past tense read and toxic lead vs reading and leading if somebody doesn’t underntand
Can't wait.
Submitted 1 month ago by BonesOfTheMoon@lemmy.world to [deleted]
https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/c09f2a09-22c6-4941-bd93-a0f5c487250d.jpeg
Comments
basxto@discuss.tchncs.de 1 month ago
joby@programming.dev 1 month ago
Careful, though: reading (past tense of ‘to read’) doesn’t rhyme with Reading (place name)
dave@feddit.uk 1 month ago
And leading (being in front) doesn’t rhyme with leading (the metal on a roof).
ChexMax@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Lol I did get it immediately after, but my instant thought was wait, read and lead don’t rhyme?
Shellbeach@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I feel like I walked on a rack after a perfect catwalk reading you. Love it.
TheBrideWoreCrimson@sopuli.xyz 1 month ago
Adultery is not the opposite of infantry; whimsy is not an adjective; you can live together in an apartment; and the Midwest is in the Eastern US.
NikkiDimes@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Why can I be overwhelmed or underwhelmed, but not perfectly adequately whelmed?
fakeman_pretendname@feddit.uk 1 month ago
Nobody’s stopping you using “whelmed”. You can just start using it whenever the opportunity arises.
I use it occasionally, though normally not seriously, along with words where you have an “un” or "dis’, but no positive equivalent, e.g. “gusting” as a positive “disgusting”
Crewman@sopuli.xyz 1 month ago
Whelm and overwhelm are synonyms.
The way I learned it, is that people have a tendency to emphasize, so when became overwhelmed. You see the same thing with ‘good’, ‘great’, and 'epic’meaning the same thing within certain contexts.
CrabAndBroom@lemmy.ml 1 month ago
‘Jam’ can mean a fruit preserve, to play music, a stuck door, traffic, to cram something into something else, a tense situation, or to block a radio signal. All spelled and pronounced the same.
imadethis@fedinsfw.app 1 month ago
Just wait until you learn about ‘set.’
olenkoVD@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 month ago
the Midwest is in the Eastern US.
That actually makes sense because it’s from the point of view of Europe.
clabru@feddit.it 1 month ago
Just as middle east and western Asia are the same region
basxto@discuss.tchncs.de 1 month ago
It is from the POV of the original colonies.
IronKrill@lemmy.ca 1 month ago
the Midwest is in the Eastern US.
This explains some of my US geography confusion over the years…
BigDiction@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Midwest is not a place, it is a People.
Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 month ago
Qu’est-ce que c’est ?
That’s the ubiquitous “what’s that” in French. All languages are evil to newcomers.
You’re welcome.
mech@feddit.org 1 month ago
In German, “jemanden umfahren” means drive around someone,
while “jemanden umfahren” means run someone over.basxto@discuss.tchncs.de 1 month ago
That’s an artificial sentence. We never drive around people
Scrollone@feddit.it 1 month ago
In Italian we also have a similar phrase: “Cos’è che è?”
Luckily, it’s only in spoken language because it’s considered a bit “wrong”.
basxto@discuss.tchncs.de 1 month ago
But what the fuck is that, bro?
some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 1 month ago
I would like to recommend Highly Irregular: Why Tough, Through, and Dough Don’t Rhyme—And Other Oddities of the English Language.
It’s a pretty quick read and it explains exactly how the English language became such a mess. For each thing that doesn’t make sense, it provides a reason that explains it. Short version: the timing of the Great Vowel Shift relative to the invention of the printing press really screwed it over. There’s quite a bit more (Norman invasion in particular), but that was what codified all the badness.
Learning the “why” of so many previously preposterous language and spelling rules was gratifying and enlightening. They’re still preposterous but slightly less maddening now.
There’s also an excellent podcast interview with the author on 99% Invisible. Check it out. It made me buy the book and I definitely recommend it every time a post like this comes up.
rumschlumpel@feddit.org 1 month ago
IMO, the more important reason is that English is crusty af. Lots of languages had massive changes since the printing press was invented, but that didn’t stop them from changing their orthography. Germany even had an official spelling reform in the 1990s.
some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 1 month ago
Note: Changed my mind but preserved initial reaction:
No. Read the book. Other languages had their massive shifts before or after the printing press. English evolved at roughly the same time. That caused chaos. While other languages solidified in advance, and others solidified after, the english language was evolving at the same time that rules were written. It’s a perfect disaster (those who know, know. great song. great album).
