Learning to read and speak English can be more difficult than you think.
Walking with my youngest, she looks up at the big post office sign we are passing and asks: “What’s a post (rhyming with LOST) office?”
I say: “It’s where you post (rhyming with HOST) letters.”
So my question is WHY can’t you be certain what a particular combination of letters is going to sound like in the English language? In Japanese, ka is always ka, as far as I learnt. But in English, ost can sound like oast as in coast (or post and host) or ost as in lost. It doesn’t seem right, or fair for the English learner.
My final-year tutorial student is studying English as a second language and she wonders when would she use sad or sadness; hate or hateful. It’s pretty hard to explain.
If you grow up reading Enid Blyton then you might prefer to say that breaking the cucumber frame in Miss Plum’s garden with a stone and then blaming someone else for it was a form of hateful behavior. You can HAVE sorrow, but you must BE sorrowful. You can BE sad, but you must FEEL sadness.
What in the world does the non-native English language learner make of idiom and what does my five year old make of what appears to be the simple word of BOW, which can be pronounced in a number of ways and has several different meanings.
The English language is a minefield of misunderstandings, so choose your words carefully!
Tell me some of your favorite word challenges or mix ups in a comment.
Eliseshaw's Blog 