Ask Lemmy

English has way more vowel sounds than it has vowels.

• jack
• barn
• arena
• ball
• able
• rare

Those are just words where the primary vowel letter is "a".

The terrible attempt to solve this is by using double letters, but then consistency goes out the window. There's times when "ea" is a single vowel sound like /rid/ (reed) or /rɛd/ (red). But it can also be /ɛrn/ as in earn, which rhymes with urn and burn. It can be /ˈɡɹeɪt/ as in great, where the "ea" is a diphthong and pronounced like the "a" in grate or vague. Or, for more fun, the two letters can each fully get their own pronunciation like "react" or "theatre".

We're really at the "bearn it all down and start over" stage with English. Let's just all agree to switch to español.

"Read" is spelled s-a-m-e? English is a weird language.

Present: read

Past: red (in the fediverse), redd (on the old site)

Obvious.

Lead and lead as well. I got a lead on those lead undergarments you wanted. I'll lead you there later.

The digraph oo is pronounced at least six different ways:

• boot, proof, boost, scoop, moon
• book, foot, look, cookie, good
• floor, poor, door, moor
• flood, blood
• zoology, cooperative
• brooch (just brooch; there doesn't seem to be any other word in the whole language using this sound for oo).

On a different note there is Reading, a football club in UK, which is pronounced "Redding". This pronunciation is akin to the Reading Railroad from Monopoly (which I mispronounced all my life until today).

Little details, picked up along the way.

Reed, red. Homophones should be homographs too.

Reed and Red

How about we go with reed and red... see, you already know how to pronounce them!

Wind as in air moving and wind as in a pathway with twists and turns.

Read and readed

You should wrede a book they wrote, and after you've wred the book, write your own.

The comedic timing of this strip is actually really good.

Looking up the etymology is often helpful in theoretical discussions about pronunciation and spelling :)

Are reed and red taken?

Read should be said "read" and read read. Read, on the other hand, I would leave as is.

Read and Reddit