If you can pronounce correctly every word in this poem, you will be speaking English better than 90% of the native English speakers in the world. This is an exercise in English pronunciation and spelling.
After trying the verses, a Frenchman said he'd prefer six months of hard labour to reading six lines aloud; and remember French itself is so difficult for us to pronounce as the written spelling is very different from the way the word is pronunciated because of so many silent letters.
"Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.
Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it's written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
My advice is to give up!!!" ~-|**|PrettyHtmlEnd|**|-~ end group email -->
After trying the verses, a Frenchman said he'd prefer six months of hard labour to reading six lines aloud; and remember French itself is so difficult for us to pronounce as the written spelling is very different from the way the word is pronunciated because of so many silent letters.
"Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.
Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it's written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
My advice is to give up!!!" ~-|**|PrettyHtmlEnd|**|-~ end group email -->
