General Chat

Why is bought & caught pronounced the same?

but why is draught the same as draft? I'm trying to explain to my 8 year old son!!

I told my friends that learning English was easier than learning German......they put me right......bough (tree) trough (animals) bow (stoop) bow (hair ribbon) sew , so. to, too, two....there are so many examples.... Another one was the difference between take and bring.....I would say take her to school, others say bring.......I think I give up....

Why is phonetic not spelled fonetic? :-)

don't start me off on phonetics grrrrrrrr!!!!

Oh Penny I don't envy you that task. lol. I shall watch this thread with interest as I would like an answer too. I left school 50 years ago and I am still learning. Beryl x

Yess MM.....makes you frenetic, doesn't it..... Isn't it lovely Penny when the kids ask you things you cannot.....or are not ready to .....answer.....

Ah, but what makes you think it's only the English language that's this difficult? *Desperately tries to think of an example* LOL

Some are from a Latin base, some from greek and some are Germanic etc - part of the wonderful tapestry that is the English language - but don't ask me which is which!!! maggie

Ok, got one! Spanish pero = but perro = dog The only difference is you just roll your R's a little bit more when saying dog! I won't even begin to try and explain the two ways to say 'for' or the two verbs that both mean 'to be'!

LOL Ann! There's one in Spanish like that. One means a drinking straw, the other is something you wouldn't say in polite company! LOL

That was a good reverse psychological ploy there Ann ...the sort you see with game show hosts......they may know tiddly-squat about the subject, but they give the answer as though they knew it themselves all along......

Ach.....I know exactly.....schiessen and scheissen......to shoot at a goal.....and if you did the other one, you would be in real trouble....

French - Poisson - fish Poison - poison

What about weather, whether and wether? Jay

'Buy' is from an old Norse word, 'bogjan' 'Catch' is from a French word. As the two words would have been used by different sections of the community, they would have been pronounced in the old ways and different rules of grammar used for the past tenses. Here in Cornwall, the local dialect for 'bought' is 'boughten', e.g. 'Did you make this cake yourself? No, its a boughten one' They also say 'I catched a cold' rather than 'I caught a cold'. Spelling and grammar werent formalised in this country until the 1870 Education Act and people just used whatever words and grammar came naturally. What a minefield! OC

Sow eye will look on another sight two sea what else eye can put in my draught letter too the teacher :-)

texted - passed/past tense !!

In answer to your other question Ann Even though the word census is of Latin origin, and in ancient times the plural would probably have been censi, in common usage today the plural is censuses.

Texted is the normal one in use, but I use text instead, I find it easier, although perhaps wrong....