Lesson

Hi guys I found this poem .. It teachs you pronounciation!!

Have fun Wink

English is tough stuff
Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.
Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it's written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.

Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes, and reviles;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far;
One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.

Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation's OK
When you correctly say croquet,
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.

Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rhyme with hammer.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.

Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.
Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though the differences seem little,
We say actual but victual.
Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific.

Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark the differences, moreover,
Between mover, cover, clover;
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice;
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label.

Petal, panel, and canal,
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor.
Tour, but our and succour, four.
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, Korea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.

Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion and battalion.
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
Heron, granary, canary.
Crevice and device and aerie.

Face, but preface, not efface.
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.
Ear, but earn and wear and tear
Do not rhyme with here but ere.
Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,
Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.

Pronunciation -- think of Psyche!
Is a paling stout and spikey?
Won't it make you lose your wits,
Writing groats and saying grits?
It's a dark abyss or tunnel:
Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict.

Finally, which rhymes with enough --
Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.
My advice is to give up!!!

What agreat way to learn Pronounciation !

===================================================

Yours

Ocean

Comments

1 through 10 of 121 Next >
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03:07 AM Oct 06 2007 | Reply

shekara.soma

India

It's simply superb, i red once & had a ggood excercise for

03:32 AM Oct 06 2007 | Reply

Ocean-SA

Ocean-SA

Saudi Arabia

Yes indeed :)

09:37 AM Oct 11 2007 | Reply

naazia

naazia

Pakistan

great………Wink keep it up

04:08 AM Oct 15 2007 | Reply

Black Sea

Black Sea

Netherlands

Hey Ocean,

im studying for being an Englich Teacher this my first year and we have also a course about RP Received Pronunciation. and i think this (youre poem) will help to improve my pronunciation but i will show it to my teacher first and ask him to read it so i can learn of him how to pronouns some words…  i let you know what my teacher will think about this :)

Thank You and Take Care,

btw Let me know if i have grammar falts/mistakes ;)

DeniZzZ

07:07 AM Oct 15 2007 | Reply

Ocean-SA

Ocean-SA

Saudi Arabia

Black Sea,

First its good to know you.. and congratulation for your wise choice for being an educator,, a teacher.. I'm sure you are going to be a great one!

About the grammatical mistakes ..

You've made a few mistakes ..

* You wrote "this my first year and we have also a course about …etc".

It should be "this (is) my first year and we have (no need for ALSO)a course about..etc"

=======

* you wrote "ask him to read it so i can learn of him..etc"

Its should be "ask him to read it so i can learn (from) him..etc"

=======

* you wrote " i let you know..etc"

It should be "I (will) let you know..etc"

<< These are the grammatical mistakes ..

=========

 btw .. (Englich=English)

 

 

I'm graduating after 3 months .. I'm going to be an English Teacher. Its about time really! I'm already fed up with the long 4 years attending classes :)

 

There is a reason behind your grammatical mistakes .. the way I view your use of English is that your level is upper-intermediate and closer to advanced.. The reason for you mistakes is because you don't double check what you've wrote. Try to check … and what I mean by checking is to look carefully and with accuracy for mistakes .. If you do that .. you'll be a great writer :)

 

Yours,

Ocean

07:23 AM Oct 31 2007 | Reply

Hetch

Hetch

Egypt

WoooooooW, i loved that poem..its amazing really…

Thanks so much for sharing it with us .. u know its just on time for i'm an Egyptian and an American Diploma graduate but since i dont use my English except in writing, my pronounciation is horrible now … so when i was looking for a cure..i found ur lesson..thnx alot…

 Btw, since there are alot of English teachers here (or to be english teachers..lol)..I'd really be honoured if u would take a look at some of the poems that i've written and tell me what u think abt them in general and also if u've got any comments i'd be more than glad to know them..

P.S: can u give me an evaluation for my english?? 

Again thnx for ur great helping with that poem..

Yours,

Hetch 

11:15 AM Oct 31 2007 | Reply

Ayta

Ayta

Russian Federation

nice!

12:48 PM Oct 31 2007 | Reply

miki255

British Indian Ocean Territory

Thank you for your poem.My English and pronunciation not well,but i think it will be goot after your poem.

05:02 PM Nov 06 2007 | Reply

RaRa

RaRa

Saudi Arabia

wow!!   "><

 thanks ^^

06:21 PM Nov 06 2007 | Reply

bhemrn@yahoo.com

Philippines

 

  thanks,

my english and pronounciation are not good, hope to learn more from you,im am preparing for my english exam, pls update me.

thanks again

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tinchoss

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tinchoss

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Am-MiMi

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Am-MiMi

Thailand

How to listen this poem?

robertoroberto

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robertoroberto

Peru

i liked this poem, but where can we listen it too??

srinivaskm

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srinivaskm

India

dignified

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dignified

Turkey

annie_krabi@yahoo.com

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annie_krabi@yahoo.com

Thailand

Great, Its fun

inez_lula

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inez_lula

Indonesia

it's really good

Noina

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Noina

Thailand

Thanks for sharing. IT's a good practice for pronunciation

xunuo

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xunuo

China

very well

qianjin

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qianjin

China

good

BABY CAT

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BABY CAT

China

VERY GOOD!

alshehri2005

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alshehri2005

Saudi Arabia

ngocdungvt177

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ngocdungvt177

Viet Nam

i think this is the good way to learn English

J0anne

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J0anne

Indonesia

this is great.I like it.thank's a lot,cause i knew and learned pronounciation that a few i didn't know till read this one....

Thanh Thanh Pham

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Thanh Thanh Pham

Viet Nam

wonderful

come on xiaqing

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come on xiaqing

China

very good

tianmiguoguowxf

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tianmiguoguowxf

China

i like it,too

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sautah

Austria

how can i listen

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ppg

China

happy to find this,,

11111

原来悠悠

China

11111

herodream

China

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thuy trang

Viet Nam

good,i like it

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lavicoxu

China

it is very good. by the way, ur name is same as my sisiter , also xuyanmeiand xunuo

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carlos07

Argentina

Have it record by a native and publish it!! (for enblishbaby webmaster)

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victor31106

China

how can i listen to this poem?

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