Monday, February 21, 2011

Let us count the ways...

"A rough-coated, dough-faced ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough, coughing and hiccoughing thoughtfully."

Notice anything? Some of the words are a bit old-fashioned, with alternate spelling choices, but this sentence has the syllable "ough" pronounced in 8 different ways. It is no wonder that English is such a beast to learn as a second language. Add that to the fact that English has more words than pretty much any other language and be glad you learned it as a child.

3 comments:

Kay said...

Wow! That's incredible! Yes, I've had several foreign friends tell me English is very hard to learn.

Mare said...

I agree! The English language is unbelievably crazy with the amount of exceptions to the rules.
What have you been doing lately?
Hope all is well and you are having good times!

Great Grandma Lin said...

that is true, thanks goodness for spelll checks...