Friday, December 23, 2011

Not a very reliable truck, breaks frequently

I wouldn't want to drive a truck that "breaks" frequently.

I'm really surprised that whatever company made this sign allowed it to go out like this.  Surely someone must have known the difference between "breaks" and "brakes".

Perhaps I can't really blame them though, the English language is very confusing and I am annoyed by all the special exceptions.

Take for example, inconsistent pronunciations. Say the following words:
  • Hear
  • Dear
  • Fear
  • Gear
  • Clear
  • Bear
  • Sear
  • Near
  • Pear
Did you catch the two that don't sound alike?

Or words that are spelled the same but pronounced differently, like "minute", which can be pronounced as "mih-nit" to represent a unit of time (60 seconds), or can be pronounced as "my-newt", meaning something very small/minuscule.  

Or why do all of these sound different?
  • Tough
  • Cough
  • Dough
  • Through
  • Bough
Are we getting to the point where we're memorizing so many exceptions that people forget something simple like the difference between "break" and "brake"?

Throughout time, the English language has evolved and some words have had their spellings changed to be more phonetic. Hopefully this trend can continue to give us a more phonetic spelling of words.

All this ranting about the English language is making me hungry.  Time for me to take a brake and grab a nice juicy stake.