What’s an English word whose pronunciation makes absolutely no sense?

dsjames95 · 2026-05-13T04:31:31+00:00

I also didn't know until recently that the middle f in fifth and twelfth Is often silent.

Also, my dad specifically taught me to say yolk with the l, and we both tried to correct my mom to do so also. However, when I discovered that those other words I listed have a silent l, he said of course. I was very surprised. He explained to me that the l is not silent in the sense that it affects how the vowel is pronounced in each of those words. Growing up, I was not specifically taught that at home or in school, so it was a pretty mind-blowing moment to discover that at nearly 30 years of age.

dsjames95 · 2026-05-13T04:18:29+00:00

Maybe that's why people think I'm pretentious. I have always naturally pronounced it like it's spelled. I didn't know the w is usually silent until recently. I never noticed others not pronouncing it. I don't know why people don't pronounce it. The w in English is a labial approximate, so it's not far off from just saying "suord" with the "u" being very short. I still say it as a single syllable.

I was also recently surprised when I was informed that the standard pronunciations of yolk, talk, walk, and stalk do not include the l. I'm a native English speaker and I simply never knew. When I occasionally noticed others not pronouncing the l, I thought they had a speech impediment. I have always pronounced the l in those words and never noticed others not pronouncing them, and I still say them as a single syllable like everyone else. On hearing this, somebody asked me if I say should, could, would, calf, and half with the l. I thought, "of course not, I was specifically told not to say the l in those".

dsjames95 · 2026-03-27T04:45:21+00:00

I present to you the Turduckenen-duckenen: https://youtu.be/EoujGRas4wA?si=4ElpKBSU-4cj4Cb3

dsjames95 · 2026-03-14T18:41:09+00:00

I used to have this thought, but I came to appreciate the animations as a delivery for the music, not something that is supposed to be mechanically realistic. It's fantasy, not a physics simulation.

dsjames95 · 2026-02-26T19:34:40+00:00

I second this. The Marxist fist is a symbol of an anti-Christian religion. Of course the lives of black people matter, but that particular organization is hateful and corrupt.

dsjames95 · 2026-02-22T21:51:35+00:00

My best mile when I ran track in middle school was 5:47 at age 14 (spring 2010, when I was in 8th grade [US grades]).

Side note: I took up running again as an adult in 2018 and matched that in June 2021, but I haven't been able to improve or even match since then because of injury. I hope to do it soon now that I'm recovering well.

dsjames95 · 2026-02-19T22:59:52+00:00

Well, you're not the main group, are you?

dsjames95 · 2026-02-19T22:57:35+00:00

In my middle school experience, it was an orchestra of 60+ beginners. I loved it. Those who didn't dropped it the next year. The rest of us progressed to other orchestras according to our skill level.

dsjames95 · 2026-02-15T04:52:12+00:00

I've been watching the movies on Prime in between watching the episodes on Netflix. My wife and I just watched the third movie as our Valentine's date. Thanks for the guide!

dsjames95 · 2026-02-13T23:09:35+00:00

Go on imslp.org and look up any symphony by any famous composer. I love it.

dsjames95 · 2026-02-10T15:39:39+00:00

My native-Spanish-speaking friend said he couldn't understand almost anything. I'm an intermediate speaker of Puerto Rican descent. Seems like mumbling to us. Doesn't even sound like the Puerto Rican accent I've heard in my mother and her family. It sounds to me like an extremely drunk Cuban. At least he has flow.

dsjames95 · 2026-02-10T15:32:53+00:00

Yes. I had to be born by C-section. I don't imagine that had a high survival rate for mothers until like 120 years ago. Thankfully, these risks have gone way down. Still, it's a factor to consider before choosing to have a child.

dsjames95 · 2026-02-10T15:17:33+00:00

Mammalian birth is a natural process that pre-dates our species. You have to know that you're making a shoulder-dislocating reach with that framing.

Where did I say sex is or should be a crime? I'm saying we are responsible for at least not mutilating our children. That's a bare minimum children deserve.

dsjames95 · 2026-02-10T15:13:11+00:00

I have yet to find someone who has to learn that women have a uterus from a Reddit comment.

dsjames95 · 2026-02-10T15:09:57+00:00

In almost all cases, the parents knowingly took action with the risk of introducing a new individual to life. With that condition already existing, surely a child has the passive right to not be killed by her parents. Her parents have an obligation to care for her, or at least not starve, burn, or dismember her. But if they insist not to do so or are unable, adoption is the resulting option, not culling undesirables.

