Friday, January 21, 2011

ENGLISH IS TOUGH STUFF ??

Dearest creature in creation,

Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.


Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it's written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.
Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes, and reviles;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far;
One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.
Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation's OK
When you correctly say croquet,
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.
Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rhyme with hammer.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.
Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.
Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though the differences seem little,
We say actual but victual.
Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific.
Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark the differences, moreover,
Between mover, cover, clover;
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice;
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label.
Petal, panel, and canal,
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor.
Tour, but our and succour, four.
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, Korea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.
Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion and battalion.
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
Heron, granary, canary.
Crevice and device and aerie.
Face, but preface, not efface.
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.
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 paling 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!!!


- Author Unknown

99 Ways to Say "Very Good"






 You’re on the right track now!

 You’ve got it made.

 SUPER!

 That’s right!

 That’s good.

 You’re really working hard today.

 You are very good at that.

 That’s coming along nicely.

 GOOD WORK!

 I’m happy to see you working like that.

 That’s much, much better!

 Exactly right.

 I’m proud of the way you worked today.

 You’re doing that much better today.

 You’ve just about got it.

 That’s the best you’ve ever done.

 You’re doing a good job.

 THAT’S IT!

 Now you’ve figured it out.

 That’s quite an improvement.

 GREAT!

 I knew you could do it.

 Congratulations!

 Not bad.

 Keep working on it. You’re improving.

 Now you have it!

 You are learning fast.

 Good for you!

 Couldn’t have done it better myself.

 Aren’t you proud of yourself?

 One more time and you’ll have it.

 You really make my job fun.

 That’s the right way to do it.

 You’re getting better every day.

 You did it that time!

 That’s not half bad.

 Nice going.

 You haven’t missed a thing!

 WOW!

 That’s the way!

 Keep up the good work.

 TERRIFIC!

 Nothing can stop you now.

 That’s the way to do it.

 SENSATIONAL!

 You’ve got your brain in gear today.

 That’s better.

 That was first class work.

 EXCELLENT!

 That’s the best ever.

 You’ve just about mastered it.

 PERFECT!

 That’s better than ever.

 Much better!

 WONDERFUL!

 You must have been practicing.

 You did that very well.

 FINE!

 Nice going.

 You’re really going to town.

 OUTSTANDING!

 FANTASTIC!

 TREMENDOUS!

 That’s how to handle that.

 Now that’s what I call a fine job.

 That’s great.

 Right on!

 You’re really improving.

 You’re doing beautifully!

 SUPERB!

 Good remembering.

 You’ve got that down pat.

 You certainly did well today.

 Keep it up!

 Congratulations. You got it right!

 You did a lot of work today.

 Well look at you go.

 That’s it.

 I’m very proud of you.

 MARVELOUS!

 I like that.

 Way to go!

 Now you have the hang of it.

 You’re doing fine!

 Good thinking.

 You are really learning a lot.

 Good going.

 I’ve never seen anyone do it better.

 Keep on trying.

 You outdid yourself today!

 Good for you!

 I think you’ve got it now.

 That’s a good (boy/girl).

 Good job, (person’s name).

 You figured that out fast.

 You remembered!

 That’s really nice.

 That kind of work makes me happy.

 It’s such a pleasure to teach when you

 work like that!

 I think you’re doing the right thing.

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