The MOST FRUSTRATING part about English! 🇬🇧😩

The MOST FRUSTRATING part about English! 🇬🇧😩 | Feli from Germany

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Күн бұрын

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Through, tough, and bough are all spelled with "-ough" but pronounced COMPLETELY DIFFERENTLY?! Are you kidding me English?! 🤬 For today's video, I collected some of the most frustrating things about English pronunciation and spelling that make non-native speakers like myself go insane from time to time. Please add YOUR best examples in the comments below!
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0:00 Intro
4:09 Same spelling, different pronunciation
7:47 Different spelling, same pronunciation
9:07 Silent letters
10:42 Nouns vs. verbs
12:09 Especially difficult words
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ABOUT ME: Hallo, Servus, and welcome to my channel! My name is Felicia (Feli), I'm 27, and I'm a German living in the USA! I was born and raised in Munich, Germany but have been living in Cincinnati, Ohio off and on since 2016. I first came here for an exchange semester during my undergrad at LMU Munich, then I returned for an internship, and then I got my master's degree in Cincinnati. I was lucky enough to win the Green Card lottery and have been a permanent resident since 2019! In my videos, I talk about cultural differences between America and Germany, things I like and dislike about living here, and other experiences that I have made during my time in the States. Let me know what YOU would like to hear about in the comments below. DANKE :)
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Пікірлер: 4 800

@FelifromGermany 2 жыл бұрын

What I forgot to mention in the video is that in German 🇩🇪, once you know the pronunciation rules, you can usually read a text and pronounce all the words correctly even if you have no clue what it says! Pretty cool huh? :) On the other hand of course, German grammar is a nightmare for many non-native speakers. 😅 What are YOUR examples for inconsistent pronunciation in English? ⬇️ Or do you even have examples for German despite the rather consistent pronunciation rules?

@mccardrixx5289 2 жыл бұрын

Zu wild ich schwöre

@3.k 2 жыл бұрын

„Ich wollte es nicht umfahren, also habe ich es umfahren.“ Ein alter Hut aber das Beispiel, was mir als erstes einfällt. ^^

@jurgenebert7668 2 жыл бұрын

From my experiences, German grammar is not only a nightmare for non-native speakers.

@rickoshea6899 2 жыл бұрын

There is ewe and you

@luizamarchetti2014 2 жыл бұрын

The problem with the German pronunciation isn't not knowing how to pronounce a word, but not being able to pronounce it.

@helpsavethehumans 2 жыл бұрын

This reminds me of the mantra: "English is weird. It can be understood through tough thorough thought, though." 😂

@rockabye274 2 жыл бұрын

That's a good one.

@hairyairey 2 жыл бұрын

@@rockabye274 and a hiccough

@kuocdo1938 2 жыл бұрын

Five words above are pronounced hard.

@fsinjin60 2 жыл бұрын

I heard the phrase as « accept that no one can know English thru and threw except through tough thorough thought, though »

@fsinjin60 2 жыл бұрын

It can be taught via taut tautology.

@glmike523 2 жыл бұрын

The word LAUGHTER, when adding an "S" to the front of the word, becomes SLAUGHTER.

@seegee7728 2 жыл бұрын

The same with LAUGHTER and changing one letter to DAUGHTER , and what's with the spelling of BABY and MAYBE

@Empr4evr 2 жыл бұрын

Daughter, which rhymes with water.

@codingvio7383 2 жыл бұрын

Comedy

@ray-sattler 2 жыл бұрын

Like when Homer Simpson wears the cow suit and can't see the S, he thinks he is going to the Laughterhouse

@christophermoore9436 Жыл бұрын

Putting the laughter in slaughter just leads to the fun in funeral

@shawnsnow7748 2 жыл бұрын

I used this rhyme while teaching English in S. Korea in the 1990s and also back in Denver in my advanced ESL and Intensive English classes prior to 9/11. The students loved it! English pronunciation and spelling are really tuff! I take it you already know Of tough and bough and cough and dough Others may stumble, but not you On hiccough, thorough, laugh, and through. And cork and work and card and ward And font and front and word and sword Well done! And now if 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 sakes 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, And 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 do and go, then thwart and cart. Come, come, I’ve hardly made a start! A dreadful language? Man alive! I’d mastered it when I was five.

@dustinprechtel3174 Жыл бұрын

I swear to god, that was the hardest rhyme I've ever read, also I'm not quite sure if I pronounced everything correctly (still learning english, first language: German)

@johncassani6780 Жыл бұрын

Awesome! And, yes, native English speakers master speaking these words, and differentiating them before they can read and spell them. I still can remember learning the spellings. English would be a horribly boring language without the quirks that come from having so many influences.

@Mustang1984 11 ай бұрын

LOL native English speaker and I can't even get through the first "paragraph"? Stanza? I can't remember!

@bob456fk6 9 ай бұрын

I've lived in Texas all my life. I never heard the word "hiccough". We always say: "hiccup" 🙂

@akumasstorytime3910 9 ай бұрын

This took me six tries and I still don't think I said everything right.

@garanceadrosehn9691 2 жыл бұрын

I like to describe English as: The easiest language to "get by" in, but one of the hardest to *master.*

@walls_of_skulls6061 2 жыл бұрын

You can legit string words together in pretty much anyway to be understood. Look at how scots talk they mix the order of words up so much

@johnbaker-rabe9260 2 жыл бұрын

Much to my surprise, though, a pretty comprehensive bit of research, using multiple criteria, found that the hardest language in the world to learn is Polish - not Japanese, Swahili, Arabic, Indian, Hebrew and so on! (Just my luck: I chose to live here! 🤣)

@mookiestewart3776 Жыл бұрын

@@johnbaker-rabe9260 there is no hardest language it all depends on what your mother tongue is

@emeraldabroad2771 Жыл бұрын

@@walls_of_skulls6061 example please ?

@walls_of_skulls6061 Жыл бұрын

@@emeraldabroad2771 "how like" is used likehow Americans would say "like how"

@natemoorman4562 2 жыл бұрын

There's a children's book called "P is for Pterodacyl: the WORST alphabet book" and all 26 words start with a different silent letter.

@markspurgeon4556 2 жыл бұрын

Great book. My daughters gave me a copy.

@AdmiralFerret 2 жыл бұрын

That is amazing! loll!

@mry82 2 жыл бұрын

Haha, that is great (going to have to look it up).

@hydrolito 2 жыл бұрын

English got lots of words from other languages so most if not all of those words likely came from other languages.

@Dalmen 2 жыл бұрын

Here is the Video from the Book : kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ith9qdlkzbmrj58.html

@EnigmaDave 2 жыл бұрын

As a native English speaker, I absolutely loved seeing all these examples of how odd English actually is. Very well done.

@nancibernard1315 2 жыл бұрын

I agree, but English seem so easy compared to German with needing to know the gender of words, the 4 cases, declension, and words getting bumped all around the sentence is driving me crazy, but after 1 1/2 years of working at it, I am making some progress 😀 Can't believe my great grandparents were fluent in German!

