ESL Blogs

A POEM ON SPELLING & PRONUNCIATION

Author not known

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.

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 PEAR and BEAR

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, 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!