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If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us - Education (3) - Nairaland

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Re: If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us by DatechMan(m): 3:26pm On Jul 05, 2015
If you tell me you got the pronunciation of all words correctly without a Dico then you'd be lying.
Tell me you've not heard someone use this word before and you managed to get it. Then F off.

Terpsichore
Re: If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us by Nobody: 3:28pm On Jul 05, 2015
blah... blah... blah is all i see.
Re: If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us by Ajascolove(m): 3:29pm On Jul 05, 2015
Nice one
Re: If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us by Nobody: 3:29pm On Jul 05, 2015
Im pretty sure i can pronounce the vast majority of those words correctly...one of the ways to know if the pronunciation is right is by observing whether or not your pronunciation keeps you within the rhyme and rythm of the poem or if it causes you to deviate.

i don't need to listen to anyone recite this to know that most of those claiming to have "read" it perfectly, probably missed the correct pronunciation of "Arkansas"- (arkensaw). My point being, you might think you pronounced all these words rightly but there is a very high chance you didnt.
Re: If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us by IGBOSON2: 3:31pm On Jul 05, 2015
Sounds like something Chaucer would write!

I hated 'the Canterbury tales' in secondary school as i couldn't make head or tail of it! sad
Re: If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us by callonme(m): 3:35pm On Jul 05, 2015
Oga oh












I'm so busy working on my award-winning blog.
Re: If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us by haibe(m): 3:35pm On Jul 05, 2015
alexasomba:


There is always someone who didn't pay attention to the post tittle. undecided
lmao
Re: If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us by NaLaugh: 3:39pm On Jul 05, 2015
1K phone credit for anyone who records audio of themselves reading this - All of it.

Use Vocaroo.com or what ever works for you, and post it here.

Serious cheesy
Re: If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us by Cholls(m): 3:40pm On Jul 05, 2015
April07:
Wow! This is a really beautiful piece! cheesy

And... I read the whole poem without pausing.. yup! I didn't mix up any word lipsrsealed

Bad asss grin
my sister comot there na lie u lie.
Re: If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us by ugogermany: 3:40pm On Jul 05, 2015
Another confused state again!
Re: If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us by piagetskinner(m): 3:41pm On Jul 05, 2015
Too easdy...I was expecting Hon patricks kind of poem#
Re: If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us by saviola77(m): 3:42pm On Jul 05, 2015
AncientJerk:
Im pretty sure i can pronounce the vast majority of those words correctly...one of the ways to know if the pronunciation is right is by observing whether or not your pronunciation keeps you within the rhyme and rythm of the poem or if it causes you to deviate.

i don't need to listen to anyone recite this to know that most of those claiming to have "read" it perfectly, probably missed the correct pronunciation of "Arkansas"- (arkensaw). My point being, you might think you pronounced all these words rightly but there is a very high chance you didnt.
I couldn't agree more.
Re: If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us by ayusco85(m): 3:42pm On Jul 05, 2015
AfricanApple:
What's difficult there undecided

ur moniker though lipsrsealed. are u the african version of eve?
Re: If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us by Nobody: 3:43pm On Jul 05, 2015
DatechMan:
If you tell me you got the pronunciation of all words correctly without a Dico then you'd be lying.
Tell me you've not heard someone use this word before and you managed to get it. Then F off.

Terpsichore

well you don't need to have heard the word pronounced before to get it right all the time... a lot of the time yuo can take an educated guess at the origin of the word and thus its likely pronunciation. i'm gonna take a guess that this word is pronounced "terpsicor'
Re: If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us by matingo(f): 3:43pm On Jul 05, 2015
I LOVE IT.
English without tears!
Breathtaking!!! cool
Re: If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us by Belmot(m): 3:44pm On Jul 05, 2015
Doughyeenbae:
Wow...some words I couldn't pronounce... I rate myself 68% smiley
I rate you 57% tongue
Re: If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us by tommysparks: 3:44pm On Jul 05, 2015
Awesome
Re: If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us by alexasomba(m): 3:45pm On Jul 05, 2015
Gaidenk:
What is harding there,it didn't hard at all,I'm readed it without difficult.
grin
Re: If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us by Belmot(m): 3:45pm On Jul 05, 2015
matingo:
I LOVE IT.
English without tears!
Breathtaking!!! cool
Elizerbeth Pryse
Re: If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us by 9jatatafo(m): 3:46pm On Jul 05, 2015
Will, pill, peel, pea, pee Wicket, cricket got pocket. Na my own be that.
Re: If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us by DaBullIT(m): 3:48pm On Jul 05, 2015
Oahray:
Hehehehe... Not a word did I miss. My prize, whatever rhymes with this. Wait jor, not a kiss... *hiss* but solitary bliss. That's right, leave me in peace! undecided

