Poems Showing the Absurdities of English Spelling

If you are learning English, pronunciation and spelling are among the most difficult things to learn.  Don't worry it isn't just you!  The poems below show just how difficult it really is! I take it you already know Of tough and bough and cough and dough? Others may stumble, but not you, On hiccough, thorough, lough 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).

Si vous essayez d'apprendre l'Anglais la prononciation et l'écriture sont parmi les plus difficiles. Il ne faut pas paniquer! Les poems ci-dessus montrent bien les grands difficultés, pour les anglais pareil! 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'd mastered it when I was five!

Quoted by Vivian Cook and Melvin Bragg 2004, by Richard Krogh, in D Bolinger & D A Sears, Aspects of Language, 1981,

and in Spelling Progress Bulletin March 1961, Brush up on your English.

Our Strange Lingo

When the English tongue we speak. Why is break not rhymed with freak? Will you tell me why it's true We say sew but likewise few? And the maker of the verse, Cannot rhyme his horse with worse? Beard is not the same as heard Cord is different from word. Cow is cow but low is low Shoe is never rhymed with foe. Think of hose, dose, and lose

And think of goose and yet with choose Think of comb, tomb and bomb, Doll and roll or home and some. Since pay is rhymed with say Why not paid with said I pray? Think of blood, food and good. Mould is not pronounced like could. Wherefore done, but gone and lone - Is there any reason known? To sum up all, it seems to me Sound and letters don't agree.

This was written by Lord Cromer, published in the Spectator of August 9th, 1902

and extracts were quoted in an SSS pamflet in 1930.

Phoney Phonetics.

One reason why I cannot spell, Although I learned the rules quite well Is that some words like coup and through Sound just like threw and flue and Who; When oo is never spelled the same, The duice becomes a guessing game; And then I ponder over though, Is it spelled so, or throw, or beau, And bough is never bow, it's bow, I mean the bow that sounds like plow, And not the bow that sounds like row - The row that is pronounced like roe. I wonder, too, why rough and tough, That sound the same as gruff and muff, Are spelled like bough and though, for they Are both pronounced a different way. And why can't I spell trough and cough The same as I do scoff and golf?

Why isn't drought spelled just like route, or doubt or pout or sauerkraut? When words all sound so much the same To change the spelling seems a shame. There is no sense - see sound like cents - in making such a difference Between the sight and sound of words; Each spelling rule that undergirds The way a word should look will fail And often prove to no avail Because exceptions will negate The truth of what the rule may state; So though I try, I still despair And moan and mutter "It's not fair That I'm held up to ridicule And made to look like such a fool When it's the spelling that's at fault. Let's call this nonsense to a halt."

Attributed to Vivian Buchan, NEA Journal 1966/67, USA,

published in Spelling Progress Bulletin Spring 1966 pdf, p6, Reprinted from Educational Horizons.

Why English is so Hard to Learn

We must polish the Polish furniture. He could lead if he would get the lead out. The farm was used to produce produce. The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse. The soldier decided to desert in the desert. This was a good time to present the present. A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum. When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes. I did not object to the object. The insurance was invalid for the invalid. The bandage was wound around the wound. There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row. They were too close to the door to close it. The buck does funny things when the does are present. They sent a sewer down to stitch the tear in the sewer line. To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow. The wind was too strong to wind the sail. After a number of injections my jaw got number. Upon seeing the tear in my clothes I shed a tear. I had to subject the subject to a series of tests. How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend? I read it once and will read it agen I learned much from this learned treatise. I was content to note the content of the message. The Blessed Virgin blessed her. Blessed her richly. It's a bit wicked to over-trim a short wicked candle. If he will absent himself we mark him absent. I incline toward bypassing the incline.

This poem is quoted on many websites.

From Mr. P. H. Horner, Education Dept., Rolle College, Exmouth, Devon.

HOW DOES THE REVEREND OUGH PRONOUNCE HIS NAME?

It must be rather rough

to be addressed as Reverend Ough.

Or do you politely cough

and say, 'No, I pronounce it Ough'?

Yet if you lived in Slough

you'd be known as Reverend Ough.

While the priest by Irish lough

is addressed as Father Ough.

But I rather think it, though,

that you're simply known as Ough.

Still, I think I've said enough

Mr. Oh, Ow, Ock or Uff.

With Many thanks to the Spelling Society
There are lots of others of course - so please send them here - enquiries@spellingsociety.org