this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2024
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Showerthoughts

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

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[–] themeatbridge@lemmy.world 45 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (47 children)

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

[–] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 25 points 1 week ago (4 children)

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.

[–] xigoi@lemmy.sdf.org 10 points 1 week ago (2 children)
[–] tyler@programming.dev 4 points 1 week ago

Didn’t even have to click. Great poem

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

[–] Silentiea@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

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

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[–] Diddlydee@feddit.uk 25 points 1 week ago

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

[–] ohwhatfollyisman@lemmy.world 20 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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 1 week ago (2 children)

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

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

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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.

[–] jimmy90@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week 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

[–] NorthWestWind@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (4 children)

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" (乾菜鑞 in TC), but δΉΎβ†’εΉ². Meanwhile, there exists εΉΉβ†’εΉ² as well, which means "fuck".

fuck vegetables

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[–] db2@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago

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

[–] vaper@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (5 children)

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

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[–] cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca 10 points 1 week ago (6 children)

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 8 points 1 week 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"

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 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

What about the words that are only different in tone.

Content and content

[–] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It is read like lead, not read like lead.

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[–] corvett@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)
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[–] Jerb322@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago

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

[–] finitebanjo@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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

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[–] Aeao@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago

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

[–] over_clox@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

There's ~~too~~ ~~to~~ two different ways to pronounce and spell many words.

Fuck, that's three!

[–] AnAustralianPhotographer@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Steady up over ~~their~~ ~~they're~~ there.

[–] over_clox@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

Don't phuck with my head, I'm two drunk!

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[–] Noel_Skum@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 week ago (7 children)

Are you familiar with β€œThe Chaos” by Gerard Nolst TrenitΓ©?

Deep breath:

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

[–] Coelacanth@feddit.nu 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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

[–] Noel_Skum@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)
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[–] Revan343@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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

Chip-ot-el

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[–] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 5 points 1 week ago

Okay TIL that these aren't pronounced the same.

[–] Here4CatPics@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

It's a lose/loose situation

[–] scarabic@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

English is idiosyncratic as hell. Didn’t someone famous call it β€œnot 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.

[–] deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz 3 points 1 week 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.

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