Speaking 'properly' & the French

[Joe Bento]

Yes but...

Bow can be pronounced two different ways as well. If you tie a bow 
on a present, it's "b-OO(long O)"  Acknowledging your audience 
it's "b-au"

Bough is a homophone to bow (to audience).  I wouldn't think it 
proper to pronounce bough as "b long o, though that might vary by 
region or country.  And yet I say the words myself, there seems to 
be a slightly different infliction between bow and bough - don't 
know how to explain that one.

Joe



--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Karen Barker" 
<karenabarker at y...> wrote:
> 
>  
> > bboyminn:
> > 
> > I hate to trash the French and their language, but I've never 
seen
> > another language where words are pronounce so differently than 
they
> > are spelled. What is the purpose of all those letters in a word 
if 
> > notto lend a clue as to how the word is pronounced? 
> > 
> > Example:  bour·geois (boor-zhwä) [should sound similar 
> to 'gorgeous' but with a 'B' instead of the first 'G', and an odd 
> inflection on the second 'G'.]
> > 
> > Ok, I can get the odd 'G' pronunciation, just like I can get that
> > 'J'='H' in Spanish (Juan = Hwan or Jesus = Hey-sous), but how on 
> earth does 'eois' become 'wa'. 
> > 
> > My heartiest congradulations to any non-French person who has 
> manage to learn to read and speak the French language.
> > 
> I did French 'O' level (OWL, LOL!!) when I was 16 at school, and 
> while I can see exactly what you are saying - how on earth does 
eois 
> sound like 'wa', all I can say in it's defence is at least it 
ALWAYS 
> does sound like 'wa' (at least it always did in the basic minimum 
> that you need to pass French 'O'Level!).  In English 'bow' 
> and 'bough' both sound the same, but 'bough' sounds nothing 
> like 'rough' or 'enough'.  Imagine being French and trying to 
learn 
> English with that sort of deal going on!!!
> 
> Another thing that I've often wondered about when pondering the 
> mysteries of English is if you take something apart 
you 'dismantle' 
> it, but if you build something up you don't 'mantle' it.  If 
> something is out of date it's defunct, but something current isn't 
> funct (unless it's broken - sorry, couldn't resist!!).  There are 
> loads of others I could bore you with but I'll spare you!
> 
> Karen