The Sounds of English

English confuses. A poem (of sorts):

We polish the Polish furniture.
He could lead if he would get lead out.
A farm can produce produce.
The dump was so full it had to refuse refuse
The soldier decided to desert in the desert.
The present is a good time to present the present.
The dove dove into the bushes.
I did not object to the object
The insurance for the invalid was invalid.
The bandage was wound around thewound
There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
They were too close to the door to close it.
They sent a sewer down to stitch the tear in the sewer line.
To help with planting, the famer taught his sow to sow.
How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?
I spent last evening evening out a pile of dirt.
I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

-I wish I knew where this was from

2 Comments

What I like about that poem is that it's all the words that are spelled the same but not pronounced the same, whatever they're called, as opposed to homophones. I'm so borrowing that.

That was the idea, I believe. Groovy, huh? My teacher gave that to us one day. It's a keeper. Some of them are simply an issue of changing the accent on the word (SUBject, subJECT; INvalid, inVALid) and some are just said totally differently even thought the spelling is the same (wound, wound; sow, sow). English just doesn't make any sense, really.

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