Not direct support for my argument, just context:
The standardization of English spelling began in the 15th and 16th centuries; the Great Vowel Shift is the major reason English spellings now often deviate considerably from how they represent pronunciations.
Back to commenter (so it doesn’t look like I’m joining different quotes):
Germany even had an official spelling reform in the 1990s.
I’ve never heard of this, so maybe I’m wrong / uninformed.
I’ll look into it because I truly believe that language shapes thought and this is interesting to me.The German orthography reform of 1996 (Reform der deutschen Rechtschreibung von 1996) was a change to German spelling and punctuation that was intended to simplify German orthography, thereby making it easier to learn,[1] without substantially changing the rules familiar to users of the language.
Wow. That’s so incredible and impossible where I live (USA) that I’m dumbstruck at the pragmatism of it. I was wrong. Fuck England and the USA (as always!).
“German orthography reform of 1996”[1]
basxto@discuss.tchncs.de 1 month ago
Those three are even all from the old vocabulary, they all have German cognates: zäh, durch, Teig
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 1 month ago
At least English doesn’t have a “she” table, a “he” refrigerator, and a “neutral” lamp for everything.
Zwiebel@feddit.org 1 month ago
First of all tables are male, and secondly at least we spell things close to how they are pronounced in german
Scrollone@feddit.it 1 month ago
In Italian tables are gender fluid. You can have “la tavola” e “il tavolo”.
Surfing? It’s a female: la tavola da surf.
Eating? Male: il tavolo.
Table as a metonymy for eating: la tavola (WTF?!)
Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 month ago
Hes policemanning
RickyRigatoni@piefed.zip 1 month ago
I was going to say it’s different because police officers are people, but they’re not.
banazir@lemmy.ml 1 month ago
English-language spelling reform now.
IMALlama@lemmy.world 1 month ago
But let’s only do it in some English speaking countries and not others! I am joking, but this is one of the reasons why American English has diverged from British English.
Relevant xkcd:
kamen@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Maybe start with the fact that not all words in use in English are English words.
ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 1 month ago
Or that people in different parts of the world say/spell words differently and we inconsistently applied it:
Kernel and Colonel were the same rank but we took the pronunciation of the first and the spelling of the latter.
mechoman444@lemmy.world 1 month ago
It’s phunny how fotographs phunction in filosofy.
There is nothing more useless than ph.
Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 1 month ago
until youre being eaten alive by acid
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 1 month ago
mechoman444@lemmy.world 1 month ago
This is also funny.
Randelung@lemmy.world 1 month ago
read deed redemption, the farm flipper spinoff.
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 month ago
reed deed redemption: a game about the ownership of a plant
daannii@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Base and bass (sound the same) and bass (sounds different)
Foundation
Instrument /deep sound
A Fish
Agent641@lemmy.world 1 month ago
“You said you were a great bass player!”
Me struggling to hold onto a huge wet slippery fish “Grimmie a second, geez!”
banazir@lemmy.ml 1 month ago
A Fish
That’s actually spelled ‘ghoti’.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 1 month ago
i still remember the best joke i told my entire time in college. a professor was talking about turnpikes and asked if anyone knew what a pike was, with a specific answer in mind..
well, i knew what a pike was
Image
worst part was i played DnD, i knew exactly what he was asking. i just saw a low hanging fruit and an opportunity to be a smartass and you really can’t set me up like that.
NONE_dc@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Como enemigo número uno del Inglés, this post feels validating to me.
MeowerMisfit817@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Time de inimigos do inglês
dismay3915@lemmy.world 1 month ago
As someone who speaks 3 languages, I can confirm english is a weak ass language.
It’s strong point is that daily and normal speech and formal writing or speech are almost the same. Thats not the case with most languages, specially the older and more complex ones.
Waraugh@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 month ago
I kind of like how it’s ever changing and evolving, I know that sours some people’s pickles but I think it’s neat. I like how it incorporates and is built on so many other languages. I enjoyed reading a short story posted here a while ago that progressively walked backwards in time as a language and it was really neat to me. I’m an idiot though so most other languages probably do this also.
Bluewing@lemmy.world 1 month ago
American English has never be bashful about filing the serial numbers off a word and then claiming it as our own. It can lead, (lead/lead/led?) to confusion even among us native speakers. At least until we sort it out.
Personally I blame the French, (for no reason other than I can), for all the ills in the English language.
dismay3915@lemmy.world 1 month ago
That’s the indication of a healthy and alive language.
