At least in my dialect/accent of English
Most “silent” letters have some effect on the pronunciation of the word. They aren’t there for no reason.
I ain’t never seen no double negative work like that before
It doesn’t necessarily make a non-negative, but I’m not disliking it none.
I ain’t never seen no double negative work like that before
“Drive thru”
They aren’t silent, they make a faint gutteral sound, like the back of your tongue is being forced down. It’s barely pronounced in English, but it changes the way the vowels sound. It’s more present in German and Dutch languages.
For shits and giggles, I always slightly pronounce it when reading any tragedeigh names. Your daughter is named Breighleigh? Are you part Klingon?
🎵Why is the plural of mouse mice, but we can’t live in semi-detatched hice?🎵
We could if we had multiple spice
You’re only permitted to have one primary address. If you want a second address you’ll have to call support.
Here’s a fun (related) one. I don’t know to whom to attribute it. I got it from a colleague in grad school.
Ghoti
What does it spell? The English spelling system is so screwy, you can make a decent case that it spells “fish”.
Gh – from enough (f)
o – from women (i)
ti – from nation (sh)
Edit: spacing and one addition
I’m glad I checked Wikipedia before just talking out my ass, as the attribution is less clear than I thought, but the first I heard of this was in Phish circles back in the 90s!
Yeah, that’s why I was remiss to give an attribution.
I’m sure that’s a regional way to pronounce it. I’ve lived in the south (North Carolina) my whole life and I’ve always heard and pronounced it as the same sound as caught, or aught.
In fact, according to The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, both aught and ought have the same pronunciation.
