pomporiking:


I am stating the obvious fact that no one can pronounce all the words correctly

And woh m trying 2 elucidate z that 40% out of 100% cn still pronounce the wordz without difficulty

finally...
Something worth reading...I'm going to improve my diction with this piece...
Kudos thread owner! Big up to the writer!!!

uhh, uhh, uhh, uhh... see how all that rhymed?

alexasomba:


There is this word I was sure I couldn't pronounce correctly when I read the poem. It is "victual" transcribed as \ˈvi-təl\. It is sounds more like "vital" and that got me scratching my head.

Anyone can read but not everyone can pronunce words correctly.

you so so right, and the percentage of those that can write are much more than those that can pronounce. it depends on the environment we grow and live anyways

agabaI23:
Until I hear you say them. I will spare you if you are a brit
Beautiful poem

unfortunately you can't

ayusco85:


ur moniker though . are u the african version of eve?

and what is that supposed to mean

[quote author=Reference post=35515027]

Wonder, but he's right. Written and spoken english has gone to the dogs. Excuses aplenty. 'Its not our mother tongue'.

But it is definitely a product of laziness and the dying book culture.[\quote] I grew up with books and my dad had several magazine subscriptions of which 'Reader's Digest' was one of my favourites. English came naturally to me.

I think if we spend more on paper than megabytes we may begin to lower that 90 percentile.

just this! is what is killing our society when it cones to English

AfricanApple:
unfortunately you can't

Hey
I sent u a mail

AfricanApple:
and what is that supposed to mean

NVM

.

.

AfricanApple:
.

I sent u an invite with another pin

Reference:


Wonder, but he's right. Written and spoken english has gone to the dogs. Excuses aplenty. 'Its not our mother tongue'. But it is definitely a product of laziness and the dying book culture. I grew up with books and my dad had several magazine subscriptions of which 'Reader's Digest' was one of my favourites. English came naturally to me.

I think if we spend more on paper than megabytes we may begin to lower that 90 percentile.

just this! is what is killing our society when it cones to English

captcochrane:


I sent u an invite with another pin

so sorry, just seeing this. let me check it right away

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!!!

I tried but not all I pronounced