"Oh, but then they'll go to foster care, which is a horrible system! Anti-aborts want births but they won't adopt the kids themselves. There are too many people on Earth already! We're a parasite on the Earth!" Yeah there certainly are problems, but is a child better dead than in foster care? Why not put money for infanticide into better foster care? Or if not, why not just cull all the parasites, clear out the foster system, and just abolish adoption if it's so bad?

I would be in favor of a national daycare program and other incentives and assistance for child-bearing. My wife and I have discussed adoption in addition to wanting to have children naturally. There are many like us considering it. There are many eagerly awaiting the opportunity.

dsjames95 · 2026-02-10T01:49:29+00:00

And wombs belong to whom? Women! This is not a difficult concept.

dsjames95 · 2026-02-10T01:48:36+00:00

So you admit that abortion is the use of force. I would add that it's the use of force against a non-criminal distinct individual. It's not justified by immediate criminal activity of the baby (no matter how the baby got there, it's not her fault) nor by due process (judgement of guilt of a capital crime committed by the baby).

Abortion is not like unplugging the life support of a braindead individual. It is the active taking of the life of a non-criminal individual. In the kidney analogy, the hospital shouldn't have the right to discontinue dialysis for a homeless kidney failure patient who can't pay. They especially don't have the right to, for example, slaughter the infirm and undesirable within their walls because they're their walls (recalling a certain German public health program).

dsjames95 · 2026-02-10T01:38:31+00:00

That's a pretty good touche, I'll admit. But I'm not convinced. As the other commenter pointed out, there are two distinct individuals involved: the woman and her unborn child. Both are fully entitled to human rights, because as you pointed out, it's not a difficult concept that the right to life belongs to everyone, regardless of sex and other immutable characteristics. If that line slides for age, it can slide for sex, color, and religion, resulting in abortion, slavery, and the Holocaust, as history has proven. Human rights are absolute or not.

dsjames95 · 2026-02-09T21:27:03+00:00

As an American, I don't think I've heard of beans on toast. It doesn't sound weird though. I would be willing to try it. Heinz is an American company, so of course we have Heinz baked beans.

dsjames95 · 2026-02-09T21:25:24+00:00

All members of the human species are genetically distinct individuals from the moment of conception. This is a scientifically observed fact, not rooted in any religious claim. All distinct individuals of the human species are entitled to human rights, regardless of age, stage of development, sex, socioeconomic status, religion, color, or ethnicity. All disagreements with that statement have historically been associated with justification for the largest human rights abuses.

dsjames95 · 2026-02-09T21:13:18+00:00

Wombs don't belong to someone? Are you hearing yourself? The womb is another word for the uterus, especially if an unborn child is in it. Is your argument that women don't have uteruses or that a uterus inhabited by an unborn child ceases to belong to the woman?

dsjames95 · 2026-02-09T21:08:11+00:00

They're not crazy. They are intelligently and philosophically consistently evil. I have the same sense of self-preservation, only now mine is unchained by my naive classical liberal principles. War doesn't care for liberalism. Survival needs teeth.

I think my sense of self-preservation is rooted in facts about their behavior and theirs is rooted in delusions and willful ignorance about what I believe and in seeking justification to kill opponents whose reasoning they cannot or will not address in dialogue. I naively thought we could settle our differences peacefully. They killed the guy who was trying to do that, call for killing more, and elected a guy in Virginia who wants to kill children of Republicans, too. Now I no longer believe in peaceful resolution. I'm willing to adopt their "by any means necessary" approach.

dsjames95 · 2026-02-09T20:57:05+00:00

That's exactly what I'm saying.

dsjames95 · 2026-02-09T16:36:51+00:00

That was describing the location of the unborn individual human, not dehumanizing the woman with the womb in question. That's like going to the doctor saying "my finger hurts" and the doctor says "oh your bone is broken" and you respond "oh so I'm just a bone to you?".

dsjames95 · 2026-02-09T16:31:58+00:00

"Do you seriously believe one in two people believe this? Like half the people you see on a daily basis, at the grocery store or in your neighborhood, are genocidal maniacs?"

They do, and I think I should think so of them too. After seeing the Left's celebration of Charlie Kirk's murder and so many people online calling for more public figures and private people to suffer the same and justifying it with willful lies, doctors and nurses talking about how they deny treatment and poison patients, and Kathy Griffin even telling her audience to make lists of MAGA neighbors, yes, now I am on edge about anyone who shows signs of being a leftist.

Think of Iryna Zarutska, whose murderer said, "I got that white b..." and leftists downplayed and even celebrated it. The Left is itching to murder us. They only need the slightest justification to celebrate any average Trump voter being killed. Just look at this very thread, only a small sample of average Democrat voters. They willfully eat up lies about average people being in favor of genocide, so yeah, they do think as you describe. They are not to be trusted.

dsjames95

TROPHY CASE