this post was submitted on 22 Mar 2025
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[–] [email protected] 35 points 2 days ago (2 children)

The irony of writing the post in English, isn’t lost in you, is it?

[–] [email protected] 27 points 2 days ago
[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 days ago

OP found it tough to thoroughly think this one through.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 days ago

English mfs copying those words and once again changing their pronunciation <--

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago

I believe it is a conspiracy by HP to make us use more ink.

[–] [email protected] 58 points 3 days ago (4 children)

At least you can learn which letters to ignore when pronouncing a word. But English pronunciation is completely f-ed up. How do you pronounce "read" or "lead"?

[–] [email protected] 69 points 3 days ago (6 children)

When the English tongue we speak.
Why is break not rhymed with freak?
Will you tell me why it's true
We say sew but likewise few?
And the maker of the verse,
Cannot rhyme his horse with worse?
Beard is not the same as heard
Cord is different from word.
Cow is cow but low is low
Shoe is never rhymed with foe.
Think of hose, dose,and lose
And think of goose and yet with choose
Think of comb, tomb and bomb,
Doll and roll or home and some.
Since pay is rhymed with say
Why not paid with said I pray?
Think of blood, food and good.
Mould is not pronounced like could.
Wherefore done, but gone and lone -
Is there any reason known?
To sum up all, it seems to me
Sound and letters don't agree.

- Lord Cromer, 1902

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Or "The Chaos", Gerard Nolst Trenité, 1922

[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

There are a few of them. There's also

Phoney Phonetics.

One reason why I cannot spell,
Although I learned the rules quite well
Is that some words like coup and through
Sound just like threw and flue and Who;
When oo is never spelled the same,
The duice becomes a guessing game;
And then I ponder over though,
Is it spelled so, or throw, or beau,
And bough is never bow, it's bow,
I mean the bow that sounds like plow,
And not the bow that sounds like row -
The row that is pronounced like roe.
I wonder, too, why rough and tough,
That sound the same as gruff and muff,
Are spelled like bough and though, for they
Are both pronounced a different way.
And why can't I spell trough and cough
The same as I do scoff and golf?
Why isn't drought spelled just like route,
or doubt or pout or sauerkraut?
When words all sound so much the same
To change the spelling seems a shame.
There is no sense - see sound like cents -
in making such a difference
Between the sight and sound of words;
Each spelling rule that undergirds
The way a word should look will fail
And often prove to no avail
Because exceptions will negate
The truth of what the rule may state;
So though I try, I still despair
And moan and mutter "It's not fair
That I'm held up to ridicule
And made to look like such a fool
When it's the spelling that's at fault.
Let's call this nonsense to a halt."

- Attributed to Vivian Buchan, 1966

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[–] [email protected] 41 points 3 days ago (3 children)

you can say French on the internet, no need to self censor like your mommy will tell you off

[–] [email protected] 20 points 3 days ago (4 children)

A lot of words are acceptable on the internet but under no circumstances whatsoever should anyone type out a word as bad as the F-word. You do not yet know the extent of what you've done…

[–] [email protected] 1 points 14 hours ago

Los Baguettinos

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 days ago

Pardon my Fr*nch

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

EEE aaaaa uuuuuu.

Qwa?

EEEEE AAAAA UUUUU!

QWAAAA?

GIVE ME THE DAMN WATER

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 days ago (8 children)

English is no much better... In contrast, Korean and Spanish are quite "what you write is what it sounds"

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Also in Hawaiian. I was first told “just pronounce all the letters.” This is why you can have words that are all vowels like “Aiea” (basically “a-ee-ay-ya” but kinda fast).

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

that’s because fucking missionaries came in, created the written language and standardized the spoken language then beat all the children into compliance

then their children overthrew the island and beat them for speaking at all so it almost died and the revival was focused on survival of the language over nuance

it used to have much more spoken variation

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 days ago

English just saw the French doing this and said: hold my beer

[–] merc 5 points 2 days ago

This needs the Mr. Bean meme of the English cheating off the French.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Bordeaux

Bor-dewks? NON!

Bor-doh? OUI!

[–] Samskara 12 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Edinburgh is pronounced how?

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 days ago

Oh, easy. Ed-in-ur-mom

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago
[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago (5 children)

A lot of unpronounced letters are actually pronounced conditionally, for example in “Je suis un homme” the last s of suis is pronounced because it is followed by a vowel.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

Je suis un omelete du fromaaaaage

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 3 days ago (12 children)

I live in a city founded by the French and nothing is pronounced the French way. Can't win.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Trageideigh has entered the chat…

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Let's not forget they were some of baddest mfers during the second world war

Edit: some French hating mfers in here‽ The French are some bad ass mfers! Don't care what the doots say, I respect the French!

[–] prettybunnys 5 points 2 days ago (2 children)

This is a weird comment but also confusing about why it’s being downvoted.

Is it cuz it’s so random or because people are idiots and think you’re wrong?

The French may have gotten collapsed but they fought tooth and nail the entire war.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 days ago (8 children)

Is there a high-level explanation of how that clusterfuck happened? I mean, all the roman languages around France are fairly reasonable in their spelling.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 days ago (1 children)

People used to pronounce all the letters and then over time they got lazy and stopped pronouncing everything

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 days ago (1 children)

And they have actually removed some of them. The ê in forêt indicates it used to be spelled forest but that was so long ago that they're willing to admit it's not necessary. Unlike the k in knife, what would we do without that!

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 days ago (1 children)

The pronunciation of words evolved but the spelling of most words didn’t.

Like the Great Vowel Shift in English

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Also Danish: you thought the French say '92' in a convoluted manner? Hold my øl.

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