Vocal Voices

by **AliasAggers** » 28 May 2018, 19:10

I have recently become addicted to Codeword puzzles, which I find to be good exercise for the brain.
They have, however, made me realise what odd spelling is contained in the English language. For example....

(A) Plurals: Usually achieved by adding an 'S', as in cows, dogs, houses, posts, etc., but not for SHEEP - spelt the same for singular or plural.
but not for MAN, which becomes MEN , not MANS, and the plural of PAN is not PEN.
Sometime a change in vowels is done, as when foot becomes feet.
Then sometimes Y is changed to IE, as LADY and LADIES. Sometimes a change in vowels is used, as in FOOT and FEET, and MOUSE and MICE.

(B) Silent letters: The B in LAMB, and THUMB. The K in Knob and Knight., and the W in WRIST, and so on.

(C) PH sounded as F, as in PHONE.

I'm sure there are many more examples.

These featues must make it more difficult for foriegners to learn English.

What I'm wondering is - does other languages have the same odd features?

by **cromwell** » 28 May 2018, 19:19

I don't know Aggers, but the English language is certainly a thing of wonder - in more ways than one!

by **saundra** » 28 May 2018, 19:45

I can't spell neither can my kindle :Hi:

by **Kaz** » 28 May 2018, 19:51

I love codeword puzzles 8-)

by **Workingman** » 28 May 2018, 20:36

Thief and thieves, wife and wives, but belief and beliefs, chief and chiefs.

Then we have the bungitalltogether German compound words such as Fingerspitzengefühl and Backpfeifengesicht. :shock:

It is not just English. :lol:

by **JanB** » 28 May 2018, 20:44

Sr. Jose and I had a discussion in the bar this afternoon.

Portuguese is hard, for me, but easy for him.

English is easy for me, but hard for him

All in Portuguese :lol:

Luis was laughing so much he almost fell off his stool.

by **TheOstrich** » 28 May 2018, 21:38

I confess I have never been any good at they furrin' languages.

I mean, there's French, where everything is male or female. It's "le francais" or "La langue francais". Why the change of gender, for heavens sake?

And then there's all those accents and circumflexes to get your head around.

I was lucky I just scraped the O-Level in it ….. :roll:

by **meriad** » 29 May 2018, 09:48

Workingman wrote:Thief and thieves, wife and wives, but belief and beliefs, chief and chiefs.

Then we have the bungitalltogether German compound words such as Fingerspitzengefühl and Backpfeifengesicht.

It is not just English.

Backpfeifengesicht - such a fab word; it really is :lol: