 English pronunciation poem with audio from espressoenglish.net English pronunciation is crazy. If you had any doubt, this English pronunciation poem will show you several hundred English words that look the same, but are pronounced very differently. If you want an extra challenge, try reciting the poem after listening to the audio. Why are English pronunciation and spelling so irregular? Part of the reason is that written English was standardized at a time when the pronunciation was also changing and evolving. So words with the same spellings ended up having different sounds based on the most common way of pronouncing them. Also, English borrows many words from other languages, like ballet from French, but often keeps the spelling of the original. Keep in mind that some of the words in the English pronunciation poem are rare or antiquated. That means not in common use anymore, so it's okay if you don't understand them. The poem was written by Gerard Nolst-Trenete in 1922, and the title of the poem is The Chaos. Ready? Here goes. Dearest creature in creation, study English pronunciation. I will teach you in my verse sounds like corpse, core, horse, and worse. I will keep you Susie 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 herd, dyes and diet, Lord and word, sword and sword, retain and Britain, mind the latter how it's written. Now surely I will not plague you with such words as plaque and ague. But be careful how you speak, say break and stake, but bleak and streak, cloven, oven, how, and lo, script, receipt, show, poem, and toe. Hear me say devoid of trickery, daughter, laughter, and terpsichory, typhoid, measles, top sails, 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, melpomony, mankind, billet does not rhyme with ballet, bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet, blood and flood are not like food, nor is mold like should and would, viscous, vicount, load, and broad, toward, to forward, to reward, and your pronunciations okay, when you correctly say croquet, rounded, wounded, grieve, and sieve, friend, and fiend, alive, and live, ivy, privy, famous, clamor, and enamor, rhyme with hammer, river, rival, tomb, bomb, comb, doll, and roll, and sum, and home, stranger does not rhyme with anger, neither does devour with clanger, souls but fowl, haunt but aunt, font, front, want, want, grand, and grant, shoes, goes, does, now first say finger, then singer, ginger, linger, reel, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge, and gauge, marriage, foliage, mirage, and age, query does not rhyme with vary, nor does fury sound like berry, dost, lost, post, and doth, cloth, loath, job, knob, bosom, transom, oath, though the differences seem little, we say actual, but victual, refer does not rhyme with defer, fefer does, and zefer hefer, mint, pint, senate, and sedate, dull, bull, and george ate late, scenic, arabic, pacific, science, conscience, scientific, liberty, library, heave, and heaven, Rachel, ache, mustache, eleven, we say hallowed, but allowed, people, leopard, toad, but vowed, mark the differences moreover between mover, cover, clover, leeches, breaches, wise, precise, chalice, but police, and lice, camel, constable, unstable, principle, disciple, label, pedal, panel, and canal, weight, surprise, plate, promise, pal, worm and storm, Shays, chaos, chair, senator, spectator, mayor, tour, but are, and sucker, for, gas, alas, and Arkansas, see 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, yay, ye, I, I, I, I, way, and key, say a ver, but ever, fever, neither, leisure, skein, deceiver, heron, granary, canary, crevice, and device, and airy, face, but preface, not a face, flam, phlegmatic, ass, glass, base, 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 air, 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 appalling, stout, and spiky, won't it make you lose your wits, riding grotes, and saying grits, it's a dark abyss, or tunnel, strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunnel, Islington, an isle of white, housewife, verdict, and indict, Finally, which rhymes with enough? Though, through, plow, or doe, or cough, hiccup has the sound of cup. My advice is to give up. If you want to improve your pronunciation and learn how to speak with an American accent, you'll love the American English Pronunciation course available at espressoenglish.net. It will help you speak English more clearly and confidently. Visit espressoenglish.net for the American English Pronunciation course.