[Closed] English spelling and grammar anomolies

English pronunciations of words is worse. I feel for folk trying to learn English, I really do.

(see a poem called The Chaos)

Tomb and womb are pronounced to rhyme with room. Why isn't bomb the same? Would make much more sense.

The worst thing about that sign is that Neighbour is spelt incorrectly, without the 'U'. Americanisms!

The kids I teach (English as 2nd/3rd language) rarely have problems with spelling (i before e or vice versa) or grammar (its/it's etc), but they do struggle with this stuff:

Practise and practice, I can never remember which is which (one being to do something professionally, like medicine, and one being to repeatedly to something to learn in, like play the guitar)

I’m always getting stick about the way I announce my five year space missions. And mistakenly so.

The worst thing about that sign is that Neighbour is spelt incorrectly, without the ‘U’. Americanisms!

But the sign is in America so it is spelt correctly.

Practise and practice, I can never remember which is which

One is a verb, the other a noun. The way I remember them is to compare with 'advice' and 'advise' which have the benefit of being pronounced differently. The c and the s work the same way.

Discrete and discreet anyone.

I just guess.

Edit: no I don't. the e's in Discrete are.

Just clicked that.

Practise and practice, I can never remember which is which (one being to do something professionally, like medicine, and one being to repeatedly to something to learn in, like play the guitar)

Someone once told me that 'ice' is a thing (a noun). So it makes sense that practice would be a noun too, like a medical practice (a place with doctors in), or your doctor's medical practice (meaning their career / way of working). It's a stupid way to remember it, but it's stuck. If the doctor hasn't quite mastered it yet, they might need to practise.

Or advice / advise as above.

They should both be pronounced like comb, nickjb. Headway Upper intermediate chapter... .

Wound as in up and wound as in Argh! My arm

Either or, errr ...

The "ice"/"ise" difference - there's also pairs like licence/license: You are licensed (verb) to hold a licence (noun).

I read somewhere that when "English" as it was then was being transcribed by the monks (they were basically the only people who could read and write at the time) there was no standard to work to and each monk essentially made up his own rules.

Why no U in Forty?

There's another one like that: ghoti, pronounced "fish".

gh as in tough
o as in women
ti as in station

Not me but I find Spanish colleagues always want to have everything past tense as "ed". I think Spanish has stricter rules around this. e.g If end turns to ended then keep is keeped and not kept...

I sang some Spanish students, "All I ever wanted, all I ever needed", I should never have done that.

Best close the door so the cyclist doesn't pass too close.
Perhaps we should start talking like toddlers, they learn some basic rules and stick to them (only to be told they're wrong).

It's anomalies. Sorry.

Tomb and womb are pronounced to rhyme with room. Why isn’t bomb the same?

You'd never know when it had gone off.

I sang

I should never have done that.

Ftfy

Is there any point in there being two spellings of effect and affect? I never know when to use the a one

Is there any point in there being two spellings of effect and affect? I never know when to use the a one

Again, two different uses:

Something causes an effect

Something affects something else.

There's one or two odd-balls just to confuse things, like: he effected an escape.

You’d never know when it had gone off.

💥 Well done that man! 👏🏻🎩
Weird is the one that usually catches me out, but my phone and tablet spellcheck dictionary has become so good at anticipating me, after ten years of learning it’s usually just small things that I miss by going a bit too fast and don’t tap the corrected version.
It’s a bit scary sometimes just how accurately it anticipates the next word.

The trio that many get wrong are: then; than; that.

The number of people who write: "A is better that B" or similar is astounding.

A recent one is people using myself as opposed to me. No idea why it started but I see it everywhere now. John and myself will be attending rather than John and I. Please pass on to myself and not on to me. Why people, why?

