Things you don't understand about English--Let's Talk!

[Kura]

Some silent letters. Like the k in knife. I understand the combination of letters to make a different sound, like ou in colour, or the ph to make more of a f sound. But the k in knife?? Am I pronouncing it wrong? Do you not pronounce it with an n?? Is it another sound I should be making but no one is correcting me???

Also since k is brought up, what is the difference between c and k vocally in the words were they (to me) make the same sound? Why are they sometimes pronounced the same to the point they are interchangeable in slang? Am I also pronouncing those wrong?

[Wocalich]

The k in knife used to be pronounced, if I'm not wrong

[IndigoShirtProd]

C is the thief letter in the alphabet because it technically doesn't have a sound to call its own. Sure the "k" sound it make in words like call and care, but then it steals the "s" sound in words like city or celebrate. C's just an odd letter, like how Q can't generally be without the letter U next to it.

[Kura]

The k in knife used to be pronounced, if I'm not wrong

C is the thief letter in the alphabet because it technically doesn't have a sound to call its own. Sure the "k" sound it make in words like call and care, but then it steals the "s" sound in words like city or celebrate. C's just an odd letter, like how Q can't generally be without the letter U next to it.

I both love and absolutely hate how these both explain WHY it's like that, but don't explain WHY it's continue to be like that or allowed to be like that or how it's supposed to make sense.

[Ordinaryaverageguy]

Leading one to want to ask if "fenestration" could be throwing someone IN a window. lol

[Absol]

I managed to confuse the hell out of a colleague at work before. I asked her and the person she was working with if I could half-inch something. The English person understood immediately and said yes whilst she (a non-English person) just sat there and stared at me with a very puzzled expression on her face. We all had a right giggle whilst trying to explain it to her

[Random_Guy]

[Ordinaryaverageguy]

I think that a joke was missed.....

[Random_Guy]

Not missed, ignored. It's called a straight man.

[Ordinaryaverageguy]

Not missed, ignored.

LOL <3
(insert obligatory 20 characters fill)

[Ordinaryaverageguy]

In English we mostly just borrow "schadenfreude".
We borrow a lot. And butcher some of what we borrow.

[DokiDokiTsuna]

I both love and absolutely hate how these both explain WHY it's like that, but don't explain WHY it's continue to be like that or allowed to be like that or how it's supposed to make sense.

It's allowed to be like that because the status quo is hard to change, simple as that. ^^; There have been attempts to 'simplify' English spelling AND the English alphabet, but they never caught on because people are more or less fine with the system we have, apparently. It may be a nightmare, but it's our nightmare~

What weirds me out about some of these complaints is that they're not all the fault of English itself...or rather, they make perfect sense when you consider that English is made up of several different languages.

You find two words with conflicting pronunciation rules? Chances are they have different etymological roots.

You find a word that seems to have its own special pronunciation that isn't apparent at all in the spelling? Chances are it would be if we had kept the accent marks from its native language (some French- and German-sourced words end up like this...we drop diacritics because we don't like them, without realizing that it robs people of a fighting chance when they try to sound out the word).

I think it's all hilarious, tbh~. English is like a big patchwork quilt...some of the pieces are sewn together, and some of them are kind of duct-taped on, and they all come from different fabrics. Maybe it's not very comfortable, but it's definitely interesting to look at. ^^

[IndigoShirtProd]

Its so weird that instead of coming up with words, the English language just takes words from other established languages and says "yes, this is our word now." English is so weird.

[Wocalich]

I think all languages have words like that though

[Kura]

Its so weird that instead of coming up with words, the English language just takes words from other established languages and says "yes, this is our word now." English is so weird.

Weird story about that. I used to think some words fell under that rule. "It's another language but English took it and made it their own and now it's English too."

But then I learned that no, that's actually not the case, and those words are absolutely not used in the English language. That was just my relatives all being ESL and throwing some words from their language in (especially for food), or saying curse words in their language cause they thought the little kids wouldn't understand.

[Kura]

Another one that confuses me that I run into, is when to use the 's and ' after names for possessives when the name already have a s at the end of them. It just... doesn't look right and can sometimes sounds really strange when you say out out loud.

Additionally, you can put the ' behind the s in the name instead of 's, and it will still be grammatically correct. The reasoning behind if you use 's or ' behind a name ending is s not really being logic based but instead feelings based in 'whichever you feel works best'

Both "That's Chris's dog." and "That's Chris' dog." are grammatically correct with whichever being used up to the discretion of the person writing it an no rule outside that telling you which to use.

(Again though, I am shit at English language, so I may have this wrong and misunderstood when trying to figure it out / having it explained to me when I asked)

[AnonymousHouseCat]

I saw a meme once saying that English isn't actually a language, but rather three languages sitting on each other's shoulders under a trench coat and pretending to be a language, and that feels pretty accurate to me

[bakasama25]

I'm thinking you never seen Chinese or Japanese up close. I'm I right?

[sevenstarsofeightIam]

Hi, Melovestacos. Just want to say, don't forget about Southern English. "Wah is hail, suh." I am a Southern English speaker and my wife is Mexican who has learned English. I am trying to learn Spanish. She calls English crazy. I call Spanish crazy. I'll say, 'the other day,' meaning yesterday and that gets under her skin, but she'll turn around and say something like 'the other tomorrow,' meaning day after tomorrow.

[Black_Conscious]

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Very weird on how they say Olive skin, I am curious on how they come up with Olive skin

(I don't even know if this skin tone is accurate or not so don't come after meh )

this a lot of olive talk right now