Learn English with English, baby!

Join for FREE!

Social_nav_masthead_logged_in
A Pronunciation Poem!!!

A Pronunciation Poem!!!

Date: Oct 04 2007

Topic: Pronunciation

Author: Ocean-SA

Lesson

Hi guys I found this poem .. It teachs you pronounciation!!

Have fun Wink

English is tough stuff
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,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.

Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes, and reviles;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far;
One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.

Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation's OK
When you correctly say croquet,
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.

Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rhyme with hammer.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.

Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.
Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though the differences seem little,
We say actual but victual.
Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific.

Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark the differences, moreover,
Between mover, cover, clover;
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice;
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label.

Petal, panel, and canal,
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor.
Tour, but our and succour, four.
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, Korea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.

Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion and battalion.
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
Heron, granary, canary.
Crevice and device and aerie.

Face, but preface, not efface.
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.
Ear, but earn and wear and tear
Do not rhyme with here but ere.
Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,
Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.

Pronunciation -- think of Psyche!
Is a paling stout and spikey?
Won't it make you lose your wits,
Writing groats and saying grits?
It's a dark abyss or tunnel:
Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict.

Finally, which rhymes with enough --
Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.
My advice is to give up!!!

What agreat way to learn Pronounciation !

===================================================

Yours

Ocean

Comments

Log in to Comment

SaraGonzalez

Colombia

Nice… but too long!!

01:11 PM Nov 20 2007 |

folasade

folasade

Nigeria

but how do i know how to pronounce this poem well when i dont hear the sound please i need help

12:53 PM Nov 20 2007 |

folasade

folasade

Nigeria

but how do i know how to pronounce this poem well when i dont hear the sound please i need help

12:53 PM Nov 20 2007 |

florazhuyun

China

my english is poor,and i'm new here,

i will work hard!Tongue out

11:27 AM Nov 20 2007 |

brook-guo

brook-guo

China

It`s great .I think it can help me in english pronouciation,thanks for your help

11:04 AM Nov 20 2007 |

joll1989

joll1989

China

oh ~so nice

10:41 AM Nov 20 2007 |

pop272001

pop272001

Indonesia

It's too long..but it's OK…Good!! make another poem!!

08:58 AM Nov 20 2007 |

yuanbiaorao

China

Thank you ,Ocean-SA! I'm eager to learn English well,image that I could speak ,read and listen like you!I need help,could you give me a hand? Thanks a millions!

07:51 AM Nov 20 2007 |

ngocdungvt177

Viet Nam

i think this is the good way to learn English

07:16 AM Nov 20 2007 |

luna387

luna387

China

so long a poem but it can help our pronounciation,pls take it up.

06:49 AM Nov 20 2007 |

dahmutbaby

Nigeria

Happy to join this interesting group of friends.

05:50 AM Nov 20 2007 |

J0anne

J0anne

Indonesia

I finally found that i want….thank you cause i knew more and learned the pronunciation that a few i didn't know until read this one…...Wink

thank'sLaughing

05:22 AM Nov 20 2007 |

J0anne

J0anne

Indonesia

this is great.I like it.thank’s a lot,cause i knew and learned pronounciation that a few i didn’t know till read this one….

05:20 AM Nov 20 2007 |

lf6283139

China

i like it

02:59 AM Nov 20 2007 |

Thanh Thanh Pham

Viet Nam

wonderful

01:52 AM Nov 20 2007 |

Thanh Thanh Pham

Viet Nam

it's great^^

01:51 AM Nov 20 2007 |

willhuang

China

once going!

01:20 AM Nov 20 2007 |

pella

pella

Morocco

thanks this poemis very important for me

11:00 PM Nov 19 2007 |

pella

pella

Morocco

thanks this poemis very important for me

10:59 PM Nov 19 2007 |

abdelbelk

Morocco

Hi,

Hope to learn more from you,

salutations

04:03 PM Nov 19 2007 |

Likes (284):

See all >

Share this lesson:

  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Bebo
  • Share on Myspace
  • Share on Twitter
  • Email this to a friend
  • Share on Sina

Post Ebaby! lessons on your blog:

Ebaby! Cast