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 👀

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

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

[–] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 25 points 1 month 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 month ago (2 children)
[–] tyler@programming.dev 4 points 1 month 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 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

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

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[–] Diddlydee@feddit.uk 26 points 1 month ago

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

[–] ohwhatfollyisman@lemmy.world 20 points 1 month 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 month ago (2 children)

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

[–] ohwhatfollyisman@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago

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

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[–] emeralddawn45@discuss.tchncs.de 18 points 1 month ago

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.

[–] NorthWestWind@lemmy.world 16 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month 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" (乾菜類 in TC), but 乾→干. Meanwhile, there exists 幹→干 as well, which means "fuck".

fuck vegetables

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

[–] vaper@lemmy.world 13 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month 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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[–] db2@lemmy.world 13 points 1 month ago

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

[–] cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca 10 points 1 month 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 month 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"

[–] Silentiea@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 1 month ago

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 month ago (1 children)

What about the words that are only different in tone.

Content and content

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

It is read like lead, not read like lead.

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[–] over_clox@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month 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 month ago (2 children)

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

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

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

[–] Jerb322@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

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

[–] finitebanjo@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month 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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[–] corvett@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)
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[–] Noel_Skum@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 month ago (7 children)

Are you familiar with “The Chaos” by Gerard Nolst Trenité?

Deep breath:

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

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

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

[–] Noel_Skum@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)
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[–] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 5 points 1 month ago

Okay TIL that these aren't pronounced the same.

[–] Revan343@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 month 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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[–] Here4CatPics@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

It's a lose/loose situation

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

English is idiosyncratic as hell. Didn’t someone famous call it “not 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.

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