@bigaspn 2 жыл бұрын

I have never been good at English even though I was born and raised in America. I had the same difficulties as she has described. Now that I’m in my 30s I can finally spell most words correct. Or use them in the correct context

@ricktownend9144 2 жыл бұрын

@@bigaspn Maybe the rule in English is that every rule has its exceptions; sometimes even the exceptions have their own exceptions! - e.g. (when the sound is 'ee') it's I before E - except after C - except for the word 'SEIZE'

@seez8164 2 жыл бұрын

@@nancibernard1315 We have 7 cases. And there are more exceptions than rules on how to make them. Words have two genders in plural but three in singular. Greetings from Poland :) Anyway, I also find English easier than German but their spelling is hilarious.

@seegee7728 2 жыл бұрын

@@bigaspn I heard the other day that 43% of Aussie adults have difficulty and or can't read or write english. i knew there were people who struggled but i was amazed at that %. There are always language courses no matter how young or old you are.

@ngo7156 Жыл бұрын

Great video! As a Native English speaker I never knew how hard the English language was until my dad told me. English was the fifth and last language he learned and would pronounce words incorrectly or mix up words in an expression for example. My dad was born in Greece to parents who were born in Russia(when it was called Russia). So my dad spoke Russian at home but Greek in school, he didn't even realize they were two different languages at first. Then, years later they moved and lived in Germany for a couple years and learned German. Then moved and lived in Italy for few years, learning Italian before finally settling in the United States, learning English. So my dad was fluent in Russian, Greek, German, Italian, and English. He had trouble with a lot of the things you mentioned about the English language. The words pear, pair, and pare threw him off. Also, the word cobweb for some reason he would say cow web. There is an English/American expression, "She thinks she's Miss goodie two shoes". My dad would say, " Miss two good shoes and one bad foot". Lol There are some English words I have trouble pronouncing and/or spelling also. If I have trouble saying or spelling a word I will try and use another similar word instead. Lol 😆 Thanks for sharing! ; ) 💕

@richardvoogd705 11 ай бұрын

My dad grew up speaking Twentse (a dialect of Dutch), and could also speak English, German and French. I think he did OK with English - it wasn't often that I noticed the influence of other languages. As for me, my first language is English, with some French and Latin at school, and some Samoan and Maori learned (or is that learnt?) as an adult.

@ngo7156 11 ай бұрын

@@richardvoogd705 OH wow! Impressive! ; )

@alex0589 2 жыл бұрын

This was like a good standup set, hilarious. English is my second language as well, i feel your pain throughout as tears tear through my face and my thoughts though im tough so i can take it ........English.

@i_can_c_u_2295 2 жыл бұрын

My English teacher once said "TOO and TO are TWO different words"

@arrgghh1555 2 жыл бұрын

That's two too many thing to remember.

@HistoryNerd808 2 жыл бұрын

I think the best explanation is one I saw on Reddit awhile ago: English is 3 languages in a trench coat beating up other languages for their pronunciations and spelling. It is a complete mess and makes no sense, even for us native speakers.

@FelifromGermany 2 жыл бұрын

That's such a good summary!!!

@HistoryNerd808 2 жыл бұрын

@@FelifromGermany Yeah. It's not mine but it sums up this language so well. The spelling and pronunciation just make you want to pull your hair out sometimes.

@marksmadhousemetaphysicalm2938 2 жыл бұрын

Yes, this is probably the best way to sum up English...I believe William Shakespeare said something like this...

@blindleader42 2 жыл бұрын

That sounds like it's a descendant of a post made by James Nicoll on Usenet in the dim time before the Internet was really a thing. It can be found on his Wikipedia page.

@abesanderson 2 жыл бұрын

"The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary." James Nicoll

@liam_lusophile626 Жыл бұрын

Your struggles with English make me appreciate my privilege as a native English-speaker.

@jadintenax226 2 жыл бұрын

It gets even more fun if one includes regional ascents. Such as Southern, Upper Michigan Peninsula, or Down Eastern Maine ascents.

@gerryroush8391 Жыл бұрын

Oh sure, you betcha, I am fluent in da Yoopers dialect

@balancedactguy 2 ай бұрын

German is a NIGHTMARE by comparison

@romanweber6315 2 жыл бұрын

the 'c' in pacific ocean, is pronounced diffrently three times

@914Rocky 2 жыл бұрын

Aren’t the first and third cs pronounced the same?

@toddwebb7521 2 жыл бұрын

Yeah if you spelled it like it's pronounced it would be more like pasifik oshean

@914Rocky 2 жыл бұрын

@@toddwebb7521 you are right of course!!

@sm5574 2 жыл бұрын

@@914Rocky, "ocean" [was originally] pronounced "oce-yan", but people are lazy and pronounce it "o-shun" or "o-shin".

@914Rocky 2 жыл бұрын

@@sm5574 Really? I’ve never heard it pronounced that way. Interesting

@Alexa-jk3oh 2 жыл бұрын

i’d add “Colonel” to the mix lmao

@thaispaiva5046 2 жыл бұрын

this comment deserved more love, cause it's spot on

@anthonykaiser974 2 жыл бұрын

You really want confusion, militarily? Lieutenant in British English is pronounced "Leftenant."

@anthonykaiser974 2 жыл бұрын

English is a West Germanic language with a ton of Latin-based words and a very German stubborn streak where spelling is concerned. Some of these words with common diphthongs actually used to be pronounced the same. Look at Shakespeare for what are now weird rhymes, that did in his time. If English was Germanized, women would be Wömen. It's just a hidden umlaut.

@LG123ABC 2 жыл бұрын

@@anthonykaiser974 We don't use umlauts in English so we don't know what the hell they are. All those squiggles and dots above letters in some European languages are completely meaningless to us. Anything beyond an apostrophe and Americans start getting very confused.

@anthonykaiser974 2 жыл бұрын

@@LG123ABC you don't use diacritical marks in English. The "umlaut" still exists in things like irregular nouns (foot becomes feet same as the German Fuß becomes Füßen) just the spelling is fully changed because the I mutations are complete, not partial as in German.

@TheIfrena2000 2 жыл бұрын

“Silent letters why they even there if they serve no function”😂 good point! Like a tailbone in anatomy! English is tough to learn from native lands as well but it’s funny & honest from ur perspective cause it sounds more truthful. Great video thanks

@treetopjones737 Жыл бұрын

Ask the French, they started it! 😁

@IanKemp1960 10 ай бұрын

I think it goes to show how fast the spoken language changes. If you tried to change the spelling to match the spoken words, I think it would be hard to keep up, you'd be producing new dictionaries every few years. And which dialect or version of English would you standardise the spelling on? Best to leave it the way it is, I think 🙂

@amandaengelmeyer4159 8 ай бұрын

🙃don’t forget reins, as in what you use to direct a horse, not to be confused with rain which falls from the sky, or reign, which is what a monarch does

@magichands8791 2 жыл бұрын

I’m a native born American and STILL say “wed-nes-day” when I write: Wednesday

@c.norbertneumann4986 2 жыл бұрын

Woden's day

@allenwilliams1306 2 жыл бұрын

I'm British, and I think “Wotan's Day”.

@StormyDay 2 жыл бұрын

@@allenwilliams1306 it’s a Germanic God so it’s Woden. 4 of the Roman-based languages lauded Mercury on the 4th day of the week.

@joeb4294 2 жыл бұрын

same here, haha

@allenwilliams1306 2 жыл бұрын

@@StormyDay Well, I think of him as Norse ultimately (Odin), but I guess I've been too much influenced by Wagner!

