Chaos” by Gerard Nolst Trenité which is said to contain about 800 examples.
My daughter is filled with laughter
And you can’t spell manslaughter without laughter
