Linked Questions

1 vote
0 answers
2k views

As a non native English speaker, I am astonished at the amount of English word pronounced different from their spelling. For instance, 'Would' is pronounced like 'Wood', 'Whole' is pronounced like &...
screenhot1111's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
153 views

So there are words that use "bus" but where this group of letters is pronounced differently: busy - "bizzy" bus/bust - "bas/bast" Case 2: Similarly with "cut" ...
Rares Dima's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
93 views

Possible Duplicate: Why do written English vowels differ from other Latin-based orthographies? I noticed that in English some words that have the same letters (except for the first), have a different ...
Michel Keijzers's user avatar
12 votes
4 answers
25k views

Why is it that the "ow" in now makes the /aʊ/ sound while "ow" in snow makes the /oʊ/ sound? Has this always been, was it spelled differently and then changed, or was it spelled this way but the sound ...
Bob Roberts's user avatar
17 votes
1 answer
22k views

I mean, why isn't it pronounced "blue-d" rather than "blud". And this applies to "flood" too, but not "glood" or "clood" I imagine.
Gary's user avatar
  • 879
4 votes
2 answers
24k views

How can I know, precisely, when to differentiate the sounds of the letter a, like in: apple and vault?
Marcos Roriz Junior's user avatar
7 votes
3 answers
8k views

I do know that there isn't only one pronunciation for syllables, and I also know that there isn't only one way to write a phoneme, but this intrigues me a lot. Lose is spelled with only one O, and it'...
Mr.'s user avatar
  • 173
8 votes
3 answers
18k views

Why is door pronounced as in 'o' not as in 'u' ?
uray's user avatar
  • 181
0 votes
1 answer
6k views

What is the regularity of appearance of /uː/ and /u/ (or /ʊ/ in RP)? How can I be most sure deducing from spelling alone, that, say, "ooze" is pronounced /uːz/ and "wool" as /wul/? I know that English ...
Mirzhan Irkegulov's user avatar
4 votes
3 answers
2k views

Why is the Scottish capital Edinburgh pronounced as Edinbruh? It is not clear to me why the letter "u" is silent, so that the "b" is followed directly by the "r". Then a ...
M. Wind's user avatar
  • 269
4 votes
2 answers
618 views

Among others, I've heard the following words and their supposed origins: Beef: Comes from the french word "boeuf". Marmelade: Contraction of "Mary" and "malade" according to some story about a doctor ...
James P.'s user avatar
  • 845