@Nolan100862 2 жыл бұрын

Felicia, I'm a 58 year old Englishman, you've taught me me more about my own language in a 14 minute KZfaq video than I learnt in 5 years at High school back in the day. You're One smart, intelligent, witty and funny person. Brilliant work Felicia, I just love watching your content, thank you. 👏💐

@hairyairey 2 жыл бұрын

She also has the most excellent diction and I am surprised she is not doing voiceover work.

@joshuddin897 2 жыл бұрын

OK tone it down.

@hairyairey 2 жыл бұрын

@@joshuddin897 Why?

@thatdbzguyfr 2 жыл бұрын

I keep finding people of older age in these comments, I wonder why

@hairyairey 2 жыл бұрын

@@thatdbzguyfr because not everyone is the same age as you perhaps?

@BlueBird8925 4 ай бұрын

As a native English speaker who has taught adult literacy and English to non native speakers, I have learned just how many exceptions and odd spelling and pronunciations we have. Great video!

@gregblair5139 Жыл бұрын

The ie/ie rule works most of the time. It is "i" before "e," except after "c," or when sounding like "a" as in neighbor or weigh!

@defenestrationfan 2 жыл бұрын

This is how we get payback for 16 ways to say "the" in German.

@morbidmanatee5550 2 жыл бұрын

Now THAT is confusing.

@VendettaProduction01 2 жыл бұрын

And “a” and “your”

@calvinsellers1036 2 жыл бұрын

AMEN!!

@ambervecero114 2 жыл бұрын

So very true!!

@esaholmberg 2 жыл бұрын

Never understood the ;) need of even one 'the'. But then, I'm a Finnish native speaker ;)

@alexv6324 2 жыл бұрын

I took some German in high school and the teacher told us that when she first came to the United States, she kept pronouncing doughnuts as, "duffnuts."

@sundance81677 2 жыл бұрын

I use know someone who was Brazilian. Her and her family emigrated here when she was young. Her father, despite living here 25+ years, still pronounces “gloves” as glowves. 🤷‍♀️

@iowacub1 2 жыл бұрын

We may be lucky, in that this is one of those words that is getting simplified as the language evolves. I would say that the majority of people spell it "donut" now.

@justincain2702 6 ай бұрын

The odd spellings are tricky for native speakers too. We just usually have more experience. It's why we have spelling tests and spelling bees growing up.

@veritaslynne9282 8 ай бұрын

One of my favorite examples of how confusing the English language can be is actually the name of a famous Northern English actor: Sean Bean 😁

@frankendragon5442 2 жыл бұрын

If it's any consolation, it's confusing for us native English speakers, too.

@mdubmachine 2 жыл бұрын

This. Learning to read felt like a perpetual cycle of “learn the rule, here’s the exceptions”. And it always feels like there’s more exceptions than there are words that follow the rules lol. German grammar is a nightmare, but I can spell “Bedienungsanleitung” without a second thought. I sometimes can’t even remember if “exercise” has an additional “c” after the “x” without relying on spell check.

@ppsh43 2 жыл бұрын

Reading internet comments is a good demonstration of their/there/they’re and to/too/two confusion

@snorky2k521 2 жыл бұрын

I do not consider myself fluent in German, Danish, Norwegian, or Swedish. But, other than silent letters in Danish, I really wished that we had their simplified spelling in English. But, an extra key for modifying vowels would be nice for typing in these languages.

@word20 2 жыл бұрын

@@mdubmachine I think that the German grammar is simple because you have rules with few exceptions but in the English language you have you have many exceptions, which makes the English grammar harder to learn

@hairyairey 2 жыл бұрын

@@mdubmachine And then you get people who teach you wrong too like "i before e except after c" - funnytweeter.com/caches/cache.php?tweet_id=110755.jpg

@travisnapoleansmith 2 жыл бұрын

This is something I have had more than one English teacher say to me. English is two different languages: spoken and written. You can spend your entire life speaking English and not know how to write it; You can spend your entire life reading and writing English and not know how to speak it!

@musicofnote1 2 жыл бұрын

And the exact same thing can be said about German. There are special courses for people who've learned to speak German as a 2nd language, but now need to be able to write it correctly, but this is more a style thing, not really having to do with spelling. "Bürodeutsch" or "Schriftdeutsch".

@MAKgargos Жыл бұрын

@@musicofnote1 Yes, Bürodeutsch is a thing even natives often have problems with, but in general there is no big problem from speaking to writing or the other way around. Some things only from hearing to writing could be a problem, but they are rare and most times have a logical rule. The problems should be with ei and ai, but ai is rare or eu and äu, but if you have the also rare äu, you always have another word: Baum - Bäume. It's like french: I speak it with bad schoolfrench, absolutely not fluid, but give me a text and I can read it like a pro.

@andrewcordle2424 10 ай бұрын

Amusing presentation I never had any problems learning English as a native speaker but I understand the frustrations of someone trying to learn its idiosyncrasies 😵‍💫😱🤷🏼‍♂️

@DJDoena 2 жыл бұрын

You just have to remember that read rhymes with lead but read rhymes with lead!

@timothykuykendall7103 2 жыл бұрын

Awesome picture. Fellow Star Trek fan.

@quintrankid8045 2 жыл бұрын

Nice.

@lydiafife8716 2 жыл бұрын

😂😂😂

@seeleausstahl3595 2 жыл бұрын

And my pet peeve: don't forget that the past tense of the verb "to lead" is spelled "led," not "lead."

@Pnwelkhunter 2 жыл бұрын

That’s great, thanks. I was laughing when I read this:)

@TomTom-ik8dm 2 жыл бұрын

No I understand why "spelling competitions" are such a big thing in the U.S. - And why they need a sentence in which the word is used.

@victorlaurent2978 2 жыл бұрын

@Steven Strain you mean the Bri ish? Why would they be annoyed?

@hydrolito 2 жыл бұрын

@@victorlaurent2978 More likely to say annoy the Brits than Bri ish who even says that?

@victorlaurent2978 2 жыл бұрын

@@hydrolito the Bri'ish, it's a meme

@hannahk1306 2 жыл бұрын

@@hydrolito There's a handful of accents like Luton or Essex that drop their Ts, but I think most of us pronounce them

@ryanjacob8568 2 жыл бұрын

You're not the only one that struggles with this! Just ask many native English speakers who still have issues with the same things you pointed out today!

@user-qv6px1qz3m 7 ай бұрын

I agree with you completely! Not sure who came up with the spelling of all the English language, however maybe that’s why so many of us who are out of school can’t spell without spell check.

@star_gazing 2 жыл бұрын

I remember struggling with the word "Queue", darn, you just have to pronounce the first letter, the rest is silent :laugh:

@luisesteves5929 2 жыл бұрын

Yesssss!!!!

@cevihings 2 жыл бұрын

😂😂😂 in hindi/urdu it means why

@loopshackr 2 жыл бұрын

Right! Four consecutive silent vowels - it's unique!

@jamesparson 2 жыл бұрын

RU kidding?

