(I said) Betyghtbouhn
My favourite tongue-twister 🙂
Betty Botter bought some butter but, said she, the butter’s bitter.
If I put it in my batter, it will make my batter bitter.
But a bit of better butter will make my bitter batter better.
So she bought some better butter, better than the bitter butter,
put it in her bitter batter, made her bitter batter better.
So ‘t was better Betty Botter bought some better butter.
Say it fast and then even faster. 🙂
How’s your tongue? Twisted? That should mean…mission complete 🙂
Boughthbitiouthi,
Give it a try
In primary school it took me a good deal of time to learn to pronounce No Doubt properly, then they came dumb and numb and still I know people who pronounce it [knaif] (rolleyes).
Here we have a nice collection of silent, or, in other words – useless letters in our beloved English.
A as in BREAD [bred]
B as in DEBT [det]
C as in INDICTMENT [in’daitmənt]
D as in HANDKERCHIEF [‘hæŋkətʃif]
E as in GIVE [giv]
F as in HALFPENNY [‘heipni]
G as in GNAW [nɔ:]
H as in HOUR [аuə]
I as in FRIEND [frend]
J as in MARIJUANA [,mæri’jwa:nə]
K as in KNOW [nоu]
L as in CALM [ka:m]
M as the first M in MNEMONIC [ni:’mɔnik]
N as in AUTUMN [‘ɔ:təm]
O as in PEOPLE [pi:pl]
P as in PSALM [sa:m]
Q as in COLQUHOUN (a Scottish surname) [dunno, sorreh]
R as in FORECASTLE [‘fouksl]
S as in ISLAND [‘ailənd]
T as in CASTLE [‘ka:sl]
U as in GUARD [ga:d]
V as in MILNGAVIE (a Scottish place name) [dunno (again)]
W as in WRONG [rɔŋ]
X as in SIOUX [su:]
Y as in PEPYS [piːps]
Z as in RENDEZVOUS [‘rɔndivu:] (yes, the-french-one)
Via: Silent English
Yet even taking into account all of the examples (and all the other words not mentioned here) we could barely compare to the French, e.g.:
beaucoup [bo-koo]
On the other hand there are the Americans who tend to simplify everything and write the through – thru (a bit too much for my liking).
I’ll stick to the British (even silent) English, thank you very much,
Those native speakers
I attended a meeting these past few days and got the chance to learn a pinch to a bunch (depends on your hand size) new things:
The interesting word/phrase for today is BOILERPLATE.
But what does it mean?
The term “boilerplate” has been adopted by lawyers to describe those parts of a contract that are considered “standard language”.
The word has also come into use for pre-created form letters on the Internet for things such as issues to be broached by a politician based on an issue ad, requesting a cable network be added to a system by a cable or satellite operator, or a pre-written complaint about something such as a program, book, or video game opposed by a group which created the letter, along with online petitions. Usually the greeting and the body of the letter have been pre-written, requiring the person requesting the action to only type or sign his name at the end.
Ready, steady..GO!
So, today is the day to begin, to initiate, to start off, to commence, to take to my bloggin’.
If you came here searching for a place to learn elementary English and form the very basics of your knowledge, I do sorry but it would not be very helpful. I want to create us a place where we can excel, learn new things, create a community and above all – use the language. Bit by bit, inch by inch, word by word , even phoneme by phoneme, if needed.
So… let me introduce you to an interesting piece of writing, originally published on http://learningbritishaccent.blogspot.com
English May Discourage Students from Learning a New Language
What are the factors that both motivate and impede us from learning foreign languages? A recent study by Alastair Henry at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden examines Swedish students’ decreased interest and success rate in learning languages besides English.
According to Henry, many students in Sweden prefer to use English on a regular basis, and they often use it as a resource language when learning other languages. Henry’s findings show that this negatively affects students’ motivation to learn other languages, and it can affect their actual abilities to learn foreign languages as well. Read More…
AWARDS
Just English 