If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us - Education (4)

If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us - Education (4) - Nairaland

Nairaland Forum › Nairaland General › Education › If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us (61756 Views)

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Re: If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us by darmochy1(m): 4:18pm On Jul 05, 2015

At first, I think say d OP wan show off,
Few lines into d poem my brain switched off,
Then na cough,
Abeg I no go kill myself, wey my poff poff?

Re: If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us by Nobody: 4:18pm On Jul 05, 2015

As a literally student I was enjoying the read! Until I suddenly felt like I was reciting an incantation! undecided

I had to stop.

3 Likes

Re: If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us by obinna2nv(m): 4:21pm On Jul 05, 2015

Now this is a Masterpiece!!

Re: If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us by Godwinfrank1: 4:21pm On Jul 05, 2015

My girl did,not me oooooo,if she did a mistake or not,I don't know o............ She na mass commucator (na work b that)

Re: If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us by Reference(m): 4:22pm On Jul 05, 2015

AfricanApple:
What's difficult there

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.

3 Likes

Re: If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us by paix(m): 4:22pm 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.

No mind them, when many CAN'T even pronounce the word ASK correctly.

2 Likes

Re: If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us by elprokez(m): 4:25pm On Jul 05, 2015

Oh Me, that was awesome. Such a wicked piece. I've got to visit my dIctionary to articulate those words properly...

Re: If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us by majorbass: 4:29pm On Jul 05, 2015

Reading isn't the issue,pronouncing the words with regards to deir sound ll be difficult.
Nice one.
Almst gave me headache sef grin

Re: If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us by DrDxtrz: 4:36pm On Jul 05, 2015*

Re: If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us by Dammysk(f): 5:00pm On Jul 05, 2015

April07:
Wow! This is a really beautiful piece!

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

Bad asss

Uhh....u can lie o! grin

April07:
Wow! This is a really beautiful piece!

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

Bad asss

Uhh....u can lie o!

Re: If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us by Nobody: 5:06pm On Jul 05, 2015

Damn! Had to stop to catch my breath...dis is an assignment

Re: If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us by Oahray: 5:06pm On Jul 05, 2015

April07:
Show off!!

Solitary bliss? Oh please. In peace ke. What happens to our ticket? See how that rhymes not with wicked but cricket. Msttcheew
I'll just go play golf and drink Smirnoff

lolz... You try, lemme dash you one like, and this kiss

Re: If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us by Ifedikaycee(m): 5:07pm On Jul 05, 2015

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!!!

Wow Now this is FP material!!!! lovely

Re: If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us by yollychika(f): 5:08pm On Jul 05, 2015

Jesu

Re: If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us by dondo83(m): 5:09pm On Jul 05, 2015

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

Beautiful poem

even a brit cant get it all, some of those words needs to be pronounced with French/latin/greek intonation

Re: If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us by April07: 5:14pm On Jul 05, 2015

Oahray:
lolz... You try, lemme dash you one like, and this

Hehehehe.. Na you be my mentor na cheesy

And all these people hating on those who can read it..
Y'all need to pick up on ur vocabulary training..read more. Eish undecided

Re: If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us by April07: 5:19pm On Jul 05, 2015

dondo83:
even a brit cant get it all, some of those words needs to be pronounced with French/latin/greek intonation

You think . lol. I got it all.. Save for Victual had to pause and look at it well..
There are no strange words in the piece.
I consider it a tongue twister..

Re: If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us by Oahray: 5:33pm On Jul 05, 2015

April07:
Hehehehe.. Na you be my mentor na

And all these people hating on those who can read it..
Y'all need to pick up on ur vocabulary training..read more. Eish

oh... You even mind dem at all. You get power o grin

Re: If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us by dondo83(m): 5:33pm On Jul 05, 2015

April07:
You think . lol. I got it all.. Save for Victual had to pause and look at it well..
There are no strange words in the piece.
I consider it a tongue twister..

The only way you can get it all is if you are familiar with the words , but pronouncing some for the first time will be impossible. what sounds right in your ears doesn't mean u got the pronunciation

Re: If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us by modskiller(m): 5:36pm On Jul 05, 2015

alexasomba:
There is always someone who didn't pay attention to the post tittle.

Must you talk huh

Anyways sha, receive sense.

Re: If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us by April07: 5:43pm On Jul 05, 2015

dondo83:
The only way you can get it all is if you are familiar with the words , but pronouncing some for the first time will be impossible. what sounds right in your ears doesn't mean u got the pronunciation

But of course, there are simple English words. cheesy

Which most people, yours truly included, are familiar with.

Re: If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us by Spainze007(m): 5:48pm On Jul 05, 2015

@OP am ok wth the first paragraph pls for now... Wen am tru wth my DINNER* I'll con2nu

Re: If You Can Pronounce This Whole Poem, You Speak English Better Than 90% Of Us by Nobody: 5:48pm On Jul 05, 2015

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.

It's a common Bible word. It's no biggie at all.