Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. A showerthought should offer a unique perspective on an ordinary part of life.

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It's pretty cruel, particularly for non-native English speakers, that 'lose' and 'loose' seemingly switched spellings, meanings and pronunciations with each other when no one was looking (self.showerthoughts)

submitted 3 days ago by 58008 to c/showerthoughts

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'Choose' rhymes with 'lose'? I mean c'mon, someone did that shit on purpose 👀

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[–] BenM2023 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

You seem like the sort of person that would pronounce the word often with a hard T,

Not at all. Used to make fun of people who did.

yet still pronounce the letter A as if it was an O.

No - there are two sounds for A, bath (short, as in cat) for tub of usually hot water and Bath (long, as in car) for the city famous for its hot water. Never heard it like O - no, wait... RP has an O sounding A doesn't it? Lloyd Grossman was famous for his mangling of vowel sounds.

ETA that distinction for the A sound is probably familial rather than regional; grew up with Geordie mam and Home counties dad.

[–] over_clox 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_pronunciation_differences

Meanwhile, why do we pronounce cheese as cheeze?

Who threw the Z sound in there?

[–] BenM2023 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Yeh cheese as cheeze is an odd one - especially considering the z is "zed" not "zee"... I guess cheese is where the idea of "zee" came from?

[–] over_clox 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Additional question..

Who decided to include the letter D in the pronunciation of the letter Z?

Zed?

Where did that come from? We don't say it that way over here in the states, we just say zee..

[–] BenM2023 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I would ask "why did you left ponders choose to change the pronunciation to zee?" - though given many USAian pronunciations are, apparently, closer to Elizabethan English than the current UK sounds I wouldn't like to guess which came first the zed or the zee....

[–] over_clox 1 points 3 days ago

Probably because D has absolutely nothing to do with Z.