What decisions do English speakers make subconsciously?

There is a pattern of voiced/unvoiced pairs where the voiced is a noun and the unvoiced is a verb. bath->bathe, mouth(n)->mouth(v), cloth->clothe, sooth->soothe, breath->breathe, teeth->teethe. Loath->loathe follows a similar pattern although loath is an adjective. I suspect lath and lathe are a pair, although both are nouns in modern use.

[quote=“Novelty_Bobble, post:113, topic:973655”]…
I’m looking round my room now and things that catch my eye with three syllables

television

[/quote]
Excuse me?

I missed out “or more” after “three” which was the original point I was responding to

Another one I had to have pointed out to me:

When used positively, “I must” and “I have to” are very similar:

“My doctor says I must take this tablet”
“My doctor says I have to take this tablet”

But used with a negative, they’re very different indeed:

“My doctor said I don’t have to take this tablet”
“My doctor said I must not take this tablet”

Confusing for the non-native speaker.

Obviously there’s a form of the negation (“My doctor says I have to not take this table”) which makes sense logically, but it’s incredibly clumsy to the native ear.