English Is Weird!

[AuntPollyGrey]

I was brought up bilingual, with English mostly spoken not written until I went to school in the UK at 11. . I still have trouble with these English words that sound the same, but mean something completely different. Pare ,Pear and Pair, Fair (with at least two meanings) and Fare.

Any more to add to the list?

[dannyk13]

Through, cough, bough, rough,bought, though, are some examples of different pronunciations which baffle some foreigners.

[Mozz71]

Bear and bare maybe? There, their and they're is probably the most common misspelling I see online.

[Cloverjo]

Erm.. I didn’t like to mention it on Foods We Hated thread but,
bare/bear.

[Cloverjo]

Out of interest, AuntPolly, what is your other language?

[Chinajan]

I take it you already know
of tough and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble, but not you
on hiccough, thorough, slough and through.
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps,
To learn of less familiar traps?

Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird.
And dead; it's said like bed, not bead.
For goodness sake, don't call it deed!
Watch out for meat and great and threat,
(They rhyme with suite and straight and debt)

A moth is not a moth in mother,
Nor both in bother, broth in brother.
And here is not a match for there,
Nor dear and fear for bear and pear,
And then there's dose and rose and lose --
Just look them up -- and goose and choose,

And cork and work and card and ward
And font and front and word and sword.
And do and go and thwart and cart --
Come, come, I've hardly made a start.
A dreadful language? Man alive,
I mastered it when I was five.

Anonymous

[MargoTester]

Boar and bore

[JimF]

Your / you're and its / it's really do seem unfathomable to some people.

[MargoTester]

Bier and beer

[JF85]

No offence intended, AuntPollyGrey, but you seem to be asking other people to tell you what you find difficult.

[vulcan42]

It was the confusion over bare/bear that led to the trouble in America. They wrote, the right to bear arms instead of the right to bare arms.

[ichkeria]

Imagine someone new to English having to read out the sentence:

Your argument, though tough, ought to be thoroughly thought through.

[Buenchico]

You seem to have forgotten about 'fayre' (as in 'Christmas Fayre') in your examples, APG ;-)

The most common error seen on AB is probably mixing up 'there', 'their' and 'they're' but 'aloud' and 'allowed' have been known to cause some confusion here too!

Reading "I couldn't bare it", as I've seen here many times, always amuses me too ;-)

I have to hesitate before typing principle/principal, or compliment/complement. If I didn't, I'd be bound to choose the wrong one!

[Etch]

The bear/bare mistake that always amuses me is "bare with me" - ok, you show me yours and I'll show you mine!

[theshedman]

How about Present it has a number of different meanings

[Hopkirk]

There's plenty of words with the same spelling but different meanings.

Right and left spring to mind.

[jno]

and how flammable means the same as inflammable.

[jourdain2]

Gruff and grough. Most of the nice, easier ones have been used. :)

[Jackdaw33]

If you think English is weird, try Welsh. The name of their country can appear as Cymru, Gymru, Chymru or Nghymru, according to what precedes it.

[Theland]

Compliment complement.
Counsellor councillor.

[vulcan42]

Another pair which gives trouble is sign and singe.
Apparently Frank Sinatra received a request for a singed photograph. He took a lighter and singed the the edge before posting it. A few days later he received another request for " a singed photograph as somebody had signed the previous one".