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"Ghoti" = "Fish"
By Josef Essberger
Some languages are "phonetic". That means that you can look at a word and know how to say it. English is not phonetic. You cannot always look at an English word and know how to say it. You cannot always hear an English word and know how to spell it.
George Bernard Shaw (GBS) was a famous Irish writer. He wanted to reform English spelling so that it was more logical. He asked the following question as an example:
How do we pronounce the word "ghoti"?
His answer was "fish".
How can "ghoti" and "fish" sound the same? GBS explained it like this:
?the gh = f as in rouGH
?the o = i as in wOmen
?the ti = sh as in naTIon
Of course, this was a joke. The word "ghoti" is not even a real word. But it showed the inconsistency of English spelling.
It is very important to understand that English spelling and English pronunciation are not always the same.
Same spelling - different sound
Do not place too much importance on the spelling of a word. The more important thing in understanding English is the sound.
Here are five words that end in "ough". In each word, the "ough" has a different pronunciation:
?bough rhymes with cow
?cough rhymes with off
?rough rhymes with puff
?though rhymes with Jo
?through rhymes with too
Many words have exactly the same spelling but are pronounced differently when the meaning is different. These words are called "homographs". Here are some examples:
?bow (noun: front of ship) rhymes with cow
?bow (noun: fancy knot) rhymes with go
?lead (verb: to guide) rhymes with feed
?lead (noun: metal) rhymes with fed
?wind (noun: airflow) rhymes with pinned
?wind (verb: to turn) rhymes with find
Different spelling - same sound
Many words have different spellings but are pronounced exactly the same. These words are called "homophones". Here are some examples:
?sea, see
?for, four
?hear, here
?one, won
?knight, night
?him, hymn
?to, too, two
What can we learn from all this? We can learn that the sound of a word is more important than the spelling.
Of course, it is good to spell correctly. But to help you understand spoken English and many rules of English, you should think first about the sound of the words. Do not worry too much at first about the spelling.
Take, for example, the rule about pronouncing the past simple "-ed" ending of regular verbs. You have probably learned that when a verb ends in "d" or "t", we add "-ed" and pronounce it /Id/ as an extra syllable.
/Id/
wanT wantED
So why do we have:
/Id/
divide dividED
???
"Divide" does not end in "d". It ends in "e". But it does end in a /d/ sound. With this rule, it is the sound at the end of a word that matters, not the letter. You must think about the spoken word, not the written word.
This is only one example of the importance of sounds in English. There are many more examples!
© 1999 Josef Essberger
Source: http://www.englishclub.com
Some languages are "phonetic". That means that you can look at a word and know how to say it. English is not phonetic. You cannot always look at an English word and know how to say it. You cannot always hear an English word and know how to spell it.
George Bernard Shaw (GBS) was a famous Irish writer. He wanted to reform English spelling so that it was more logical. He asked the following question as an example:
How do we pronounce the word "ghoti"?
His answer was "fish".
How can "ghoti" and "fish" sound the same? GBS explained it like this:
?the gh = f as in rouGH
?the o = i as in wOmen
?the ti = sh as in naTIon
Of course, this was a joke. The word "ghoti" is not even a real word. But it showed the inconsistency of English spelling.
It is very important to understand that English spelling and English pronunciation are not always the same.
Same spelling - different sound
Do not place too much importance on the spelling of a word. The more important thing in understanding English is the sound.
Here are five words that end in "ough". In each word, the "ough" has a different pronunciation:
?bough rhymes with cow
?cough rhymes with off
?rough rhymes with puff
?though rhymes with Jo
?through rhymes with too
Many words have exactly the same spelling but are pronounced differently when the meaning is different. These words are called "homographs". Here are some examples:
?bow (noun: front of ship) rhymes with cow
?bow (noun: fancy knot) rhymes with go
?lead (verb: to guide) rhymes with feed
?lead (noun: metal) rhymes with fed
?wind (noun: airflow) rhymes with pinned
?wind (verb: to turn) rhymes with find
Different spelling - same sound
Many words have different spellings but are pronounced exactly the same. These words are called "homophones". Here are some examples:
?sea, see
?for, four
?hear, here
?one, won
?knight, night
?him, hymn
?to, too, two
What can we learn from all this? We can learn that the sound of a word is more important than the spelling.
Of course, it is good to spell correctly. But to help you understand spoken English and many rules of English, you should think first about the sound of the words. Do not worry too much at first about the spelling.
Take, for example, the rule about pronouncing the past simple "-ed" ending of regular verbs. You have probably learned that when a verb ends in "d" or "t", we add "-ed" and pronounce it /Id/ as an extra syllable.
/Id/
wanT wantED
So why do we have:
/Id/
divide dividED
???
"Divide" does not end in "d". It ends in "e". But it does end in a /d/ sound. With this rule, it is the sound at the end of a word that matters, not the letter. You must think about the spoken word, not the written word.
This is only one example of the importance of sounds in English. There are many more examples!
© 1999 Josef Essberger
Source: http://www.englishclub.com
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- 10 Reasons Why English Is A Hard Language To Learn
By Xamuel The purpose of this article is to put language difficulty into perspective for native English speakers struggling with foreign languages. Languages like Japanese, Russian, Chinese, Arabic, or even easier languages like Spanish, can seem very...
- Teaching Spelling Strategies To Esl Students
Teaching spelling strategies to ESL students is challenging for instructors. Many of the inconsistencies of the English language with regards to word meaning and pronunciation are directly confronted by students when they begin to put words to paper....
- Common Mispronunications
for Portuguese Speakers Because your native language is Portuguese, you naturally will have difficulty pronouncing several American English sounds. You may notice that some are harder to learn than others. Here are a few sounds that you are most likely...
- Word Stress And Sentence Stress
The Golden Key to English Pronunciation byJosef Essberger Normally when we say "I feel stressed" it means "I feel anxious". Stress is a kind of worried feeling about life or work. But there is another kind of stress that actually helps us understand....
- What's In A Preposition?
What's IN a Preposition? Josef Essberger Prepositions can be divided into: ?one-word prepositions (eg at, into, on) ?complex prepositions (eg according to, in spite of) The name "preposition" (pre + position) means "place before". Prepositions usually...