# English Pronunciation **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 21, 2011, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-pronunciation/597097 "2011-09-21T18:40:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2011, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-pronunciation/597097/1 "2011-09-21T18:40:07Z")
I found this poem a long time ago… sometimes I just like to read it out loud as fast as I can. Never once have I even come close to being able to read the entire thing aloud without stumbling, stuttering, or outright slaughtering some of the words. If you can pronounce everything correctly your first time through, or even your 20th time through, you deserve a medal! Enjoy! Dearest creature in creation, Study English pronunciation. I will teach you in my verse Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse. I will keep you, Suzy, 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 heard, Dies and diet, lord and word, Sword and sward, retain and Britain. (Mind the latter, how it’s written.) Now I surely will not plague you With such words as plaque and ague. But be careful how you speak: Say break and steak, but bleak and streak; Cloven, oven, how and low, Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe. Hear me say, devoid of trickery, Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore, Typhoid, measles, topsails, 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, Melpomene, mankind. Billet does not rhyme with ballet, Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet. Blood and flood are not like food, Nor is mould like should and would. Viscous, viscount, load and broad, Toward, to forward, to reward. And your pronunciation’s OK When you correctly say croquet, Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve, Friend and fiend, alive and live. Ivy, privy, famous; clamour And enamour rhyme with hammer. River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb, Doll and roll and some and home. Stranger does not rhyme with anger, Neither does devour with clangour. Souls but foul, haunt but aunt, Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant, Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger, And then singer, ginger, linger, Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge, Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age. Query does not rhyme with very, Nor does fury sound like bury. Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth. Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath. Though the differences seem little, We say actual but victual. Refer does not rhyme with deafer. Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer. Mint, pint, senate and sedate; Dull, bull, and George ate late. Scenic, Arabic, Pacific, Science, conscience, scientific. Liberty, library, heave and heaven, Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven. We say hallowed, but allowed, People, leopard, towed, but vowed. Mark the differences, moreover, Between mover, cover, clover; Leeches, breeches, wise, precise, Chalice, but police and lice; Camel, constable, unstable, Principle, disciple, label. Petal, panel, and canal, Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal. Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair, Senator, spectator, mayor. Tour, but our and succour, four. Gas, alas, and Arkansas. Sea, 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, yea, ye, Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key. Say aver, but ever, fever, Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver. Heron, granary, canary. Crevice and device and aerie. Face, but preface, not efface. Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass. 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 ere. 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 a paling stout and spikey? Won’t it make you lose your wits, Writing groats and saying grits? It’s a dark abyss or tunnel: Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale, Islington and Isle of Wight, Housewife, verdict and indict. Finally, which rhymes with enough – Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough? Hiccough has the sound of cup. My advice is to give up!!! ---
**Author:** ![smaje1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47774/32.png) [@smaje1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smaje1)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2011, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-pronunciation/597097/2 "2011-09-21T22:10:40Z")
This is pretty awesome. Except for a few words I simply didn’t recognize, I think I pronounced everything correctly on the first read. But I was an English major and simply revel in such things. Thanks for posting it! ---
**Author:** ![Kimmy\_Gibbler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Kimmy\_Gibbler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimmy_Gibbler)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2011, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-pronunciation/597097/3 "2011-09-21T22:22:58Z")
> [@drewtwo99](#): > > And your pronunciation’s OK > When you correctly say croquet, “OK” and “croquet” don’t rhyme. “Croquet-doke” and “okey-doke” might though. ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2011, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-pronunciation/597097/4 "2011-09-21T22:24:52Z")
> [@Kimmy\_Gibbler](#): > > “OK” and “croquet” don’t rhyme. “Croquet-doke” and “okey-doke” might though. Ummm…not where I’m from. Croquet is definitely “cro-KAY”. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2011, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-pronunciation/597097/5 "2011-09-21T22:35:29Z")
What **Icarus** said. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2011, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-pronunciation/597097/6 "2011-09-21T22:37:31Z")
> [@Icarus](#): > > Ummm…not where I’m from. Croquet is definitely “cro-KAY”. Same here, almost, although I stress the first syllable: CROH-kay. I’ve heard people say it like “croaky”, but that’s definitely a mispronunciation IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2011, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-pronunciation/597097/7 "2011-09-21T22:50:14Z")
This is great. I wish I had had this when I was teaching English in Japan. I had a very high-level college class full of excellent pronouncers that still would have stumbled over some of these. But they would have loved it! Roddy ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2011, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-pronunciation/597097/8 "2011-09-21T23:14:00Z")