English has the most speakers and is the scientific and professional language of the world currently. So it is the most up to date and alive one currently.
6244901@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
Do u happen to speak german? I’m studying it rn and it’s making me very grateful we live in an English speaking world :/
dismay3915@lemmy.world 1 month ago
While german is hard and weird, but it’s not far harder than english.
I used to know german but never used it and lost the muscle.
I speak Persian(Farsi), Arabic and English. I tried to learn Japanese and Chinese (mandarin) for a while but I just gave up.
I’m glad we’re not speaking Mandarin as our common language. It’s one of the least interesting languages and objectively the hardest languages I’ve seen. At least Japanese has it’s beauties, but I couldn’t find them in Mandarin.
Ichiro_kun@lemmy.world 1 month ago
My brain got fired while reading this. 🗿
AnalogRegression@lemmy.world 1 month ago
In the ever so pretensious words of Walt Whitman…
“English is the greatest language ever!! It’s as great as life itself! Also death!”
FrostyTheDoo@lemmy.world 1 month ago
In a way I think these things are what make English a beautiful and poetic language
Unpigged@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 month ago
English is a bastard offspring of a four way language orgy.
thagoat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 month ago
My daughter is filled with laughter
Flower@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
It is in the end parts of French, Latin, Dutch, German and Norse duct-taped together and forced into a trenchcoat.
Gorilladrums@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Posts like this are so ignorant because they’re based on the false premise that English was made to be the global language, when it’s not. It was made as a result of the mixing of Germans, Scandinavians, Celts, and French people on a gloomy isolated island in the corner of Europe for thousands of years. It’s a language that was evolved by those people, and thus it contains a lot of their linguistic quirks coming together.
Every single language has quirks like this. For example, I also speak Arabic, and people are always shocked when I tell them that an Arabic speaker from Iraq and an Arab speaker from Morocco cannot understand each other because Arabic dialects are basically different languages. THey’re only unified by standard Arabic, which most Arabic speakers don’t use in their day to day lives. It’s basically a language that’s only used to communicate with other Arabs.
English only got to where it is because of a unique situation in history where the language was used by not one, but two global hegemons. Not only that but those hegemons happened to be the most of the powerful in history, and they ruled back to back. That’s what spread and cemented English into the global language it is today.
khanh@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
I genuinely read that as ba-se-lin-e
dalekcaan@feddit.nl 1 month ago
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.
pheelicks@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
I don’t think anything comes as close to showcasing the extend of this pronunciation ridiculousness as the poem “The Chaos” by Gerard Nolst Trenité which is said to contain about 800 examples.
6244901@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
So? Eminem makes all the words in the English language rhyme so balance is restored in the world
Prunebutt@slrpnk.net 1 month ago
Wait… how do you pronounce vaseline?
stoicmaverick@lemmy.world 1 month ago
PONY AND FUCKING BOLOGNA!!
gnufuu@infosec.pub 1 month ago
_stranger_@lemmy.world 1 month ago
comb bomb tomb tome come
only two of these rhyme.
hakase@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
This entire thread is /c/badlinguistics.
balian@lemmy.libertarianfellowship.org 1 month ago
It is weird how this kind of writing won out in Europe when it literally had exposure from all sides to far better more sensible scripts.
unitedwithme@lemmy.today 1 month ago
English can certainly be difficult! It can understood through tough thorough thought though throughout the learning process.
Thteven@lemmy.world 1 month ago
If y’all ain’t get the gist of it y’ain’t thunk it thru enuff.
Curiousfur@lemmy.world 1 month ago
This was the easiest sentence to parse out for me…
Proprietary_Blend@lemmy.world 1 month ago
No. It’s shit
cattywampas@lemmy.world 1 month ago
He said in English.
Grail@multiverse.soulism.net 1 month ago
English is the most adaptable language in the world. England got colonised something like seven different times up until the mediaeval age. The language that came out of the end of that process is precision designed to accommodate unfamiliar words and grammar. There’s no better language to put a loanword into. And it’s really easy to invent new grammar for English, which is why English has the most neopronouns.
English has sacrificed its logic and structure to grow fluidity.
farmgineer@nord.pub 1 month ago
Reading that gave me a tough hiccough.
BossDj@piefed.social 1 month ago
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.
unitedwithme@lemmy.today 1 month ago
Yeah I never understood that one myself