Leafs and leaves do not rhyme , neither does peter pan rhyme with mister fan , rolling and polling , smoking and molding
Re: If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us by Nobody: 3:49pm On Jul 05, 2015
I rate myself 99.9% ...





From right to leftgrin
Re: If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us by otokx(m): 3:49pm On Jul 05, 2015
Nice brainstorming exercise
Re: If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us by iamclime(m): 3:55pm On Jul 05, 2015
QUAY IS KEY AND PAIL IS PALE,
THE RAIN WILL REIGN AND THE WORM IS WARM,
I STRUM THE CHORDS AND RHYME WITH WORDS,
I DIDNT MISS A LINE; THIS POEM IS FINE!
Re: If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us by chidexy(m): 3:57pm On Jul 05, 2015
Great poem. If one is able to pronounce correctly all the words, then one should be fine with spoken English. I had to use online dictionaries to get the exact pronunciation of some of the words that we generally mispronounce in Nigeria. Thanks @OP

alexasomba:
The poem below is a condensed version of 'The Chaos' by Gerard Nolst Trenité , written in 1922.
It features a ridiculous number of words that are difficult to pronounce, so don't feel bad if you have to refer to a dictionary. I certainly did!

If you fancy yourself something of a professional linguist, then this challenge is for you. English is notoriously difficult to learn, as the language has so many exceptions to the rules. Even for a native English speaker, this poem presents quite a few challenges! Check it out and see how you fare. If you can pronounce all of the words, you speak English better than 90% of the population.

Here we go!

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 grow 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, similes, and reviles;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far;
One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.

Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and 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 rhyme 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.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
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 deafer.
Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific.

Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark the differences, 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 and 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,
Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.
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 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, stowed, solace, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict.

Finally, which rhymes with enough --
Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.
My advice is to give up!!!
Re: If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us by hardbody: 4:04pm On Jul 05, 2015
April07:
Wow! This is a really beautiful piece! cheesy

And... I read the whole poem without pausing.. yup! I didn't mix up any word lipsrsealed

Bad asss grin

I did too..You don't have to believe me but who should i ask to verify your claim? We can all lay claim to have done well. In all it was a good test of personal reading. Another proof that although examination may not be a true test of knowledge but no other means or mode has as yet been introduced as a replacement
Re: If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us by UjSizzle(f): 4:06pm On Jul 05, 2015
zoonermm:
Nice piece of work. No man can pronounce them all correctly, i should think we still have words nd pronounciation in our schools. Please dont decieve urself u got it right just becos u read it.
Ah we can read and pronounce but not everyone pays attention to the spellings wink

Pronunciation.
Re: If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us by Bode2: 4:10pm On Jul 05, 2015
Scrypt:
Make all of una up there dey lie to una selves. Including those that cannot make a complete statement without a single gbagaun. grin grin
All liars? ..... ......Fill in the blanks.

Story. undecided
shall go to hell.

1 Like

Re: If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us by chinwaji(m): 4:11pm On Jul 05, 2015
Ebig22:
Nobody even the english can pronounce all the words correctly

OP should have lived during the days of Shakespear.
Re: If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us by Karlman: 4:11pm On Jul 05, 2015
best piece i ever read nairaland

thanks OP
Re: If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us by Bode2: 4:12pm On Jul 05, 2015
UjSizzle:

Ah we can read and pronounce but not everyone pays attention to the spellings wink

Pronunciation.
not only that, check the word decieve


deceive

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