'Read' and its past tense are spelled the same. How should they be spelled?
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Where, were, we're. Even native speakers have problems with this. I don't know how many times I had to correct such cases, especially with American authors.
Pretty much only native speakers have problems with this, I see this type of mistake far less frequently with those who learned English as an additional language.
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Pretty sure the past tense of "lead" is actually "led."
Unless of course you're referring to the type of metal, lead, which I guess the meme isn't clear on.
What's not clear? It's written right there!
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It's because the people who set the rules for the English language, could barely speak it.
The first guy to popularize the printing press was Dutch, so the guy who bought England's first one didn't know how it worked and neither did any English speaker
So he hired a bunch of Dutch who knew how to operate it.
And they got a bunch of handwritten books and were told to mass reproduce them.
Sometimes it was a mistake in the original, sometimes the typesetter made a mistake. Sometimes the writer just disagreed with how it should be written, and sometimes even the typesetters who couldn't speak English made choices to change it
No one gave a fuck about accuracy, it was about pumping out as many books as possible. Because just owning a book was a huge status symbol still from when they were handwritten and crazy expensive.
But all those books eventually got read, and the people who learned to read them were very proud that they could read. So they insisted that all the random bullshit was intentional and had to be followed to a T by everyone forever.
Most other languages had a noble class who kept it sensical, but for a long ass time only peasants spoke English, the wealthy in England all spoke French, cuz they were French.
Anyways, that's why English doesn't make any sense. There was also a natural thing happening where vowel pronunciation was changing. So when the typecasters solidified everything, it was already in a state of flux. That's why pronunciation doesn't line up with spelling.
What I get from this is that if those English idiots had stuck to French, we wouldn't have this mess.
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What I get from this is that if those English idiots had stuck to French, we wouldn't have this mess.
More like if the French royalty hadn't conquered England....
England hasn't been ruled by the English for centuries bro
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Pretty much only native speakers have problems with this, I see this type of mistake far less frequently with those who learned English as an additional language.
Pretty much only native speakers have problems with this
That makes no sense since they would use it more, however native speakers from the US do have problems with it, and other words (they're/their).
Rarely encounter it with others.
Their spelling is embarrassing, same as their very limited vocabulary.
IDK what they do in schools. -
I pronounce these all differently though? [wɛɹ], [wəɹ] and [wiɹ]
Maybe, yes, but as someone who has seen tons of unedited writings, I can tell you those mixup as common as muck.
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What about similar oddities in English?
(This question is inspired by this comic by https://www.exocomics.com/) (I couldn't find the link to the actual comic)
Edit: it's to its in the title. Damn autocorrect.wrote last edited by [email protected]Lead and lead as well. I got a lead on those lead undergarments you wanted. I'll lead you there later.
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"que sera sera" es un ejemplo.
How is that weird, as (nearly?) the only regular form of this verb?
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Pretty much only native speakers have problems with this
That makes no sense since they would use it more, however native speakers from the US do have problems with it, and other words (they're/their).
Rarely encounter it with others.
Their spelling is embarrassing, same as their very limited vocabulary.
IDK what they do in schools.It's true that I see it more rarely with the British. I suppose they read more or something.
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Pretty much only native speakers have problems with this
That makes no sense since they would use it more, however native speakers from the US do have problems with it, and other words (they're/their).
Rarely encounter it with others.
Their spelling is embarrassing, same as their very limited vocabulary.
IDK what they do in schools.Native speakers acquire the language before learning to read. Remember, writing is a representation of spoken language not the other way round.
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Pretty much only native speakers have problems with this, I see this type of mistake far less frequently with those who learned English as an additional language.
Pretty much only native speakers have problems with this
99% agree with this. This is a native speaker issue, except where someone took up bad habits from the natives...
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What I get from this is that if those English idiots had stuck to French, we wouldn't have this mess.
Oh god, we'd be stuck with all those silent letters
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Oh god, we'd be stuck with all those silent letters
On the other hand, you seldom have the issue of having no clue how something is pronounced because you've only ever seen it written. So it balances out.
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What dialect of English will we base the new spelling system on?
Transatlantic English
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Pitted olives got me in a similar fashion.
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This is the grammar thing I fuck up the most, and I don't call people on it because I'm pretty sure I don't know how it works. Autocorrect changes it & I just say "oh, whoops", and it still looks wrong...
My keyboard is very keen on completing "it's" regardless of context. I imagine this is the case for most people, since usually I see "it's" when "its" would be correct.
I also think it's difficult to know that "it's" is wrong to use because it feels like it follows the common apostrophe for possession rule:
"Australia's capital is Canberra" -> "Australia is the largest country in Oceania. It's capital is Canberra." (wrong, but intuitive) -
A French. The language where you have 5 wovels, use 3 for the word goose and the other 2 to pronounce it.
What? The e is just silent.
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What about similar oddities in English?
(This question is inspired by this comic by https://www.exocomics.com/) (I couldn't find the link to the actual comic)
Edit: it's to its in the title. Damn autocorrect.They should be left exactly the same as an example of context.
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Also sanction and sanction, same word but completely opposite meanings.
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Native speakers acquire the language before learning to read. Remember, writing is a representation of spoken language not the other way round.
That is still not a valid reason.
