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Why? -- because English is a language of exceptions...

Posted by Pdianek on October 02, 2003

In Reply to: Help ! "Beaumont's Angels "are tearing out their hair over the pronounciation of adjectives finishing with "-ed"... posted by Cath on October 01, 2003

...and the sooner your students accept that fact, the better. Not cruelty, just the truth. As an American-English speaker, I've learned more about the oddities of my native tongue by learning the Romance languages than I ever did through formal English classes.

What makes English tough is multi-factored, and the difference between "-ed" words is just the start. Take our spelling inconsistencies -- please!

Then there's vowel pronunciation, which varies wildly from Land's End to John o' Groats, even from Miami to Seattle. And let's not forget Canada, Australia, New Zealand....

My ex-husband's parents, who grew up in West Virginia, U.S., once began conversing (on an Italian bus) with a couple from Sydney, Australia. After a while they all gave up -- they simply couldn't understand each other.

Students of English need to do more memorization of the pronunciation of individual words, in my opinion, than in any other language -- except perhaps Chinese.

Bonne chance!

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