A LED or An LED?

[stewartingram]

Are there similar regional pronunciations with slough?

 

I read it as 'slew' but I've heard it rhyme with plough/plow.

 

It's interesting how even the related "ow" sounds vary (like crow or plow) and can within a single spelling (row = propel a boat / row = argument and bow = arrow launcher / bow = bend at the waist).

 

Silly language.

 

The "ough" words were the biggest frustration a Finnish colleague of mine had with English.

Linux also presents multiple windows to the user. Despite the name the software is properly singular for Microsoft Windows.

Slough?

 

Always known as Sluff !

 

Stewart

[ddoherty958]

What are we like?

[RFS]

Except that "Microsoft Windows" is an operating system and one piece of software. It is actually a singular entity despite the apparently plural name.

 

One does not say "Linux are shutting down".

 

Totally agree. Referring to Windows one says "It is an operating system", not "They are an operating system" as that sounds ridiculous. Names are singular whatever their meaning in another context. Noughts and crosses is a game. Draughts is a game. etc etc

[Nearholmer]

Draughts is what you get if you leave windows open.

[sp1]

Draughts is what you get if you leave windows open.

Or go out wearing a kilt/ skirt etc

[Ozexpatriate]

Slough?

 

Always known as Sluff !

Thanks, That's the other pronunciation I was looking for.

 

Sluff - something that may be shed or cast off, like a snakeskin

Slew - side channel, swamp, mire, etc

Slau (like cow)

Slow

Edited July 26, 2018 by Ozexpatriate

[Sir TophamHatt]

Draughts is what you get if you leave windows open.

So we say the F in that word but when changing a single letter to make it DROUGHT, it's a very different pronunciation.

Edited July 28, 2018 by Sir TophamHatt

[RFS]

Newspapers often have a games section these days, and one that I do occasionally is the "word wheel" - see how many words you can make from 9 letters always using the central letter. It's only when you've done a few of them you realize how many different ways some words can be spelt depending on their meaning.  

 

Recently I had paws, pause, pores and pours, and only the lack of a second o prevented poor.

 

English has changed out of all recognition since Anglo-Saxon times. Anyone speaking Old English today would be completely unintelligible. I wonder what the language will be like in another 1000 years? Will written words be like Chinese, ie symbols which all have to be individually learnt?