this post was submitted on 21 Mar 2024
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Greentext

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 7 months ago (2 children)

I learnt English as my second (technically third) language. Other two languages I know are written and spoken exactly the same.

So take it from me, French pronunciation can be baffling or straight up ridiculous at times. English has got nothing on it. I don't care if French aren't heureux at this comment.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

They are baffling and ridiculous but they are consistent in that. Once you learn one baffling and ridiculous rule, you can successfully apply that rule to correctly pronounce almost any new word you've never encountered before. Eaux is a stupid fucking way of writing "o" to be sure, but at least you will always immediately know how to pronounce it without ever having to guess, or hear it from someone else. Meanwhile in English you write "read" but you pronounce it "read".

There are of course exceptions, but show me one language in the world that has none.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

An example I like is that alchemy didn't turn lead to gold, but it did lead to chemistry.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

Well, I learned English as my second and French as my third language, and I see it the other way around. Agree to disagree I guess.