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A Pronunciation Poem!!!

A Pronunciation Poem!!!

Date: Oct 04 2007

Topic: Pronunciation

Author: Ocean-SA

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

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sally_gallego

Philippines

It’s  very long.hehe. I am lazy to read:(

05:52 AM Feb 04 2018 |

1 person likes this

Jasonlongo

Jasonlongo

Congo, Democratic Republic Of The

Kinda makes me crazy !!!

08:30 AM Nov 25 2014 |

1 person likes this

nals

nals

India

hahahaha ., little difficult ..but nice

10:04 AM Nov 09 2014 |

Ellie2

Ellie2

Iran, Islamic Republic Of

I like poem specialy English one because it makes my speaking native like..

06:06 AM Jul 30 2014 |

sara1998

sara1998

Iran, Islamic Republic Of

that’s great!


i love this way for learning new things :)

07:09 PM Jul 29 2014 |

Tarita_Rambler

Antarctica

So many different words. It’s terrible! :-)

07:15 PM Jul 11 2014 |

jmtech

Philippines

This is a good start for everyone who wants to improve their English pronounciation. I would love to read more of this kind via online. But I guess learning English will be more effective if there’s someone coaching you to learn it. Just like what EPiC Online www.epiclanguage.com is doing for us, I’ve learned so much from their programs with their fun and interactive EPiC Corner program. You might want to try and you’ll surely thank me for recommending it! :)

08:15 AM Jun 12 2014 |

1 person likes this

mahbubeh92

mahbubeh92

Iran, Islamic Republic Of

have’nt read the whole poem but it sounds nice..i think pronounciation is one of the main principles  in english that is very important and useful..and is a little difficult..if you read the book named phology and phonetic you will agree with me on this

03:12 PM Jun 10 2014 |

Staisy

Staisy

Russian Federation

The poem is fun, but also  difficult to read through.

07:53 PM Dec 11 2013 |

AdaGump

AdaGump

China

not easy for me to say it all right…


but thanks for sharing~

08:54 AM May 24 2013 |

behnaz2468

behnaz2468

Iran, Islamic Republic Of

funny..thnxs..:D


08:56 AM Dec 09 2012 |

Hossam_bounab

Algeria

thanks, it was useful ;)


02:40 PM Feb 09 2012 |

Srinivasulu.singaraju

India

It’s Nice…,

03:36 AM Jan 31 2012 |

Defang

Defang

France

It would be easier if we had had sound. :)

05:53 PM Jan 30 2012 |

keleopatra12

Iran, Islamic Republic Of

so nice! thanks dear. Smile


 

10:25 AM Jan 29 2012 |

kurtz.houce

Algeria

Thx ocean!! I'm wondering who would be able to say it all in the right wayy!! awsome!!

10:20 PM Mar 20 2011 |

praee

praee

Turkey

ok..

09:53 PM Mar 20 2011 |

chriszxin

chriszxin

Malaysia

haha …

While I'm reading about this kind poem, my tongue was getting stammer ><lll

It's too hard to me, I think I need to read more poem already~

10:57 PM Feb 24 2011 |

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