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English must be so confusing to ESL people - where is the 'g' in anxiety? (Original Post) bucolic_frolic Mar 2021 OP
Sometimes the "g" silent, as in night intrepidity Mar 2021 #1
Silent...invisible...don't laugh at ghosts. ret5hd Mar 2021 #2
Night...anxiety...ghosts...I hear you nt intrepidity Mar 2021 #4
ESL? Haggard Celine Mar 2021 #3
English as a Second Language, I guess. Glorfindel Mar 2021 #8
OMG! Haggard Celine Mar 2021 #13
We also tend to pronounce "luxurious" as if it contained both a Glorfindel Mar 2021 #5
Cool Whip: ret5hd Mar 2021 #9
Thanks! I have never seen "Family Guy." Glorfindel Mar 2021 #12
Lol happybird Mar 2021 #18
Dumdum's LUG-xhur-ee always made me clench my teeth, as did "YUGE" Warpy Mar 2021 #16
Some people have anxiety, others angst-iety. Buckeye_Democrat Mar 2021 #6
So I think you might be close... 2naSalit Mar 2021 #21
Or the p in hamster! TxGuitar Mar 2021 #7
I've seen people spell it with a 'p' too! Buckeye_Democrat Mar 2021 #10
I was just a hampster from New Hampshire bucolic_frolic Mar 2021 #14
Uh oh... 2naSalit Mar 2021 #22
A YouTube video could generate clicks and bucks bucolic_frolic Mar 2021 #24
People from all over the planet have told me it's easy to communicate in English Warpy Mar 2021 #11
I pronounce it that way too. Buckeye_Democrat Mar 2021 #19
While thinking about the "writing on the wall," I became "beside myself" NCjack Mar 2021 #20
I say it with the "G-Z" slide... 2naSalit Mar 2021 #23
It's important to remember several things about our language. PoindexterOglethorpe Mar 2021 #15
It's the price of success Shermann Mar 2021 #17
Well... 2naSalit Mar 2021 #26
Touche! Shermann Mar 2021 #27
Thank goodness for standardization... 2naSalit Mar 2021 #25
There are a million "anomalies" in English that include weird spelling, grammar, and idioms. Martin68 Mar 2021 #28

Haggard Celine

(17,022 posts)
13. OMG!
Mon Mar 22, 2021, 01:18 PM
Mar 2021

I guess she thinks she looks good. Sad. No, autocorrect messed up my name when I put it in and I am stuck with this name for a few years, I guess. It's supposed to be Hagbard Celine, after the character in some Robert Anton Wilson novels. I guess people are going to think I'm making fun of Celine Dion now, and that is unfortunate.

Glorfindel

(9,919 posts)
5. We also tend to pronounce "luxurious" as if it contained both a
Mon Mar 22, 2021, 01:08 PM
Mar 2021

g and a z. Also, the "wh" words are confusing. Half of English speakers pronounce them with a silent "h," as in "were" for "where" and "wen" for "when." The other half pronounce them as "hw" words, as in "hwere" and "hwen." Learning English would definitely be hard!

happybird

(5,113 posts)
18. Lol
Mon Mar 22, 2021, 02:09 PM
Mar 2021

We were talking about Wil Wheaton at work the other day and I kept pronouncing like that just to annoy my coworker.

Warpy

(113,130 posts)
16. Dumdum's LUG-xhur-ee always made me clench my teeth, as did "YUGE"
Mon Mar 22, 2021, 01:20 PM
Mar 2021

Come to think of it, everything about that creature made me clench my teeth, and that was before the Russians greased him into office.

2naSalit

(92,665 posts)
21. So I think you might be close...
Mon Mar 22, 2021, 03:04 PM
Mar 2021

There is a phenomena that occurs for people for whom English is not their primary language where they insert incorrect letters due to their internal etymology where they see they root of the word anxiety being included in the root for anger or angst, thus they insert it thinking that is the likely spelling of a word they may never have seen in written form.

