4 ms·
They are not homophones? I’m not a native speaker and I’ve simply always assumed they are. I lived in London and the US for many years, but these are not common
by pavlov 2y ago
They are not homophones? I’m not a native speaker and I’ve simply always assumed they are. I lived in London and the US for many years, but these are not common words in speech so I never got corrected.
I guess that must mean “wear” and “weary” have a different pronunciation for “ea”.
This vowel digraph remains my eternal nemesis… Ever since I learned as a child that “bear” doesn’t rhyme with “fear” and found myself faced with the overwhelming realization that I will never speak this language 100% correctly, no matter how much effort I put into reading and writing.
- marssaxman 2y ago> I guess that must mean “wear” and “weary” have a different pronunciation for “ea”. Indeed so! "Wear" and "ware" are homophones, having the same vowel sound as "wary". "Weary", on the other hand, rhymes with "cheery" or "dreary". > I will never speak this language 100% correctly I am a middle-aged native speaker, an avid lifelong reader with a love for the language, and I still occasionally discover that I am mispronouncing words I have known for years.
- harimau777 2y agoI pronounce weary with a long e sound and wairy with a vowel sound between long and short a (similar to "air"). To me they are very similar and rhyme but not identical.
- hermitcrab 2y agoNative Enlish speaker here (from the UK). I feel so sorry for anyone learning English as a foreign language - it's a mess!