What about similar oddities in English?
(This question is inspired by this comic by https://www.exocomics.com/193/ (link found by BunScientist@lemmy.zip)) Edit: it’s to its in the title. Damn autocorrect.

  • Random Dent@lemmy.mlEnglish
    14·
    6 days ago

    One of my favourites is the word jam, which can mean:

    • A fruit preserve
    • Traffic that’s stopped
    • To play music
    • A door that won’t open
    • A difficult situation
    • To force something in somewhere it’s not supposed to be
    • To interrupt a signal
    • Something you don’t like or can’t do (“that’s not my jam”)

    And probably others, all spelled and pronounced the same way but with wildly different meanings depending on the context.

    The other English thing I find super interesting is how there’s a sort of unspoken but very clearly understood order to adjectives. So for example, if I say “The big old red wooden door” it works as a description, but if I say “The wooden old red big door” it sounds weird even though it’s the same information. People aren’t usually formally taught the order (as far as I know), but everyone seems to understand it.

    • joshthewaster@lemmy.world
      3·
      6 days ago

      Would be interested in more about the order - wondering if there is a name for that? I have been called out by teachers and friends and colleagues about strange sentences and it was often because I wouldn’t write the ‘normal’ way. I’ve learned the conventions over the years and often find myself making edits to swap words and phrases around to meet expectations.

      • Random Dent@lemmy.mlEnglish
        7·
        6 days ago

        Apparently it’s called the Royal Order of Adjectives, and it’s essentially: determiner, opinion, size, shape, age, colour, origin, material, qualifier.

        You don’t have to use all of those in the description, but that’s broadly the order to use them in to make it sound ‘right’. So for example in the comment I made above, it fits because I used:

        • determiner (The)
        • size (big)
        • age (old)
        • colour (red)
        • material (wooden)

        in that order. I’m sure I was never taught that in any organized way (I just had to look up what it was called lol) but I still got it in the right order anyway just by typing it out in the way that felt right, which I think is interesting.

    • Random Dent@lemmy.mlEnglish
      6·
      6 days ago

      I before E, except after C!

      As long as you don’t count the word caffeine. Or protein. Or species. Or seize or heinous or leisure or weird or feign or their or reignite or any of the other 923 words that are exceptions to this rule lol.

    • GandalftheBlack@feddit.org
      3·
      6 days ago

      The problem is the spelling, not the language. But the problem with spelling reform is that it necessarily favours certain dialects over others so you can never please everyone.

  • rumba@lemmy.zipEnglish
    4·
    6 days ago

    I’ve never been a fan of read/read/red They’re too popular to all be comingled like that.

    Just place read/read with Peruse/Perused

  • Fedditor385@lemmy.world
    3·
    6 days ago

    Words that produce the same sounds should have same spelling. Read in past tense and red is the same sound, so why isn’t past tense of read - red?

    Why most ‘c’ in words produce ‘k’ sounds?

    Car and kar also produce the same sounds, so why C instead of K?

  • bampop@lemmy.world
    2·
    6 days ago

    English pronunciation is weird. It can be mastered through tough thorough thought though.

  • wildncrazyguy138@fedia.io
    70·
    8 days ago

    My wife and I had a good snicker one time when I brought home edamame peas in the shell.

    They were shelled, but she wanted them shelled.

    Flammable/imflammable is another one that comes to mind.

    • merc@sh.itjust.works
      13·
      7 days ago

      English has many contronyms.

      • Clip: to attach (clip X to Y) or detach (clip coupons)
      • Dust: to remove dust or to add it (dust the cake with icing sugar)
      • Fine: excellent (fine wine) or not great but decent (it’s fine)
      • Left: remaining (I have 5 left) or gone (I had some but they left)
      • Oversight: supervision (he had oversight over the whole process) or lack of supervision (I forgot to do that, it was an oversight)
      • Random Dent@lemmy.mlEnglish
        2·
        6 days ago

        And this might just be a UK thing but if a person goes off it means they get really angry. And it can mean to leave for somewhere.

        So a firework goes off which makes the fire alarm go off which makes the safety officer go off. Then he goes off to get a fireman. But he leaves the milk out, so it goes off.

    • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      177·
      8 days ago

      Pretty sure the past tense of “lead” is actually “led.”

      Unless of course you’re referring to the type of metal, lead, which I guess the meme isn’t clear on.

      • leadore@lemmy.world
        17·
        8 days ago

        It’s not saying anything about past tenses in that meme, it’s just saying that each word has two different pronunciations that rhyme with the other.

      • corsicanguppy@lemmy.caEnglish
        21·
        8 days ago

        I had to look this up.

        And today I learned ALL my brit friends are spelling it wrong. That’s more than two!

        • Ech@lemmy.ca
          4·
          8 days ago

          Brits aren’t “spelling it wrong” any more than those in the US are. It’s just cultural differences. Do you also claim Germans spell things wrong? Or the Chinese?

          • yermaw@sh.itjust.works
            35·
            8 days ago

            Also the language is called English. By default, the English are doing it right and anything else is wrong. Maybe better, the argument can go for decades longer, but if anyones wrong its everyone else.

            • Ech@lemmy.ca
              51·
              8 days ago

              My point is no one is wrong. Well, you are, but not for the way you spell things.

    • ouRKaoS@lemmy.today
      71·
      8 days ago

      This is the grammar thing I fuck up the most, and I don’t call people on it because I’m pretty sure I don’t know how it works. Autocorrect changes it & I just say “oh, whoops”, and it still looks wrong…

      • HugeNerd@lemmy.ca
        16·
        8 days ago

        it’s means “it is”. It is really not difficult, just pretend you are Data and swear off contractions.

        • ouRKaoS@lemmy.today
          2·
          8 days ago

          I think the contraction vs possesive thing messes with me, and my brain can never settle on what goes where when, how, or why…

          • amelia@feddit.org
            8·
            8 days ago

            Just try changing it to “it is”. If the sentence still makes sense, it’s “it’s”. Otherwise it’s “its”.

        • Atomic@sh.itjust.works
          1·
          7 days ago

          Ah, thanks for the reminder to look through some TNG again. Data is such a great character and fills the role of the outsider looking in perfectly.

          • HugeNerd@lemmy.ca
            1·
            7 days ago

            Plus he’s a sex toy, which is cool. If peak Denise Crosby wanted to find out if I was fully functional, I might bust a hydraulic hose right there.

      • everett@lemmy.ml
        8·
        7 days ago

        Here’s a shortcut: test if you could drop “his” into the same spot and have it make sense. (And of course you’d never write hi’s or his’s.) If “his” would work, “its” would work.

      • wols@lemmy.zip
        1·
        8 days ago

        My keyboard is very keen on completing “it’s” regardless of context. I imagine this is the case for most people, since usually I see “it’s” when “its” would be correct.

        I also think it’s difficult to know that “it’s” is wrong to use because it feels like it follows the common apostrophe for possession rule:
        “Australia’s capital is Canberra” -> “Australia is the largest country in Oceania. It’s capital is Canberra.” (wrong, but intuitive)

  • pruwyben@discuss.tchncs.de
    29·
    8 days ago

    Bought, caught, taught, fought, thought, sought, and wrought are all past tense verbs and all rhyme. The present tense forms are buy, catch, teach, fight, think, seek, and work, none of which rhyme.