A mouthful of English

In English it is easy to find words with different spellings that sound exactly the same, like son and sun or no and know . On the other hand, some words are pronounced differently although they share the same spelling. This is not so frequent, but it can be a bit more puzzling. Bow sounds /b əʊ / when you use it to play the violin, or when you shoot an arrow with it. Just like the bow in rainbow . If you bend your head as a sign of respect, however, you bow – but it sounds /ba ʊ /. Another example is the verb read , pronounced /ri:d/ in the infinitive and in the simple present, but /red/ in the simple past and in the past partic iple.     The more English you know, the easier it becomes to predict pronunciation when you see a new word written. But spelling doesn’t always help, so I prefer to trust a good dictionary instead.

‘I don’t know if I’m coming or going !’ Go means ‘move from one place to another.’ We go to work , we go to bed , and we go on holiday . Come means, basically, ‘move towards the speaker.’ Besides, both go and come – and other verbs of movement – often combine with words like in , out , up , or down , to refer to different directions. When you enter a room, you may be coming in o going in , depending on the speaker’s point of view. In other words, depending on where the speaker is. He’s going into the head teacher’s office. The choice between go in and come in, come up and come down, will depend on the context, and the speaker’s position is key. Come may also mean ‘move with the speaker or in the direction of the listener ’.   That’s why we say ‘Coming!’ when somebody is waiting for us, to let them know that we’re on our way – when the doorbell rings, for instance.