@richard--s 2 жыл бұрын

@@loopshackr "unique" sounds a bit french (frensh? ;-) but the u would be different, it would be the german ü or the norwegian u ;-) Ünig ;-) Unique ;-)

@wardkrause9022 2 жыл бұрын

I taught elementary school for 38 years and everything you said in this video is true for English speaking kids. Our language is a nightmare to learn how to spell for everyone. When I was learning German I loved the fact it everything is pronounced the way it spells. I also had two years of Spanish in high school and the same wonderful thing was true. I didn't think the German was that difficult to learn (although I'm a long way from being fluent) because English is Germanic in origin and I felt comfortable with German from the very beginning. As usual, your videos are very well presented! If I was still teaching, I would show this video to my students ad it encapsulates a great deal of the problems spelling and pronouncing English. Kudos to you, Felicia!

@wlbond008 2 жыл бұрын

I failed French, Latin, Greek, German and passed Spanish with a "D". I programmed computers in COBOL, PL1, JOVIAL, C/C++, C#, FORTRAN, BPL, RPG III, IBM Assembly language. Did retrievals in SQL, SIS. Honeywell and UNIVAC machine languages. The way the mind works. It took the Russians OVER TWO YEARS to convert the B29 Standard size pieces into metric size pieces so they could build a duplicate. Language affects the way the brain functions.

@xenxander 2 жыл бұрын

English has more roots in Saxon and Anglo than German.

@wlbond008 2 жыл бұрын

As a COMPUTER SCIENCE instructor myself, I have throw in the sentence structure and a few other formats that make hexadecimal/binary MORE amenable to English. Never noticed why the "Japanese" keyboard options died out? That was in the 1990s/2000s so a youngster like you might not remember. Almost ALL modern languages (computer languages) from Honeywell TRIM III to IBM Assembler to COBOL to JOVIAL to C# can be translated. In the cases of translation from English (C++) to German (C++), ALL localisms, must be retranslated and removed. The COST alone for the chinese to backward engineer American software of 25 years ago is $2,000,000,000.00 a year. Teach kids MATHEMATICS, ENGLISH, LOGIC, A little History i.e. Dr Goddard, Babbage, Admiral Hopper, etc. Then GET OUT OF THE WAY. I still want my condo in the Astroid Belt.

@jackcrawford8613 2 жыл бұрын

I'm sending this video out to 1600 English learners whose email addresses I have picked up over the years.

@jackcrawford8613 2 жыл бұрын

@@xenxander Isn't Saxony a German state?

@lightbeingform 8 ай бұрын

When I first saw you in a different video, I thought, "She has almost a better-than-native fluency" ...my suspicion of why that is, is confirmed in this video: You really put in the effort to nail the details. It shows! (PS... do any of my other native US English speakers notice that better-than-native quality sometimes in non-native speakers? It makes me a bit embarrassed about our education system here. 😅)

@reynaldoruiz5184 6 ай бұрын

Please take comfort in knowing that we suffer like you in learning the rules and pronunciations so we thought the same. Well done and extremely entertaining 😂.

@marym9240 2 жыл бұрын

"Rhetoric sounds like Frederic" 🤣 Danke für die Eselsbrücke!

@geoffhaviland 2 жыл бұрын

that's a very helpful donkey bridge!

@krisrowan 2 жыл бұрын

English needs these German expressions badly. I already use schadenfreude a lot but can't spell it without looking it up

@fsinjin60 2 жыл бұрын

@@krisrowan or looking for an umlaut on the keyboard.

@fsinjin60 2 жыл бұрын

and what is the English word for umlaut? Who knows diaresis who isn't teaching English?

@fsinjin60 2 жыл бұрын

Maria, except in English Frederic sounds like Fredrick so Rhetoric and Frederic do not rhyme.

@cropshabsund3401 2 жыл бұрын

OMG I was literally in that very class where you learned how to pronounce "cough". Btw I very much enjoyed your class

@matthewyarnell3272 2 жыл бұрын

When teaching my young Chinese students, I push a feather through a straw to help them with the concept and pronunciation of "through." It can be tough though :)

@FWMvet 2 жыл бұрын

" . . . with a lot of confusion and bitternes, sometimes." OMG. You have the most expressive face, and the most sunny disposition. Just keep on being yourself, Feli. Love ya.

@adcashmo 8 ай бұрын

How about: 1) Learned (past tense verb, as in "she learned English") 2) Learned (adjective, as in describing someone who is knowledgeable "she is very learned". In this case it's pronounced "learn-ed") 3) Learnt (the exact same past tense verb as the first example, only spelled/spelt with and pronounced with a "t" at the end. This is an additional official variation in British English. Just for giggles).

@ThatBoomerDude56 2 жыл бұрын

The *"L"* in *Palm Tree* is *not entirely silent.* It's just kind of quiet. 😛 😟

@chill4xed42 2 жыл бұрын

That is not how that works. It is just as silent as in colonel or half.

@beckys2825 2 жыл бұрын

Came here to say this.

@ThatBoomerDude56 2 жыл бұрын

@@chill4xed42 Nope. As a person who has lived in Southern California for the past 65 years, where there are lots of *palm trees,* I can tell you that the "L" in palm normally *is pronounced.*

@milantrcka121 2 жыл бұрын

@@chill4xed42 Colonel - "Kernel" Depends who says it and where

@ThatBoomerDude56 2 жыл бұрын

@@chill4xed42 The "L" in Palm Tree is *slightly* de-emphasized. But you know that position your tongue takes hard up against the roof of your mouth when you say the "L" in Lucky Lindy Licked a Lollypop? Yeah. That position. That is where your tongue ought to be when you say the "L" in *"Palm Tree."*

@GalGavish 2 жыл бұрын

Here are a couple more: Horizon vs horizontal Minute as in “give me a minute” and “minute” as in “minute details”

@anthonykaiser974 2 жыл бұрын

...and minutia, with the "sh" of Modern (vs Classical) Latin.

@grenadine5571 2 жыл бұрын

"I begged father to deliver me from the wrath of my mother; my plight was minute compared to the Packers'."

@glenishii2022 2 жыл бұрын

At the Chinese restaurant, is it minute chicken, as in takes only a minute to make? Or is it minute chicken, as in small chicken? 🤷🏻‍♂️🤔

@Zenigundam 2 жыл бұрын

It might seem frustrating, but if you know your parts of speech like the back of your hand, then neither Horizon (n.)/Horizontal (adj.) nor Minute (n.)/Minute (adj.) should be an issue. Then again, I'm a native English speaker with limited perspective as to how hard it is to commit parts of speech, verb forms, tenses, etc to memory.

@carlcushmanhybels8159 2 жыл бұрын

Quite a few other languages have words spelled the same whose meanings change radically by how they are pronounced.

@thelastpilot4582 Жыл бұрын

One reason for words not sounding as they are spelt, is that these days we pronounce words very differently to how they used to be said in bygone days. Take for instance Shakespeare plays, If they are said as they were in his day most people would not understand them. 👍👍👍👍

@tomschilb7252 Жыл бұрын

Great video! As a native English speaker who has been studying and trying to practice german (for no particular reason other than my ancestry is from there) for a good part of my life, I can‘t imagine what it must be like to comprehend and make sense of English. What I love about the German I know, along with Italian, is that all the vowel sounds are the same. It‘s getting over the American English mindset of pronouncing them the same that is most difficult (along with genders for nouns). But I imagine any language is easier to master than English. You‘re quite astounding. You have beautiful pronunciation and I enjoy all of your videos! Tschüss

@FaQjb52 2 жыл бұрын

I noticed from my German speaking friend that she’ll get confused with “oo” pronunciations. She said something like, “This restaurant has good food!” where both words sounded the same with different consonants. Same with words like “mood”, “book”, “door”, and “flood”.

