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'Choose' rhymes with 'lose'? I mean c'mon, someone did that shit on purpose 👀

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[-] themeatbridge@lemmy.world 44 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

The bigger problem is that lose should rhyme with pose or close. Loose is fine.

[-] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 24 points 2 months ago

Don't get me started on ough and ead.

The lead soldier kneaded dough in the bough brush while they read the book that they previously read while taking a furlough in the rough.

[-] CarbonatedPastaSauce@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago

I read this and all I could think of was "Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo"

[-] Silentiea 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

How can the soldier knead anything if they're made of lead?

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[-] Diddlydee@feddit.uk 26 points 2 months ago

They never did. Their spelling, meaning, and pronunciation are the same as they have always been.

[-] ohwhatfollyisman@lemmy.world 20 points 2 months ago

they are very different in my mind. perhaps because i first came across them in their respective contexts through reading.

even when speaking, to me, lose rhymes with booze and loose rhymes with goose.

this has never been a problem for me, personally.

[-] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 8 points 2 months ago

And here's me, another non-native speaker, just learning that booze doesn't rhyme with goose.

[-] ohwhatfollyisman@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago

oh, no, no, no! booze and a goose should never go together!

[-] samus12345@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

So did you think "goose" was pronounced like "choose?" Understandable.

[-] emeralddawn45@discuss.tchncs.de 18 points 2 months ago

I mean yeah 'loose' could probably be pronounced like 'choose' and it would still make sense, but it absolutely wouldnt make sense for 'lose' to be pronounced like 'moose' or 'goose'. Im not sure what you even mean when you say they switched meanings either because thats just false.

[-] NorthWestWind@lemmy.world 15 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

May as well combine words with the same pronunciation into one word and call it Simplified English (/s)

Honestly tho, this is one of the features of Simplified Chinese, which created the infamous "fuck vegetables" (干菜类).

It's meant to say "dried vegetables" (乾菜類 in TC), but 乾→干. Meanwhile, there exists 幹→干 as well, which means "fuck".

fuck vegetables

[-] Silentiea 3 points 2 months ago

So this is where I find cucumber?

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[-] jimmy90@lemmy.world 14 points 2 months ago

english is a very silly language that's evolved so you can do almost anything with it

it's a risky strat but it seems to have worked

[-] vaper@lemmy.world 13 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Loose rhymes with noose. I can't think of a word that's spelled and pronounced like lose so you have me there.

choose lose cruise booze

all rhyme lol

[-] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

Words pronounced like lose? That's easy. Close

[-] Silentiea 7 points 2 months ago

Close is way closer to clothes than it is to lose. And close is more like gross.

[-] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

I was joking, close would only be pronounced similar to lose if it were spelled clues.

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[-] db2@lemmy.world 13 points 2 months ago

They didn't, except among the ignorant and autocorrect.

[-] cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca 10 points 2 months ago

It's a miracle I know it, and having to teach someone how to read and spell was an eye opener for me trying to explain "this is like this except for this one word because... Reasons and sometimes there's a variation like this because...reasons" so many times.

[-] absGeekNZ@lemmy.nz 7 points 2 months ago

Agreed, I am teaching my second son to read.

I am having the same conversations as when I taught my first to read.

"ok, this word is a 'sight word' because it doesn't make the sounds you expect. It says won, but it looks like it says on-e"

[-] teft@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

Having to explain to my spanish speaking friends why an english word is spelled one way but pronounced another entirely different way gave me the same experience. So many times i have to tell them: “i don’t know english is just weird.”

[-] Silentiea 3 points 2 months ago

Mostly the "reasons" just boil down to etymology. We spell things the way the languages we stole them from spelled them.

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[-] can@sh.itjust.works 10 points 2 months ago

What about the words that are only different in tone.

Content and content

[-] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago

It is read like lead, not read like lead.

[-] tyler@programming.dev 3 points 2 months ago

Or lede for that matter

[-] Jerb322@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago

Trust me, it is equally frustrating for most Americans...or almost, anyway.

[-] finitebanjo@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago

Wait, if they swapped meanings and then swapped spellings then doesn't that mean they're the same as before?

[-] ShepherdPie@midwest.social 3 points 2 months ago

Grrr! English strikes again!

[-] Aeao@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago

Read rhymes with lead, and read rhymes with lead, but lead doesn't rhyme with read and lead doesn't rhyme with read.

[-] corvett@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago
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[-] Noel_Skum@sh.itjust.works 6 points 2 months ago

Are you familiar with “The Chaos” by Gerard Nolst Trenité?

Deep breath:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chaos

[-] Coelacanth@feddit.nu 6 points 2 months ago

I believe the generally accepted scientific term for the English language is "clusterfuck".

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[-] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 5 points 2 months ago

Okay TIL that these aren't pronounced the same.

[-] Revan343@lemmy.ca 5 points 2 months ago

If we start now, we can probably switch the pronunciations of Aristotle and chipotle within a generation.

Chip-ot-el

[-] samus12345@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

No, go the other way, it's closer to Aristotle's name in the original Greek. Ah-ree-stoh-teh-leese.

[-] scarabic@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

English is idiosyncratic as hell. Didn’t someone famous call it “not a language but 3 languages in an overcoat.”

Adding to this specific instance is that even native speakers spell things wrong. They loose their keys, etc.

[-] Here4CatPics@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

It's a lose/loose situation

[-] deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz 4 points 2 months ago

Obviously the plural of foot is feet, so the plural of book should be beek.

Or one sheep should be a shoop.

There's also the English Vowel Shift. Which means words either side of it are inconsistent.

[-] cholesterol@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago
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[-] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Only online and since I hear the words I read it is really fucking annoying.

[-] whotookkarl@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Lowe's loose lows lose loss.

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this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2024
193 points (100.0% liked)

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