I did a bit of proofreading for ESL students in college and found several patterns of incorrect spellings based on that reasoning. They really work hard to get it right with our very messy language.

bucolic_frolic

(46,970 posts)
24. A YouTube video could generate clicks and bucks
Mon Mar 22, 2021, 03:15 PM
Mar 2021

But even the most popular bank, I think I read, about 1 cent per 10 clicks.

But there are YouTubers making $55k per month! Or so they say ...

So if you can do it, get in that hampster wheel and run!

(Note to Admins ... we so need a smiley of a hamster wheel!)

Warpy

(113,130 posts)
11. People from all over the planet have told me it's easy to communicate in English
Mon Mar 22, 2021, 01:17 PM
Mar 2021

with a limited vocabulary because most nouns don't have gender and there are no modifiers or declensions to note their places in a sentence. Most if it is Franco-Germanic/Viking very loosely strung on a Celtic framework. There are a lot of analogues to other European languages, making it easier to understand for European visitors.

The bugger is learning to speak it well.

(By the way, I pronounce it anks EYE uh tee, that's upper Midwest, upstate NY, and New England talking)

Buckeye_Democrat

(15,042 posts)
19. I pronounce it that way too.
Mon Mar 22, 2021, 02:11 PM
Mar 2021

The 'g' reference confused me at first, but I later realized some people pronounce it a little differently.

NCjack

(10,297 posts)
20. While thinking about the "writing on the wall," I became "beside myself"
Mon Mar 22, 2021, 02:52 PM
Mar 2021

when my wife told me to "knock myself out."

2naSalit

(92,665 posts)
23. I say it with the "G-Z" slide...
Mon Mar 22, 2021, 03:15 PM
Mar 2021

I learned to speak in northern New England so I had French and English exposure full time along with snippets if many other languages at public schools.

I have discovered, while proof reading college papers for ESL and foreign students, that they often try to equate similar sounding words and go for it when choosing a letter such as "G" for anxiety, especially if they never saw it in written form prior. Your description of Modern English is the most succinct I have ever seen yet our English is still very messy.

PoindexterOglethorpe

(26,727 posts)
15. It's important to remember several things about our language.
Mon Mar 22, 2021, 01:19 PM
Mar 2021

One is that we have an awful lot of words we've "borrowed" from other languages. Which means the spelling may remain what it was in the other language.
Another is that pronunciation has changed over time.
A third is that a lot of our spelling was standardized at least 200 years ago, an the spelling and pronunciation no longer match up.

Every time someone suggests we switch to a purely phonetic spelling in English, I roll my eyes, because there would be various spellings of a lot of words, and some of them might be incomprehensible to many of us.

Shermann

(8,636 posts)
17. It's the price of success
Mon Mar 22, 2021, 01:25 PM
Mar 2021

Successful empires like Britain tended to absorb a lot of the culture of those they conquered.

2naSalit

(92,665 posts)
26. Well...
Mon Mar 22, 2021, 03:18 PM
Mar 2021

The close to 1/3rd of English being French derived is due to the French owning England for a time as well.

2naSalit

(92,665 posts)
25. Thank goodness for standardization...
Mon Mar 22, 2021, 03:17 PM
Mar 2021

Trying to read text from the 17th and 18th even 19th centuries can be mind bending and distracting.

Martin68

(24,597 posts)
28. There are a million "anomalies" in English that include weird spelling, grammar, and idioms.
Mon Mar 22, 2021, 03:54 PM
Mar 2021

I taught English as a second language in Japan for 20 years, so I sympathize with people who have to learn English as an adult. Perhaps the most famous is the one that George Bernard Shaw like to point out. "Ghoti" is another way to spell the word "fish" if you use the "gh" in "enough", the "o" in "women", and the "ti" in "nation." A lot of the confusion in English is that the language is a Germanic language that took on a lot of Latin characteristics while France ruled England. One result of French rule is that words for domestic animals usually derive from the Anglo-Saxon words the peasant farmers used, and words for the food made from those animals used the French words that the ruling class used. Beef for the food and cattle for the animal, Pork for the food and pig for the animal and so on.

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