@metalgator8083 2 жыл бұрын

You can get a lot of amusement out of deliberately mispronouncing the "oo" in these sentences: Look, the thieves hid their loot in the woods. Shoot! It's not good to get too much soot on your boots.

@magichands8791 2 жыл бұрын

If we pronounce the: gh, as in the word “tough” o, in the word “women” ti, in the word “motion” The word “ghoti” would be pronounced: fish

@Madchemist002 2 жыл бұрын

Lol. I see one slight flaw, though. When I pronounce "women," the "o" is more of an "e" sound.

@StormyDay 2 жыл бұрын

🤣

@ApothecaryTerry 2 жыл бұрын

@@Madchemist002 Fish with a slight Scottish accent ☺

@sirsky7413 2 жыл бұрын

And if we pronounce • gh as [⁠p⁠] in hiccough, • ough as [əʊ] in dough, • phth as [⁠t⁠] in phthisis, • eigh as [eɪ] in neighbour, • tte as [⁠t⁠] in gazette, • eau as [əʊ] in plateau potato could be spelled ghoughphtheightteeau

@craigh.9810 2 жыл бұрын

@@Madchemist002 Which "e" sound??? There are many.

@teusstolosa5757 11 ай бұрын

Oh I love how spelling bees exist in English, especially with their foreign-rooted words and loanwords such as: denouement, chthonian, maitre d', yarmulke, roux, moue, bdellium, saguaro, etc.

@gregblair5139 Жыл бұрын

You mentioned write and right. You can add "rite" and make a trio! The definitions - courtesy of Oxford Languages - are the following: 1) A religious or other solemn ceremony or act. 2) A social custom, practice, or conventional act.

@scottfineshriber5051 2 жыл бұрын

If I hadn’t grown up as an English speaker I’d have never learned the language. My sympathies. It’s kind of a mess.

@normanjohnson9877 2 жыл бұрын

Same, for sure.

@cicelymasden4477 2 жыл бұрын

As a native speaker I really never thought about these things... and I just typed an example lol English, wth lol

@MollyFC 2 жыл бұрын

@Sol Dei "neither" works better here.

@SoulAcid1 2 жыл бұрын

I am a native german speaker and I can say: our articles are much worse! The pronounciation is very simple if you know the rules. But if you haven't learned the right article, you are screwed, because the endings of the adjectives depend on the grammatic gender of the noun.

@rickycoker5830 2 жыл бұрын

@@SoulAcid1 Is that the infamous die der das articles so many are frustrated with when learning German?

@craigmilligan616 2 жыл бұрын

Some other words. “Deer and dear”, and It’s not “fine” to get a “fine”. 😱

@rolfholmstedt6856 2 жыл бұрын

I saw a nice wordgame in Singapore the fine city

@allenwilliams1306 2 жыл бұрын

What about “fine leg” (the cricket fielding position)?

@LairdKenneth 2 жыл бұрын

Spelling is a whole genre of humor. All you can do is laugh about it. But I can imagine how too many students of English must cry more about it.

@ashconner2293 11 ай бұрын

The key to it is to memorize what the world looks like. Then get a whole bunch of words that rhyme with each other that are actually spelled about the same and memorize those in that category of the last few numbers which makes them rhyme. There was so many little tricks I had to put in my head when I was younger. I still suck at spelling.

@jarellgaddy8587 2 жыл бұрын

As an American who is a native English speaker as well as an English teacher I agree with this! Even though I've been to Germany twice and find German to be a bit difficult especially regarding grammar, I was able to learn some basic phrases that helped me survive my times there. The rules do make more sense though because the phonetics serve a purpose like you mentioned. Anyway, great video! Danke!

@sschmidtevalue 2 жыл бұрын

Author Bill Bryson has written two books on this topic that I strongly recommend: "The Mother Tongue - English And How It Got That Way" and "Made in America: An Informal History of the English Language in the United States"

@jackfairweather199 Жыл бұрын

Been speaking English all my life. I, indeed use the Wed-nes-day trick when spelling that word. Excellent observation!

@alexsoma3720 11 ай бұрын

Damn Feli, you nailed it! I'm Italian and I love English language, it's easy, practical and brilliant but I still struggle so much where pronunciation is concerned... So frustrating at times, yet I love the challenge!

@ericvacca551 2 жыл бұрын

You are so right about Wed-nes-day, as a native english speaker for over 30 years, EVERYONE spells it in their head when writing it.

@craigh.9810 2 жыл бұрын

I don't.

@allanrichardson9081 2 жыл бұрын

Think of it as Wodens-day!

@jimkirby9959 2 жыл бұрын

Try that with "phthlate." Amerikans can't manage "amphitheatre."

@Rocketsong 2 жыл бұрын

@@jimkirby9959 Well, most Americans would spell it "Amphitheater"

@Quotenwagnerianer 2 жыл бұрын

@@Rocketsong Which is exactly how germans would spell it.

@lwrncschmchr 2 жыл бұрын

Native English speakers have been failing at using "their," they're ," and "there" correctly for centuries. Don't beat yourself up over it.

@quintrankid8045 2 жыл бұрын

To be honest I too believe that, so at least us two. (First time I posted this I made a mistake. Sigh. It's English, what would you expect?)

@arielsarino2823 2 жыл бұрын

As a native English speaker, this used to be big pet peeve of mine. I've since given up, people will write as they please. Then again, they might not know any better or just don't care.

@manic5378 2 жыл бұрын

There are also a distressing number who think "of" and "have" are the same word.

@Markle2k 2 жыл бұрын

@@manic5378 But not "have", its (another confuser) contraction in a compound verb: would've gets written as would of.

@mmigesh4735 2 жыл бұрын

There’s also confusion between ‘your’ and ‘you’re’. Especially amongst American speakers.

@jameshudson169 Жыл бұрын

now just imagine a school teacher telling a ten year old that some english word is spelled the way it sounds.

@conlon4332 9 ай бұрын

0:45 This is exactly how I felt learning spelling in Primary School haha! I'm still bad at it, but at least we have spellcheck haha!

@katam6471 2 жыл бұрын

As a Swede I must say the fact that both English and Swedish have kept spellings from older days don't only have drawbacks. It makes it easier to se the relations between words that have a common Germanic background when the pronunciation has gone in different directions. Apart from the fact that this is great for an etymology-lover as myself, if I don't understand a spoken English word, sometimes I can get it if I see it written.

@bartschwartz9233 Жыл бұрын

Also Yiddish and Dutch German are similar and I can talk to Pennsylvania Dutch

@drunvert Жыл бұрын

I love word " history" also. I tell my wife word origins and she looks at me like, why does anybody care?

@milliethemog Жыл бұрын

Yea olde Ænglisc and olde Norse were very very similar aswell brother; from back in Saxon and Viking times, times of Wessex, Mercia and the Danelaw!

@milliethemog Жыл бұрын

kzfaq.info/get/bejne/jd6AdNOFrL3bkac.html

@Laters3 Жыл бұрын

Try manx mate manx language is from where I’m from. The Isle of Man 🇮🇲 it used to belong to Norway 🇳🇴 back in the days. We are also Vikings. My past past family was a Viking king called orry king orry. He was king where I’m from.

