Just an observation from a parent helping his kid out with teh homeworks. It has never ceased to amaze me how utterly screwed up the English language is, or at least the way words are spelled and pronounced. I've often heard the Engrish ranguage is the hardest to learn, and if I'm from saayyy...Germany...and I'm trying to learn English, I can only imagine how tough (Just check the spelling on tough) it must be to be proficient with it. Take Spanish, for instance. I've taken some courses and one of the first things you learn is that you basically pronounce every letter in the word as it is written. There is really only one consistently silent letter in Spanish.
So, in reviewing spelling words with my 5th grader, at times I just have to say, "Look, I don't know of any rule to help you remember how to spell this. You just have to recognize it and remember how it's spelled." Why is there a need to put a "K" at the start of so many words when it's just a useless letter, hanging on to I guess, look good?
It's a nife...not a Ka-nife. Knife? Really? I just don't Ka-no why there's this need for a K in Know. But you knew there'd be more.
Know
Knew
Knife
Knowledge
Man, I'm getting all tied in knots. Thank God there's a knock at my door. Probably my neighbor, Mr. Knight.
Neighbor? eigh says long A or ay? Why? That seems geigh to me...wait...I mean gay. Speaking of gay, the horse says Nay as he pulls the sleigh. No way, do you know how much that thing weighs? (Yes, I've been smoking weed)
But, I'm not through. Through? When did someone decide ough said eww...or ouu...but only for certain words? Is there some strange need for the gh? Well, I can understand the need for it in the word tough. Everyone ka-nows that you really pronounce ough UFF. Like in BUFFT....I mean bought. Wait, now it's AWW? Although....damn, now it's long O? Man, this is rough. I ought to stop. But I can't. There's too many different letters in our language that make the same sounds and some that have several different pronunciations... shuns. Pisses me ough. I theenk
You'd better be consistently concise when using C to spell cat, cork cable or century. Concur? Keep em' coming? Nah, I'll quit. To go on would be Wrong. Cause if loving you in Wrong, I don't want to be WRight. But I just looked back at "would" and thought it could be the L is what gives it that sound.
It's such a hassle to wrestle with this stuff but thank God we're in a nation where we can be passionate about theengs. Think I'll go load up that bong. I'm through. You? Yeah, me too.
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