Standort: fm4.ORF.at / Meldung: "Today's Webtip: The Chaos"

Dave Dempsey

Dave digs the Dirt, webtips, IT-memes and other online geekery. Also as Podcast.

28. 5. 2014 - 11:56

Today's Webtip: The Chaos

A poem about the horrors of English pronounciation and spelling.

Gerard Nolst Trenité was a Dutchman who spent quite some time teaching English as a foreign language. In what appears to be an attempt at helping one of his students, he composed a poem with 800 of the worst irregularities in English spelling and pronunciation.

The result is not only entertaining, but also educational.

Unless you only have access to the text. I have to admit, that despite being a native speaker, there were more than a few words in the poem that I have apparently been pronouncing wrong.

Fortunately we have an easy way to learn proper pronunciation. Videos!

British English first:

American English:

A comparative reading featuring German, Irish and French native speakers:

Irish with International Phonetic Alphabet renditions of the text:

And finally, for those who want to take a look at the entire text as well as some background and other useful information: The Chaos.