@bruceoldham1896 2 жыл бұрын

Though my wife and I could be Feli's grandparents and we have no yearning to speak German, we discovered this charming, intelligent and darn cute young woman who is a treat to watch. She has such an infectious and cheery personality that we really enjoy just watching and grinning.

@opietwoep1247 2 жыл бұрын

Same here she is my kids age. She has a nice mid western accent and a small German one that sneaks in every so often.

@thatdbzguyfr 2 жыл бұрын

I speak both languages and I just think it's fun to hear somebody complain about English. Also I'm 15 so I don't relate at all.

@natevolkschevy2955 2 жыл бұрын

I'm sure it can be difficult learning the different spellings and meanings of English words. However it does make it so much easier to tell a punny joke. Some do not think puns are funny, but I love it.

@mirakarmelin6648 Жыл бұрын

I remember learning English as my first language growing up, we were taught in American school, English is one of the most difficult languages to learn. You are correct about all those words, I've often wondered the same things you covered in the video!

@ravenchain85 2 жыл бұрын

As Eddie Izzard once said, English letter combos like -ough are just ways to cheat at Scrabble.

@robertcampopiano6001 2 жыл бұрын

One problem is that when the monks started writing English down centuries ago, they decided to use the grammatical rules of Latin and it’s been a nightmare ever since. Add in the changes over the years and the fact that English adopts words from other languages, or invents them (We’re looking at you, William Shakespeare), things can be a pain, even for native speakers.

@thomastschetchkovic5726 2 жыл бұрын

It's not like other languages don't do this, but we on the other hand update our spelling regularly to match the current pronunciation

@lydiafife8716 2 жыл бұрын

And don’t forget that English speakers make up words for anything at the drop of a hat 😂

@sayeichhornchen1972 2 жыл бұрын

English an Latin grammar have as much in common as a jellyfish with a submarine. ^^

@allenwilliams1306 2 жыл бұрын

@@lydiafife8716 Is it a “Whatsit” or a “Wotsit”? The former, because someone has trademarked the latter.

@ThePraQNome 2 жыл бұрын

@@sayeichhornchen1972 You a totally wrong. I speak English and Portuguese and in fact there are some grammatical structures in Portuguese that matches exactly with the English language... Everybody knows that English is a Germanic language but it's notorious the huge Latin influence in it.

@christalbot210 2 жыл бұрын

Then there's the ever popular "to, two, and too". The first is the most often used (sometimes incorrectly), and the second is the number. The third one is what gets most people (more accurately, they don't recognize the need to use "too" instead of "to"). I usually remember that "too" (meaning an over abundance of) has too many o's in it. When used at the end of a sentence (e.g. "He decided to go there, too"), then it can be replaced with the word "also".

@wpegram9868 2 ай бұрын

As you mention, there's often a reason. The K used to be spoken in words like Knight, but saying Cniht was simplified eventually to Nite.

@minerran Жыл бұрын

Two things I found very hard as a student of my one year of Deutsch in college. 1. Memorizing Der, Die and Das articles. There is often no pattern. Example: Why is "Der Tisch" (a table), masculine? IT SHOULD BE "DAS TISCH, Feli !!!!!! LOL" 2. Learning German words that are VERY LONG and therefore a big challenge to pronounce and write! Such as "Freundschaftsbeziehungen" (friendship). I never could do that one easily! Well, English has more than its share of challenges as Fräulein Felicia correctly points out! Vielen Dank, gutes Video!

@westboy84 2 жыл бұрын

As a native English speaker, this is amazing and totally agree! A big issue I think is that unlike many European languages - including German - there isn't a national governing body rationalizing language rules.... it's all based on historical contexts and development of dialects and roots of individual words.

@solicitr666 2 жыл бұрын

"A big issue I think is that unlike many European languages - including German - there isn't a national governing body rationalizing language rules" Actually, it's quite the reverse. Most of our spelling strangenesses result from the fact that not once, but twice, English was subjected to what amounted to Crown regularization of spelling- in both cases, not long before the pronunciations changed dramatically and the 'official' spellings became phonetically obsolete.

@shaneintheuk2026 2 жыл бұрын

Can you imagine the outcry if you proposed this. The House of Lords would explode and the traditionalists would have a fit. Hell, they still hate the change to metric measurements. Besides, who would get to do it? The English, the Americans, the Canadians, Australians? On that topic why do the Americans think they speak English? American is a different language to English especially when written. Even spoken American is dramatically different to English.

@lowfatlatte0 Жыл бұрын

@@shaneintheuk2026 by that reasoning, people in central and South America don't speak Spanish. I don't think I can agree with that.

@shaneintheuk2026 Жыл бұрын

@@lowfatlatte0 good point but South Americans don’t make Spaniards call their language Spanish Spanish unlike the Americans who slap UK English on everything 😂😆🤣

@lowfatlatte0 Жыл бұрын

@@shaneintheuk2026 actually they do. :l they call it castillian Spanish. That is despite Spanish spoken in catalunia being varied similar to how English is varied between Scotts, Irish, and Britt's. Those groups exchange far more language change than exchanged between the US and any member of the UK. Thus we categorize many dialects under a group called "UK English".

@NHL633 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you, Feli for putting my frustrations with the English language in such an eloquent video. I was born in America, and I'm 73 years old and still struggle with many of the same idiosyncrasies you point out. Two thumbs up, five stars and a hearty well done. Oh just between you and me I absolutely spell Wednesday as you outlined - I use the same method to spell together as to-get-her.

@fionnmaccumhaill3257 2 жыл бұрын

What do you do about your "therapist"?

@adrasteia3866 2 жыл бұрын

I sound out both Wed nes day and Feb ru ary when I write them down 😂

@Milesco Жыл бұрын

@@adrasteia3866 Yeah, when I spell "Wednesday", I think (pronounce) to myself "Wed NES day". 😊

@Mustang1984 11 ай бұрын

I always told myself Wednesday had something to do with weddings back in the day.

@kevinb5240 Жыл бұрын

Feli, this was your best video I've seen so far. I was cracking up. (Or is that dying with laughter? English is so tuff... err tough). You make it so clear why ESL speakers have such a tough time. But then again I have to tell you English is tough for native speakers too and for the same reasons! I suppose thats why I laughed so much as i can completely empathize. Keep 'em coming.

@CarMoves Жыл бұрын

When you mix Dutch, German, French, Spanish, and Old English = Modern English

@anto1756 2 жыл бұрын

I once texted a girl: Me: Do u want to have a drink? She: I’m down Me: Ok, get well soon! She: No, I’m down means I’m totally up for it Me: So u wanna get out? She: I’m in 🤯🤯🤯

@FelifromGermany 2 жыл бұрын

😂

@LadyAnuB 2 жыл бұрын

It's should've been 'I'm down for it." There's too much context loss by just using "I'm down." Down the stairs? Down in the basement? Down in the dumps?

@TheMidgardViking 2 жыл бұрын

@@LadyAnuB This is why texting and colloquial language should be used sparingly. It rots higher brain function.

@LadyAnuB 2 жыл бұрын

@@TheMidgardViking Except those who text the most are those that use colloquial language the most.

@jamesbooth3522 2 жыл бұрын

That's slang, which is another topic that is frustrating. Each generation adds new slang.

