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ESL forum >
Ask for help > Pronunciation
Pronunciation
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noura80
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Pronunciation
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Hello , colleagues. I just want to share one of my 1st year pupil �s questions.She asked:"Why do we pronounce the verbs goes and does in a different way although we write them the same? I.E g+ oes/ d+oes
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8 Aug 2017
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cunliffe
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...Also, go and do are pronounced differently... There may be a reason, but I think erm, that �s just the way it is!  Somebody posted a poem on here a while ago, with lots of these spelling/pronunciation anomalies. It might be nice to show your students that. I �ll try and find it, unless someone else beats me to it... 
Edit: Here�s a link to one of these poems; apparently there are a few. |
8 Aug 2017
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almaz
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Spelling in English doesn�t always match pronunciation and as you can see with goes and does, there are more vowel sounds in English than available letters in our alphabet to represent them separately. There is actually some method to the apparent madness of English orthography if you care to dig deep enough. I�d recommend David Crystal�s Spell It Out as a good starting point.
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8 Aug 2017
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Antonio Oliver
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If a non-native may dare try to add a simple view... Both verbs are Old English (=more or less Germanic words) and at some point in time they received Latin declensions (desinences, endings). To make matters worse, the primitive (mostly lost) languages of the British isles were forced to adapt the Latin alphabet to their own sounds. Not always a perfect match, as you can guess. It �s better explained by Melvyn Bragg in his book "The adventure of English", highly recomendable! https://books.google.es/books?id=W4w6Y92du6UC&printsec=frontcover&dq=a+book+the+adventure+of+english+melvyn+bragg&hl=es&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwizlvb4mcfVAhVBnBoKHahzDgsQ6AEIJjAA#v=onepage&q=a%20book%20the%20adventure%20of%20english%20melvyn%20bragg&f=false |
8 Aug 2017
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almaz
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Antonio, declensions are for nouns, pronouns and adjectives � not verbs. In any case, the inflected forms have nothing to do with Latin (although you�re correct about the limitations of the Latin alphabet). Have a look at this screenshot from the relevant entry in the OED (it�s a bit technical, but it will give you some idea of how these forms developed):
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8 Aug 2017
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cunliffe
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Here �s another such poem: Picking up on the Germanic theme, I have students asking why some verbs add -ed to form the past and others change the middle bit: swim, swam etc - apparently that is based on German. I study Romance languages, so didn �t really follow this up. Is that true and maybe a bit more info about that would be interesting? |
8 Aug 2017
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Antonio Oliver
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Interesting indeed... Past Simple in today �s German (Präteritum) is usually formed by adding verb endings, the most common being "t" based: Ich brauche = I need Ich brauchte = I needed However, a vowel change is often performed together with this "t" ending: Ich denke = I think Ich dachte = I thought In some cases there is vowel swap but no "t" addition: Ich komme = I come Ich kam = I came The last example is clearly English-looking, but my German is too poor -over to some German- or Dutch-speaking collegue?
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8 Aug 2017
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redcamarocruiser
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| As Reg Dwight said in a comment, they have different historical pronunciations: the "o" in go was originally an /ɑː/, while the "o" in do and to was originally an /oː/. So they were always different to begin with, and even the Great Vowel Shift could do nothing about it, because different vowels shifted into different directions.
Go and do happen to be spelled the same because in Middle English, the time period when much of the current English spelling system was formed, their vowels were fairly similar (/ɔː/ and /oː/ respectively), and there are not as many vowel letters in the alphabet as there are vowel sounds in English. But they have never been pronounced the same." |
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8 Aug 2017
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nassimproff
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Personally ,I make ppls notice that even one letter can be pronouced in differnt ways and when some ppls ask such qqs i say "khlikat rabi" and i make ppls laugh .I say that there are qqs which we can �t answer ,it �s just like this (i refer to arabic i say why is the subject - marffou. and the objet - mansoub , |
8 Aug 2017
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noura80
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Thanks a lot friends.I �ll check the given resources for myself. I wanted to find a simple explanation for the little kid. I toled her that the vowel o sound gives a different sound with the consonant sound of g and d
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8 Aug 2017
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