• @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    172 months ago

    I don’t mind silent e’s, they do actually change the way words are pronounced at least.

    • eatham 🇭🇲
      link
      fedilink
      English
      62 months ago

      They work like an e after a vowel, making it a long vowel, but with a letter in between. They have absolutely no reason to exist as haet is pronounced the same as hate but has the letters in a more logical order.

            • eatham 🇭🇲
              link
              fedilink
              English
              1
              edit-2
              2 months ago

              You linked a diffent word. However, a quick google shows that the Brits and Americans pronounce it like you are saying. Over here in aus I’ve only heard it pronounced the way I said it was pronounced.

              • @[email protected]
                link
                fedilink
                English
                12 months ago

                You linked a diffent word.

                You mean because Merriam-Webster defaults to the American spelling? If you search for Haemoglobin, you’re redirected instantly.

                Over here in aus I’ve only heard it pronounced the way I said it was pronounced.

                Is there an accepted online dictionary that lists Australian pronunciation and word use? What do you use to look things up?

    • @thetreesaysbark
      link
      42 months ago

      Magic Es they taught them to me as. Come to think of it as an adult a magic e could mean something entirely different…

    • optional
      link
      02 months ago

      If they are silent, they don’t chang the pronunciaton, becaus if they do they are not silent.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        52 months ago

        In that persons comment, they removed several “silent” e’s, but all but one changed the word’s pronunciation. I was talking about them. Like the E in hate. It doesn’t make a sound itself, so isn’t it still silent?

        • optional
          link
          42 months ago

          It’s not silent, but in the wrong place. Haet would be more correct, as it changes the pronunciation from [hæt] to [heɪt]. Hait might be an even better way to write it (see also: bait, maid, laid etc.)

          English is a weird language.

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            English
            1
            edit-2
            2 months ago

            English is three languages wearing a trench coat and pretending to be one.

            [Off topic:]

            I just now realized that the word “trench” is in “trench coat”.

            […] heavy-duty fabric,[1] originally developed for British Army officers before the First World War, and becoming popular while used in the trenches, hence the name trench coat.

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trench_coat

              • @[email protected]
                link
                fedilink
                English
                12 months ago

                In my mind, “trench coat” was always a single word. I never noticed that it is two words, one of them being trench, as in war infrastructure. It was interesting to find that out.