@MollyFC 2 жыл бұрын

One of my favorite sayings regarding our spelling rules: "I before E except after C. Disproven by Science"

@danielthompson5251 2 жыл бұрын

Their doesn't fit either

@JurgenErhard 2 жыл бұрын

There once was a video on Merriam-Webster's channel here about that rule. Sadly, they removed it (probably when Kory Stamper, the associate editor who narrated it, left M-W). Someone reuploaded a copy: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/m7lym6Zk0Ji8f6M.html

@jerry2357 2 жыл бұрын

I heard a variant of the expression which removes most of the exceptions: “I before E, except after C, if the sound is ee”.

@ppsh43 2 жыл бұрын

That is weird.

@Delgen1951 2 жыл бұрын

The only rule in English is that ALL rules have exceptions even the exceptions.

@sandrophina 7 ай бұрын

Wow, you can really feel this anger behind 😂 Didn't there are so many of there words. As a german it sounds a bit frustrating trying to learn these 🥲

@OctaviusAzura 10 ай бұрын

Now, I just get reminded of my first experiences in english spelling quizzes.

@keppersdesignarchitecture6717 2 жыл бұрын

Watching my son learn to write was a revelation. So many of the words he spelled “wrong” were actually spelled according to a more logical and consistent set of rules than the actual written language applies. The reason spelling reform will never get anywhere is that the rules are enforced by the people who have mastered them. It makes them feel smart to be fluent in the complex mess that is English spelling, and besides it would be too much work to unlearn it all and use a simpler system.

@jimkirby9959 2 жыл бұрын

You are judged by the words you use. When a person on the radio says, "I axed my mother," I get a perfect image of his race and level of education without even seeing his face.

@jurikurthambarskjelfir3533 2 жыл бұрын

@@jimkirby9959 What does race have to do with this?

@foobar6194 2 жыл бұрын

@@jurikurthambarskjelfir3533 It's most common among black English. However, it is also a regionalism.

@jurikurthambarskjelfir3533 2 жыл бұрын

@@foobar6194 Never heard this around black friends

@andrebrenner9569 2 жыл бұрын

In Germany we had the same problem with some words. Therefore it was decided to teach the younger generation a newer set of grammatical rules. I personally was educated right in the process of decission making. So one day the said that we have to write the new way and on the second it was the old way and so on until the goverment decided it is okay to write in both ways but the following schoolstarters would only learn the new grammatical rules. For the unluky ones like me, we are still confused.

@avatarmaster101 2 жыл бұрын

The English pronunciation of Mercedes has three different sounds for the letter E

@lordraydens 2 жыл бұрын

and is missing the grave accents ;(

@skyhawk_4526 2 жыл бұрын

Interesting. But how is it pronounced in German as opposed to in English? I am not a German speaker, but I believe the same could be said for the German pronunciation. The first, second and third "e" are all pronounced differently as well.

@lordraydens 2 жыл бұрын

doesn't matter. it's a spanish word, so it should be pronounced in spanish

@bobbwc7011 2 жыл бұрын

@@lordraydens No, it was the name of a German girl who inspired Wilhelm Maybach to create the brandname Mercedes. She happened to be called Mercedes, and her name was not prounounced in a Romanic way (French, Spanish) but in a German way.

@lordraydens 2 жыл бұрын

@@bobbwc7011 that's still wrong

@EarlOfMaladyCrescent 8 ай бұрын

I'm baffled as to why this video only has 11 likes! It's brilliant! I'm a native English speaker & I agree with you! 👍 This language has so many nonsensical rules! When you said rhetoric, I'd say your first pronunciation was closer to correct actually. Maybe it's pronounced differently with different accents. Here in England, there are LOADS of accents. Also, meddle & metal are pronounced differently. Anyway, I'm really impressed with how well you've learnt this bizarre language! 👏

@ianscash6759 3 ай бұрын

I am from the UK and after 65 years I still make mistakes in spelling words I use to teach English, on a final note in the Middle Ages the pronunciation of gnome the g was said. BTW love your channel.

@trentjensen96 2 жыл бұрын

You can also spell Tony as Ptoughneigh.

@marvindoolin1340 2 жыл бұрын

Had to work on that. An old favorite is "ghoti" for fish.

@3.k 2 жыл бұрын

You forgot the k before the n. 😂

@frankendragon5442 2 жыл бұрын

ghoti = fish

@RockHudrock 2 жыл бұрын

Or toe-knee

@shubinternet 2 жыл бұрын

Uh. No. There’s just no reason for that. I reject this proposal. 🤣🤣🤣

@Ygr3ku 2 жыл бұрын

Starting at 9:07 (Silent letters), you forgot the most famous one: Queue.

@MKahn84 2 жыл бұрын

Queue - The letter Q followed by 4 unnecessary vowels.

@khausere7 2 жыл бұрын

The letters after the 'Q' are merely waiting their turn.

@fredhughes4115 2 жыл бұрын

@@khausere7 Nice one.

@robertgerow670 Жыл бұрын

Wow, your accent is really good. I think you sound 90%+ indistinguishable from a native speaker

@jimikimble 2 жыл бұрын

For me a native of West Virginia, the "L" in palm tree isn't silent. Sometimes we get a little lazy in our pronunciation, but it's there.

@FalcoPolaris 2 жыл бұрын

Was literally chuckling all the way through this, since I can understand the frustration. One more for you... The classic "to/two/too" one... "TO go with another, you TWO must be in agreement, TOO." And the "i before e" is "I before E, except after C", as in "ceiling" vs "hieroglyph".

@Istalantar 2 жыл бұрын

The "i before e" thing makes me immediately think of: science 🤣

@AwkwardHillbilly 2 жыл бұрын

I before E except after C and when sounding as ay as in neighbor and weigh Still isn't true sadly haha

@Garlarg 2 жыл бұрын

@@AwkwardHillbilly Yeah. Two rums to room two-two-two too.

@pierreabbat6157 2 жыл бұрын

How come you put floor wax on the floor, but you don't put sealing wax on the ceiling?

@gemoftheocean 2 жыл бұрын

@@pierreabbat6157 because SEALING wax is used for sealing documents and letters.

@chrisj.9882 2 жыл бұрын

"You'd think silent letters are something you'd just find in French or Spanish." -- I remember taking Spanish in junior high and being blown away about how standardized the pronounciation for all letters were. Every time you see an "E" it's always pronounced the same. About the only silent letter they have is the "h" and when it is/not slient is also pretty standardized.

@cooltechnician 2 жыл бұрын

The other silent letter is the u after Q ( like in QUE or QUIEN) or G ( gue or GUI)

@jamesdewane1642 2 жыл бұрын

It's funny how easy it is to become a spelling god in Spanish. Native speakers ask me how I remember where their silent h's go or whether it's a b or v in some word or an s, c, or z. Their complications are just trivial compared to English.

@jillpruett4772 2 жыл бұрын

@@jazmine9570 English is the Hoover of languages. Think of the contents of your vacuum cleaner bag.

@craigh.9810 2 жыл бұрын

No. When the e is stressed it is a long vowel, and unstressed it’s short. You have “Mesa” where it’s stressed and pronounced “may-sa.” Then you have “ventana” pronounced “Ben-ta-na” NOT “bay-n-ta-na.” So, it all depends on whether the “e” is stressed or not. I taught Spanish for 46 years, so I can tell you you’re just plain wrong about the letter “e.”