> [@Icarus](#): > > Ummm…not where I’m from. Croquet is definitely “cro-KAY”. Same here. Never hear it pronounced otherwise. It’s possible I’ve heard it with the accent on the first syllable, but definitely not anything that rhymes with “okey” in “okey-dokey.” ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2011, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-pronunciation/597097/9 "2011-09-22T13:37:24Z")
I too have never heard croquet pronounced as anything other than cro-KAY. Not even with stress on the first syllable. Glad you guys enjoyed the poem! ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2011, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-pronunciation/597097/10 "2011-09-22T14:04:03Z")
I made it all the way to “aisles” before I messed up. Very good poem! I’m forwardign it to an old friend who teaches ESL at Trinity. ---
**Author:** ![Moonlitherial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@Moonlitherial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonlitherial)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2011, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-pronunciation/597097/11 "2011-09-22T15:16:23Z")
I can pronounce anemone even on its own the first time. I know how it should be yet somehow every single time my tongue gets tangled. I did enjoy the poem though and had little issue with the rest of it. I’m going to send it to my daughter (for torture purposes of course) ---
**Author:** ![jeffas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5f8ce5/32.png) [@jeffas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jeffas)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-pronunciation/597097/12 "2012-02-03T09:29:39Z")
I think the OK/croquet thing may be an English-English/American-English difference. I’m English, and would say CROquet. The 2 lines work with what I think is American pronunciation: oKAY/croQUET. For English pronunciation, the second line is better put “When you say, correctly, CROquet.” Unfortunately, that requires OH-kay on the previous line, which is slightly ungainly on either side of the Atlantic. (BTW, I asked a French colleague, and he put the stress on the first syllable, but not as strongly as I would.) Either way, this is a very minor (possible) flaw in a really excellent piece of writing! ---
**Author:** ![tellyworth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@tellyworth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tellyworth)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-pronunciation/597097/13 "2012-02-03T11:28:07Z")
I googled the author: Gerard Nolst Trenité, aka Charivarius. The poem is called The Chaos. Thanks for posting it. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-pronunciation/597097/14 "2012-02-03T11:43:46Z")
> [@jeffas](#): > > I think the OK/croquet thing may be an English-English/American-English difference. I’m English, and would say CROquet. The 2 lines work with what I think is American pronunciation: oKAY/croQUET. For English pronunciation, the second line is better put “When you say, correctly, CROquet.” Unfortunately, that requires OH-kay on the previous line, which is slightly ungainly on either side of the Atlantic. (BTW, I asked a French colleague, and he put the stress on the first syllable, but not as strongly as I would.) > Either way, this is a very minor (possible) flaw in a really excellent piece of writing! Really? I still think your version of the “English-English” rhymes. My assumption from reading the post was that the poster thinks “croquet” if pronounced “crock-et”, a bit like how Americans do all sorts of weird stuff with “clique”. ---
**Author:** ![gracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@gracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gracer)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-pronunciation/597097/15 "2012-02-03T12:04:03Z")
When I used to teach English we would always come to the question: how do you know how to pronounce new words in English. The only real answer is: you don’t. Ask someone, look it up online, but you won’t really know from reading it. Students always found it hard to believe that there was no regularity to English pronunciation, so then we would read this poem as an example. Charivarius was a Dutch English teacher, IIRC, and he wrote it for that exact reason 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-pronunciation/597097/16 "2012-02-03T12:29:39Z")
That was fun! I’ll be sending that to a few people. Thanks for posting! ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-pronunciation/597097/17 "2012-02-03T23:08:23Z")
Croquet comes from French. I don’t know where a /i/ pronunciation of \ would come from. Perhaps Mr. Gibbler was saying that okeydokie can be pronounced as if it is spelled okaydokie? Also, I believe most Americanized French words have the accent on the last syllable. I definitely can’t think of any that end in the AY sound. Heck, people even (incorrectly) say forTAY for forte, even though it’s from Italian. ---
**Author:** ![Kimmy\_Gibbler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Kimmy\_Gibbler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimmy_Gibbler)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-pronunciation/597097/18 "2012-02-03T23:19:26Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Croquet comes from French. I don’t know where a /i/ pronunciation of \ would come from. Perhaps Mr. Gibbler was saying that okeydokie can be pronounced as if it is spelled okaydokie? > > Also, I believe most Americanized French words have the accent on the last syllable. I definitely can’t think of any that end in the AY sound. Heck, people even (incorrectly) say forTAY for forte, even though it’s from Italian. Somebody should write a [book with pronunciations of various words](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/croquet). It might have an entry like this: > [@](#): > > **cro·quet** /kroʊˈkeɪ; _Brit._ ˈkroʊkeɪ, -ki/ Just spitballin’ this. ---
**Author:** ![lawbuff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/13edae/32.png) [@lawbuff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawbuff)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-pronunciation/597097/19 "2012-02-03T23:26:06Z")
I know a little about Poetry, study it time to time, and rhyme is not always exact, some examples here are called SLANT or EYE rhyme. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-pronunciation/597097/20 "2012-02-03T23:52:17Z")
Haha! Glad this thread got revived, and that a few more people have enjoyed it 🙂