r/mildlyinfuriating • u/Upstairs_Cash8400 • 1d ago

English for Beginners

8.3k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

407 comments sorted by

View all comments

59

u/Nevermore_Novelist 1d ago

The way he says, "NOOOOHHHHHH" kills me!

Though
Through
Cough
Bough
Enough

None of these words sound the same, despite each of them ending in ough. This is one of many reasons I never get mad at someone who is clearly speaking English as a second language.

English doesn't fuck around. If it wasn't my first language, I would refuse to learn it.

10

u/Decent_Cow 20h ago

All of these words used to end with a velar fricative, but when we lost that sound it got replaced with several different things.

3

u/Nevermore_Novelist 20h ago

Language is fascinating.