I take it you already know ( English pronunciation )

funny English pronunciation / phonetics poem

here's the text:

I take it you already know
Of tough and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble but not you
On hiccough, thorough, slough and through.
Well done! And now you wish perhaps,
To learn of less familiar traps?

Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird.
And dead, it's said like bed, not bead-
for goodness' sake don't call it 'deed'!
Watch out for meat and great and threat
(they rhyme with suite and straight and debt).

A moth is not a moth in mother,
Nor both in bother, broth, or brother,
And here is not a match for there,
Nor dear and fear for bear and pear,
And then there's doze and rose and lose-
Just look them up- and goose and choose,
And cork and work and card and ward
And font and front and word and sword,
And do and go and thwart and cart-
Come, I've hardly made a start!
A dreadful language? Man alive!
I'd learned to speak it when I was five!
And yet to write it, the more I sigh,
I'll not learn how 'til the day I die.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• english
• ESL
• EFL
• pronunciation
• phonetics
• phonology

[asheymeow]

thanks for uploading! i have taught this to my students and some of them have stumbled the words that's why they had fun reading the poem... you should have posted on the description the copy of the poem.

[kawaineko7]

oh, thanks for the comments asheymeow. I´ve added the text.

[angel1846]

I love this poem so much. In fact I am the only one to favorite it.

[kawaineko7]

oh thanks for favouriting. and I love this poem too ^_^

[kawaineko7]

Cool, some bloger from Iceland is linking, and suddenly this video has become popular!

^_^

[CaptainRuro]

you have a cool voice :D

you should narrorate movies lol

[backwoodsgps]

was really good!!!!!

[Suligosto]

great american accent

[naremconscendit]

@naremconscendit /slu/ can also be pronounced /slau/

[naremconscendit]

@JeanPierrePompin Slough can be the spelling of one of two words. /slu/ is a noun that means 'swamp'. /slʌf/ can be a verb (pretty much always used in the phrase "slough off") that means "shed (skin, etc.)" or a noun referring to something that has been shed. The author of the poem probably intended the word /slʌf/. Our narrator has made a mistake because both words are quite uncommon in English—I'm a native speaker and didn't know them before the age of 18.

[globogs]

I don't get it.

[MsBlueyedzombie]

this helps my pronunciation a lot.... thanks!

[heini2201]

haha i learnd this when i had an exchange with england :DD

it was very difficcult for me to say this ;D

well done :)

[Cathoulol]

And here is not a match for there, Nor dear and fear for bear and pear, And then there's doze and rose and lose- Just look them up- and goose and choose, And cork and work and card and ward And font and front and word and sword, And do and go and thwart and cart- Come, I've hardly made a start! A dreadful language? Man alive! I'd learned to speak it when I was five! And yet to write it, the more I sigh, I'll not learn how 'til the day I die.