Scribd
Upload
112 views2 pages

Pronunciation Poem

This poem provides a humorous overview of the irregularities and inconsistencies in English pronunciation and spelling through rhyming verses. It notes how words like blood and flood are pronounced differently despite similar spellings, and how other words like refer and deafer or aunt and haunt do not rhyme though they look similar. The poem aims to confuse the reader by listing many such irregular word pairs, suggesting that mastering English pronunciation is a nearly impossible task filled with exceptions and inconsistencies. It concludes by advising the reader to simply "give up" on fully understanding the vagaries of English.

Uploaded by

Adi Heriadi
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
112 views2 pages

Pronunciation Poem

This poem provides a humorous overview of the irregularities and inconsistencies in English pronunciation and spelling through rhyming verses. It notes how words like blood and flood are pronounced differently despite similar spellings, and how other words like refer and deafer or aunt and haunt do not rhyme though they look similar. The poem aims to confuse the reader by listing many such irregular word pairs, suggesting that mastering English pronunciation is a nearly impossible task filled with exceptions and inconsistencies. It concludes by advising the reader to simply "give up" on fully understanding the vagaries of English.

Uploaded by

Adi Heriadi
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

Dearest Creature in creation, Now first say finger,

Study English pronunciation and then singer, ginger, linger,


I will teach you in my verse real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge, and gauge,
Sounds like corpse, corps, marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.
horse, and worse.
Query does not rhyme with very,
I will keep you Suzy, busy, Nor does fury sound like bury.
Make your head with heat grow dizzy. Dost, lost, post, and doth, cloth, loth.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear. Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though the differences seem little,
So shall I! oh hear my prayer.
Just compare heart, beard, and heard, We say actual but victual.
Diet and diet, lord and word. Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Sword and sward, retain and Britain. Feoffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
(Mind the latter, how it’s written.) Mint, pint, senate, and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late.
Now I surely will not plague you. Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
With such words as plague and ague. Science, conscience, scientific.
But be careful how you speak; Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak; Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.

Cloven, oven, how and low, We say hallowed, but allowed,


Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe. People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Hear me say, devoid of trickery, Mark the differences, moreover,
Daughter, laughter and Terpsichore, Between mover, cover, clover;
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles, Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Exiles, similes, reviles. Chalice, but police and lice;

Scholar, vicar, and cigar. Camel, constable, unstable.


Solar, mica, war and far. Principle, disciple, label.
One, anemone, Balmoral Petal, panel, and canal.
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel. Wait, surprise, plait. Promise, pal.
Gertrude, German, wind and mind. Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair.
Scene, Melpomene, Mankind. Senator, spectator, mayor.
Tour, but our and succour, four.
Billet does not rhyme with Ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet. Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, Korea, area,
Blood and flood are not like food, Psalm, Maria, but Malaria.
Nor is would like should and would. Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.
Viscous, viscount, load and broad, Doctrine, turpentine, marine.
Toward, to forward, to reward.
Compare alien, and Italian,
And your pronunciation’s OK Dandelion and battalion.
When you correctly say croquet, Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve, Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
Friend, and fiend, alive and live.
Ivy, privy, famous; clamour. Say aver, but ever, fever.
And enamour rhyme with hammer. Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
Heron. Granary, canary.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb, Crevice and device and aerie.
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stanger does not rhyme with anger, Face, but preface, not efface.
Neither does devour with clangour. Phlegm, Phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt, Large but target, gin, give, verging
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant. Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.
Shoes, goes, does. 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 palling 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!

You might also like