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Speakers of non-English languages, what common mistakes do native speakers make that drive you crazy? (infosec.pub)

submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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For example, English speakers commonly mix up your/you're or there/their/they're. I'm curious about similar mistakes in other languages.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago

I think it's because English isn't super consistent with the spelling of vowel sounds. Consider also "choose" (rhymes with "lose") and "chose" (which doesn't rhyme with either).

I guess really the vowel sound in loose/lose is basically the same; the difference is whether or not the "s" makes a "s" sound or a "z" sound... It is admittely odd that the presence or absence of an extra "o" would affect the sound of an adjacent constant (especially when we have a perfectly good "z" character available).

Which reminds me of my pet peeve: when people use "breath" or "cloth" instead of "breathe" or "clothe".