Tag Archives: humor

Synonym rolls and other misused pears

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Here’s another in my occasional series on fun with homonyms: really stupid tweets. Even careful writers can let their fingers make a wrong choice. If someone types there instead of their, no spell checker will find it. But some people just don’t know any better. Or don’t care. Twitter even beats student term papers as a source of real howlers. Where else would someone write, “Just made me some synonym rolls”? The rolls looked good in the picture, but how long did it take to find the ground synonym in the spice rack?

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Don’t overdue it and other misused pears

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The English language has plenty of opportunities for careless writers to make mistakes with homonyms. Lovers of language have a lot of fun spotting them. I have lots of fun with homonyms provided they’re someone else’s mistakes. If I see one of my own, I destroy the evidence. Hopefully, before someone else points it out! It’s the holiday season, which a lot of people find stressful. So one of the helpful posts I found online counseled people to pace themselves and not try to do too much. Good advice, but what the author actually wrote was, “Don’t overdue it” instead of “don’t overdo it.” I suppose a lot of us are overdue for taking it easy.

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“The Chaos”: ridiculous English pronunciation

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One of my sisters sent me a link to an old poem that highlights the craziness of English spelling and pronunciation. So I have to share it with you. I have written about our ridiculous English spelling  before. This poem starts with a word in print and demonstrates how difficult it is for a foreigner to figure out how to pronounce it. “The Chaos” first appeared in the fourth edition (1920) of Drop Your Foreign Accent: Engelsche uitspraakoefeningen, a Dutch textbook on English pronunciation by Gerard Nolst Trenité (1870-1946). According to WorldCat Identities, 16 editions of it appeared between 1909 and 1971. The subtitle means “English pronunciation exercises,” using the spelling common before the spelling reform of 1947. Trenité prepared seven editions during his lifetime. The seventh appeared in 1944. Six more appeared between his death and 1971, most of them edited by L.J. van Eyseren. Between its first publication in 1920 and the final version in 1944, “The Chaos” grew from 146 to 274 lines. Besides writing Drop Your Foreign Accent and some other books, Nolst Trenité wrote a column for a weekly paper in Amsterdam, using the pseudonym Charivarius. He must have published more than one version there as well … Continue reading →

Hearing double: can you identify the homophones?

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Hector bawled when he went bald. Sara threw a shoe through the window to shoo a rabbit from her garden. Pirates seize cargo on the high seas. Welcome to the wacky world of homophones. Homophones are two or three words that sound the same but have different spellings and meanings. They are a type of homonym. I have had fun over the years pointing out when writers have chosen the wrong word of such a pear pair in my occasional series Misused Pears. I no longer read the emails or visit the websites that provided the best howlers. And so, I haven’t come across enough new ones lately for another post. I know no better alternative than a quiz. Most of following prompts suggest a two-word answer, a pair of homophones. There’s one threefer. 

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Contronyms: words with opposite meanings

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Contronyms: words with opposite meanings The English language has lots of nyms. Synonyms mean the same thing. Homonyms sound the same but aren’t. Like pair and pear. I have a series called Misused Pears to enjoy peoples’ struggle to pick the right word. Antonyms mean the opposite. And contronyms are their own antonym. Sometime after I knew what a meat cleaver was, I learned that the Bible says Adam cleaved to his wife. So cleave means both to separate and to cling.

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