English Pronunciation in a Very Large Nutshell

clever!

Yeah, English orthography sucks.

That poem is origianally called "The Chaos" (websites name it "English is Tough Stuf") and appeared in Drop Your Foreign Accent - Engelse Uitspraakoefeningen, by G. Nolst Trenite (5th rev. ed., H. D. Tjeenk Willink & Zoon, 1929).

More info about that here

What do you make of this line? They do have the same sound.

Gallagher used to have an amusing schtick about pronunciation. It sort of has to be heard aloud for full effect, but it went something like this:

"B-O-M-B... bom; T-O-M-B... tom? No: T-O-M-B... toom. T-O-M-B, toom; C-O-M-B... coom? No: C-O-M-B... cohm. C-O-M-B, cohm; P-O-M-B... pohm? No: P-O-E-M... pohm. P-O-E-M, pohm; H-O-E-M... hohm? No: H-O-M-E... hohm. H-O-M-E, hohm; S-O-M-E... sohm? No: S-O-M-E... sum. S-O-M-E, sum; N-O-M-E... num? No: num... N-U-M-B!!!"

Not in UK English. "He bade farewell to England" - the word 'bade' - the past tense of 'bid', is pronounced just like 'bad'. It rhymes with 'mad', 'had', 'sad' and 'plaid'.

Ditto for American English as per Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.

Bookmark for future reading out loud to myself!

Wonderful...