Comments on MotherReader: Poetry Friday: A Poem of Pronunciation

I got to line four. What a fun poem!

2012-01-25T02:59:14.554-05:00

I got to line four. What a fun poem!

This was fun. My father used to mispronounce word...

2012-01-24T23:04:06.315-05:00

This was fun. My father used to mispronounce words and I would correct him -- as a kid it really embarrassed me. He had a college degree, but held onto what he heard from home. Now I have great fun remembering some of the words.

Thanks so much for posting this. It's a big h...

2012-01-24T16:06:59.438-05:00

Thanks so much for posting this. It's a big help to new bloggers! Plus the poem is hilarious.

Darlena O.

http://enoughofthecattalk.com

Better late than never to chime in. I like to say ...

2012-01-23T20:39:06.151-05:00

Better late than never to chime in.
I like to say English is a dirty, rotten, troublemaking language when it comes to spelling and reading, but is the richest and wildest and wooliest when it comes to speaking, thinking,and writing.

Here's my offering on the subject:

Troublemakers

It would be nice
To spell “precise”
With i-c-e
Predictably.
Instead, although it seems absurd,
To spell “precise”, a perfect word,
With i-s-e, which looks like “wise”,
“Precise” won’t rhyme with “compromise”.
Take my advice,
When words aren’t nice:
Notice, practice, more than twice-
That’s the way to spell “precise”
Precisely!

How fun! Going to share this with my students. :...

2012-01-23T19:22:35.167-05:00

How fun! Going to share this with my students. :) :)

This blog sounds quite interesting. I was searchi...

2012-01-23T13:30:03.467-05:00

This blog sounds quite interesting. I was searching this kind of information. I will share this information with my friends.

It's fun to try to run through this at speed a...

2012-01-22T12:31:10.925-05:00

It's fun to try to run through this at speed and see where even words you know trip you up--it's almost like it's part optical illusion!

I can not tell a lie...first I read it to myself a...

2012-01-21T21:07:44.781-05:00

I can not tell a lie...first I read it to myself and thought what's the big deal. Then I read it out loud and it felt like a tongue twister.

Thanks.

Jen, Spanish and the other European languages I kn...

2012-01-21T13:02:33.065-05:00

Jen, Spanish and the other European languages I know are strongly phonetic languages and so, yes, predictable. If I come across a new word in those languages I know how to pronounce it, not so with many new English words. Grammar, of course, is a different issue ;)

Great fun reading this aloud. :)

2012-01-21T12:59:28.804-05:00

Great fun reading this aloud. :)

Too fun! I'm with Tanita on the parquet and kh...

2012-01-21T12:34:17.095-05:00

Too fun! I'm with Tanita on the parquet and khaki.

Mary Lee mentions how unpredictable English is. She's right, of course, but I wonder if it's more unpredictable than other languages. I've been learning Spanish, and I find it somewhat unpredictable, too.

Wowzers! That was awesome...thanks for sharing it!...

2012-01-21T11:35:52.737-05:00

Wowzers! That was awesome...thanks for sharing it!

This is so funny...we read it the other week and h...

2012-01-21T10:32:16.035-05:00

This is so funny...we read it the other week and had a blast trying to get through it! It's amazing that children ever learn to spell at all in this language. Thank you for the shout out to Poetry Friday and for the Comment Challenge too! a.

This was fun to read - a challenge!

2012-01-21T09:20:01.536-05:00

This was fun to read - a challenge!

I LOVE this poem - I used to use it with my Englis...

2012-01-21T08:43:09.160-05:00

I LOVE this poem - I used to use it with my English students in Italy (advanced classes - I didn't want to put them off completely!). And I love the sound of that Dr Seuss book mentioned by David.

Every time I read this, my heart goes out to the E...

2012-01-21T07:31:29.194-05:00

Every time I read this, my heart goes out to the English Language Learners in my classroom. English is so unpredictable!

Fun - though I did have to look up "ague"...

2012-01-20T15:57:07.221-05:00

Fun - though I did have to look up "ague"
and great advice about Poetry Friday, too!
thanks, Mother Reader!
Namaste,
Lee

The Poke? Interesting title. Like the first few li...

2012-01-20T14:31:56.562-05:00

The Poke? Interesting title. Like the first few lines especially.

What a mouthful! Lots of fun. Thanks for sharing t...

2012-01-20T10:55:17.814-05:00

What a mouthful! Lots of fun. Thanks for sharing this one. :)

i was in my early 20s when i came across a dr. seu...

2012-01-20T10:49:01.188-05:00

i was in my early 20s when i came across a dr. seuss collection (pre-children's books) where he would illustrate such tongue twisters. it was called the tough coughs as he ploughs the dough and i think i hurt myself laughing at his pointing out how absurd it would be to say "the tough cuffs as he pluffs the duff."

anyway, thanks (?) for jogging that memory.

My ten year old daughter has a slight lisp - her &...

2012-01-20T10:40:11.452-05:00

My ten year old daughter has a slight lisp - her 's' sounds like 'th' - we will definitely get a kick out of reading this one aloud. I love it! Thank you for sharing. :)

Oh, my, how do those with English as a second lang...

2012-01-20T10:24:40.203-05:00

Oh, my, how do those with English as a second language ever cope? What an amazing group of words. Thank you for sharing! I'm already trying to think of other words that fit!

I blogged about this very poem randomly in December on our family blog, and got into a fun discussion on it - the author was Dutch, and one of our readers is, and another is married to an Englishman, so our pronunciation arguments got funnier from there. I can get through the whole thing, but it's fairly thorny at some points. And I still don't see where parquet rhymes with khaki. Not in any world I inhabit.

I loved it! I have a friend who constantly mispro...

2012-01-20T08:27:18.186-05:00

I loved it! I have a friend who constantly mispronounces words! AHHH! It's like fingernails on a blackboard!