Anger

An angry-looking sun rose this morning.

Perhaps a reflection of my mood

Or the mood on our planet

Something best not dwelt upon.

.

So here’s an offering from George Bernard Shaw:

How to pronounce English:

I take it you already know
of tough and bough and cough and dough.
Others may stumble, but not you,
On hiccough, thorough, laugh and through.
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps,
To learn of less familiar traps.

Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird.
And dead-it's said like bed, not bead.
For goodness sake, don't call it deed!
Watch out for meat and great and threat.
They rhyme with suite and straight and debt.

A moth is not a moth in mother,
Nor both in bother, broth in brother,
And here is not a match for there,
Nor dear and fear for pear and bear.
And then there's dose and rose and lose
Just look them up--and goose and choose.
And cork and work and card and ward.
And font and front and word and sword.
And do and go, then thwart and cart.
Come, come I've hardly made a start.

A dreadful language? Man alive,
I'd mastered it when I was five!

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There is also his explanation of how he spelt "fish"-

"Ghoti"

"gh" sounds like "f" in laugh
"o" sounds like "i" in women
"ti" sounds like "sh" in motion  

How do foreigners ever learn to speak it?

.

Three hours later:

“Moody”, I think it’s called

2 thoughts on “Anger

  1. I have read this before, but it’s been a while. I enjoyed reading it again today. English is, indeed, a confusing language.

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