Here are a few rules that i "discovered" about English words. (As far as i know, I'm the only person in the world that knows these, so they're probably wrong). If you have counter-examples or other similar rules that you've figured out yourself, please add them to the comments.
No word ends in the letter "v". (exceptions: "Slav", a proper noun; "rev", an abbreviation)
The only word that has an "f" pronounced like a "v" is "of".
No verb's infinitive ends in a single "s". Many, like "to miss", end in double "s".
Although not really a rule, I thought of another thing long ago and remembered it when i read something similar on the internet...The longest one syllable word i can think of is "strengths" (9 letters). This thought was inspired by the word "Schweppes", which is 9 letters, but it's a (foreign) proper noun, so it doesn't count. The other guy's page that said that "screeched" is the longest, it's also 9 letters.
7 comments:
Cool... One rule you have not apparently discovered is the one about capitalizing "I"... Sorry... I couldn't resist... Of course, you will now tell me that there is some rule against using ellipses every fifth word in a sentence... ;)
-mb
I did not figure these out by myself, but these are interesting:
1. No English word rhymes with "orange."
2. The only English word that changes its pronunciation when capitalized is "polish."
3. Many words change pronunciation when used as a different part of speech. Examples: blessed (verb, adj.) or escort (noun, verb.)
I can think of no exceptions to your 3 rules. Did you use a computer program to prove your theory?
Mom
Nothing rhymes with "orange". I heard that one long ago...I recently saw a web page that said nothing rhymes with "purple", "silver" or "month" either.
Michael forwarded this to me. I love English!
Oh, as a Babin, I suppose I should sign off
...Fawn
there are other words that change pronunciation based on capitalization:
job ... Job
herb ... Herb
august ... August
lima ... Lima
nice ... Nice
tangier ... Tangier
rodeo ... Rodeo
some more words that end with "v"
berav : to defile with excrement
improv : improvised comedy routine
isogriv : lines of equal angles of magnetic north
shiv : a prison knife
what about a singular word that becomes plural when suffixing with an "s", then singular again when suffixing with another "s":
i.e.
prince -> princes -> princess
care -> cares -> caress
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