I’m guessing that there’s a bit of etymology on the pronunciation of ‘English’ words. Tomb & womb may be (I don’t know, perhaps someone can confirm or correct me there?) of Scandinavian origin, while bomb is from the french ‘la bombe’. I think. Maybe

I do know that the ‘common’ words in English are descended from the Germanic, whereas the ‘posh’ words are descended from the French, which of course was the language of our kings & queens and nobles from 1066 up until the end of the Hundred Years War

I like advise and advice, and ice, but in the end you practiSe Sport and that's how I remember.

Have we done this one yet?

This has always flummoxed me.

The problem with that sign, and that rule generally, is that it people only ever learn the first half. It's I before E except after C when the vowel sounds like 'EE'. The only exception on the board there is "Keith," the rest follow the rule.

Why people, why?

"Hypercorrection."

People are idiots.

Is there any point in there being two spellings of effect and affect?

Because they're entirely different words which happen to be spelt similarly?

This one irritates me because I have never in my life confused the two words up until recently where everyone else does. Now I have to stop and think. The Internet has made me stupider.

It’s anomalies.

The prosecution rests, m'lord.

Lawrence Fox or Laurence Fox?

It's PC gone mad.

[i]The problem with that sign, and that rule generally, is that it people only ever learn the first half. It’s I before E except after C when the vowel sounds like ‘EE’. The only exception on the board there is “Keith,” the rest follow the rule.[/i]

I agree, lets blame Keith

Also, mustn't forget the irregular verb

I have an independent mind. You are eccentric. He is round the twist.
I consider carefully. You struggle with complexity. She can’t make clinical decisions.
I made an understandable error. You didn’t know what to do. He was incompetent.
I have too much to do. You are very busy. He can’t cope.
I am assertive. You shout. She is a bully.
I am objective. You are unsupportive. He is unsympathetic.
I was held up in traffic. You are late. She should have left earlier.
I am careful. You are overly cautious. She is uncertain.
I am pacing myself. You are slow. She is lazy.
I have been wronged. You are upset. He is being emotional.
I am taking a stand. You are being unhelpful. He is obstructive.
I have an innovative plan. You have an unproven idea. She just wants it done her way.
I provide feedback. You point out mistakes. She criticises.
I Lead. You Direct. He Dictates.
I use clinical experience. You bend the rules. He won’t follow the guidelines!!
I am working flexibly. You are sloping off early. He has just gone missing.

I have an independent mind. You are eccentric. He is round the twist.
I consider carefully. You struggle with complexity. She can’t make clinical decisions.
I made an understandable error. You didn’t know what to do. He was incompetent.
I have too much to do. You are very busy. He can’t cope.
I am assertive. You shout. She is a bully.
I am objective. You are unsupportive. He is unsympathetic.
I was held up in traffic. You are late. She should have left earlier.
I am careful. You are overly cautious. She is uncertain.
I am pacing myself. You are slow. She is lazy.
I have been wronged. You are upset. He is being emotional.
I am taking a stand. You are being unhelpful. He is obstructive.
I have an innovative plan. You have an unproven idea. She just wants it done her way.
I provide feedback. You point out mistakes. She criticises.
I Lead. You Direct. He Dictates.
I use clinical experience. You bend the rules. He won’t follow the guidelines!!
I am working flexibly. You are sloping off early. He has just gone missing.

I thought Holby City had been cancelled 🙂

Tomatoes, potatoes, mangoes, avocados.

Now, i know avocadoes is acceptable. But does it really?

Just thought of these:

independent and independant.

I never pick the right one - partly because I don't know when to use one over the other. (Heads off to find out)

Edit: turns out there's only one - independent, the other is a misspelling probably due to transcribing a mispronunciation, a bit like definately rather than definitely.

There can be only one...

*Anomolies*, c'mon, in the title!

Re. Independant - doesn’t help that the English unstressed schwa can take various forms in writing.
Where pron is super regular (eg Spanish) spelling become almost impossible to get wrong, apart from the silent H and a couple of other things, tildes in particular.

Take a disinterested view of this not uninteresting topic.