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. The best ones are thoughts that many people can relate to and they find something funny or interesting in regular stuff.

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English is weird (self.showerthoughts)

submitted 7 months ago by Anonymouse to c/showerthoughts

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I got hung up on contractions this morning regarding the word "you've". Normally, I'd say "you've got a problem", which expands to "you have got a problem", which isn't wrong, but I normally wouldn't say. Not contracting, I'd say "you have a problem", so then should I just say "you've a problem"? That sounds weird in my head. Is this just a US English problem?

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[–] Transcendant 16 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (16 children)

Yes, English is weird.

'Bough' and 'cough' are not pronounced the same. 'Bough' and 'bow' are pronounced the same. 'Knee' and 'Leigh' are pronounced the same. 'Neigh' and 'nay' are pronounced the same. 'Polish' (the nationality) and 'polish' (as in what you do to a metal object) are not pronounced the same. 'Tear' (as in to rip) and 'tear' (as in to cry) are spelled the same, but not pronounced the same. Other words which are spelled the same, but pronounced differently:

resume / resume present / present record / record close / close use / use live / live

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (7 children)

I've got all but the use/use one. What's the other usecase if one is "to consume"?

[–] mick -2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

What’s the use of giving you the answer when you can look it up on the internet?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

To have a brief conversation. I can look everything up myself, but it's nice not being a basement dweller every now and then.

[–] mick 1 points 7 months ago

It was just my crass humor. I used the noun version of the word “use” because you said you couldn’t figure out how to use it.

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