@pierreabbat6157 2 жыл бұрын

Izó la vela de la carabela con cuerdas de verdolaga hinchadas. (Hoisted the sail of the caravel with swollen cords of purslane.) "Izar" is French "hisser", English "hoist"; where'd the H go? "Carabela" is "caravel", why did V turn into B? "Verdolaga" is from Latin "portulaca" through Arabic, which has no V or P; where'd the V come from? "Hinchado" is from Latin "inflatum"; where'd the H come from?

@carlpiel9843 Жыл бұрын

my favorite is the word for a line which is "queue". It is basically the letter "Q" with not one, not two, but 4 silent letters following the "Q"

@charlenetrawick1647 Жыл бұрын

I am a native English speaker and I feel VERY SORRY for anyone trying to learn it ! SO many rules, SOOOOO many exceptions.

@craigbeatty8565 9 ай бұрын

That’s the fun part!

@RingsLoreMaster 9 ай бұрын

It seems to me that orators and writers who have mastered the language are able to have a great deal of fun

@bcase5328 8 ай бұрын

I wish English spelling would go to the internal phonic alphabet as a named Dictionary says the word is pronounced. Idioms, clichés, and grammar are whole other issues.

@thomasrinneberg7012 2 жыл бұрын

Well it's simple: Forget about any rules, just learn EVERY SINGLE WORD by heart: Meaning, Pronunciation AND spelling. Done.

@281Watcher 2 жыл бұрын

That’s exactly the way I learned English. I just memorized the way words looked and sounded. It works well for me but it’s hard to explain to my elementary school age children. They want to know the rules…

@amatije 2 жыл бұрын

I use Gboard on my phone now and if sometimes I struggle with spelling Google translate comes in handy 😁 I learned english from music and movies over 20 y ago. Didn't have any assistance back then.

@dermozart80 2 жыл бұрын

In the end that is what everyone does. Either by hard learning or by time

@red_dolphin468 2 жыл бұрын

. and so are the dumb seperated from the others, only dumb dont care about rules

@dutchray8880 2 жыл бұрын

I heard a speech pathologist say that the rules of English are simple and could be explained in a single chapter, but you'll need 27 additional chapters to explain all the exceptions to the rules.

@LRad7 2 жыл бұрын

Didn't even notice how difficult English is since I grew up with these rules 😅 she's got a point though!

@jimbo7300 2 жыл бұрын

Your understanding of the English language is better than most native English speakers (and i used to teach English in Europe). Languages are fascinating to me - very cool to see videos like this. Danke.

@capc0307 2 жыл бұрын

In Spanish, we only have the silent letter "h". When kids learn how to spell they have the same thought as you about its existence. But when we grow and read "istoria" instead of "historia" (history) or "amburguesa" instead of "hamburguesa" (hamburger/burger) we only think: "Oh no. That's just wrong 😂😂"

@murgui2 2 жыл бұрын

kinda satisfying to know that I m not the only one struggeling with this :D

@quintrankid8045 2 жыл бұрын

Don't worry, native speakers struggle with this as well.

@DJDoena 2 жыл бұрын

bow also has the "arrow" meaning. What my English teacher made me stumble over was "row". As in not-column, or as in paddling boat. But also as in having an argument.

@allenwilliams1306 2 жыл бұрын

What about “tower” (who tows a boat) versus “tower” (a building which towers above you)? If you had a particularly strong horse with great stamina towing a barge on a canal, he might be literally a “tower of strength” and, figuratively, “a tower of strength”!

@costakeith9048 2 жыл бұрын

@hognoxious We Americans pronounce it both ways. We pronounce it 'root' when using it as a noun, but 'rout' when using it as a verb. The problem pronouncing it 'root' when used as a verb is it is easily confused with the verb 'to root' (to poke or dig about, specifically a pig rooting for food with his nose).

@oldtop4682 Жыл бұрын

LMAO! This isn't easy growing up here either btw. The differences between British English and American will also create issues. In the US we use "plow" for a tool to plow the land. In England this is "plough". In the US, we STILL use the English spelling, but it is generally used now to describe a type of wood plane (hobel). The issue really is that English, in all forms, is a mutt language. Lots of German in it, lots of French, Celtic, Norse, and the US has a lot of Spanish influence too. The dictionary for English was late to the show, so there were a lot a variations. The US uses some words that are older forms of British English (like truck instead of lorry) that continue to this day. We also use some subtle grammar variations that date back 200+ years. Annnnd, we mispronounce a lot of words, and that leads to variations in spelling being added to the dictionary. I give you "practicable" versus "practical" - the former being the original word. BUT, we do pretty well with our articles. We don't have genders. I will ping your native tongue here. In Deutsch there is Die, Der and Das, but there is no real system to what is what, so the article must be memorized with the noun. Spanish is pretty clear, with few exceptions, as is French and Italian. This drives English speakers crazy when learning German! YOU have learned English well! I know this took discipline and desire and I applaud you! I wish I had as much German as you have English, but I never did, and have lost most of it.

@ChrisSherbak Жыл бұрын

Love your videos - just got to this one - so sorry for the comment necro. Not sure if you know, but re: Wednesday (and yes, we ALL THINK WED-NES-DAY in our heads to write it), many of the English names for our weekdays are Germanic and named after deities: Wodens-day (I like to think we keep the D to remember the name), Tiwes-day, Thors-day, Friggas-day. Saturns-day is from Latin and Sun-day and Moon-day from those celestial objects.

@johndittmer8488 2 жыл бұрын

Felicia, when I was in the US Navy, I was stationed at a NATO command. Most of the officers there were Danish and German. Being the American officer who just recently graduated college and the most junior officer, I got tagged as the Native English Speaker. So, I got to review the writing of the Danish and German officers and edited them as necessary. However, since many English words in the US and the UK are spelled differently, I had to remember the way that British spell their words since the official languages of NATO are British English and French. So that got a bit complicated sometimes.

@justina.6769 2 жыл бұрын

My favorite ones have always been "their" or "there" or "they're". All 3 words sound exactly the same, but have different meanings

@danielvanr.8681 2 жыл бұрын

Same story with "you're", "your", "who's", "whose", "it's" and "its". Probably why so many people (an alarming number of people, come to think of it) keep confusing them. 🙄😵

@thefisherking78 2 жыл бұрын

Theiy're* 😜

@sirpercarde709 2 жыл бұрын

How about to, too and two?

@danielvanr.8681 2 жыл бұрын

@@sirpercarde709 They as well. Or ate/eight, for/four, one/won, bear/bare, etc. There're plenty of them. :)

@rypatmackrock 2 жыл бұрын

I remember Learning the difference in second grade with a story exercise as well as a poster on our classroom wall to explain. It eventually stuck with me ever since. For the record, I am a native English speaker, born and raised in and near San Francisco California, and I will always remember my second grade lesson that taught me the difference between there, their and they’re.

@crazypeopleonsunday7864 2 жыл бұрын

Technically, the 't' in metal should be pronounced with a 't' sound and not a 'd' sound, it's just that most English speakers slur it into a 'd' sound anyway. Every letter in "palm tree" is pronounced. With rhetoric the noun, you can pronounce it either way ("re-tor-ic" or "ret-or-ic"). I think the latter is more for British English. When I spell Wednesday, I usually just spell it wrong because I'm trying to spell it how it sounds. I loved the video, Feli. I think the fact that this was basically just a structured rant made it much more interesting. Keep up the great work!