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houses
Aug 3, 2008 3:58:56 GMT
Post by Geoff on Aug 3, 2008 3:58:56 GMT
Susan, 'S' is voiceless and 'z' is voiced. I assumed that 's' is soft and 'z' is hard, but that's just my attempt to map those terms onto the terms I know. (I have trouble understanding the difference between soft and hard water, so this may not be very helpful!) If you genuinely have trouble understanding the difference between soft and hard water, and are none the wiser from the helpful(?) responses given in the previous posts, then you might do a Google search using What is "hard water"?. The first few hits should help you better understand (before you go mad from lead poisoning).
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ianm
New Member
Posts: 20
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houses
Aug 3, 2008 9:11:19 GMT
Post by ianm on Aug 3, 2008 9:11:19 GMT
Mouse - mice Louse - lice House - houses - unless you're Prince Charles, in which case... House - highzes
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houses
Aug 3, 2008 9:55:25 GMT
Post by Twoddle on Aug 3, 2008 9:55:25 GMT
... unless you're Prince Charles, in which case... House - highzes Horse - Camilla
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houses
Aug 3, 2008 9:57:19 GMT
Post by Twoddle on Aug 3, 2008 9:57:19 GMT
Is that standard US form, Dave? In Britain, we all (I think) use "houz" for the verb, but "houss, houzziz" is most common for the noun forms. I just asked my wife to say those words and she says it your way--different than (from, to) my way. She's originally from Ohio, but has been in California for (gulp!) 38 years, if that helps you figure it out. As for as the other 299,999,998 Americans, I don't know! I imagine a substantial number of them say "casa", Dave.
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houses
Aug 3, 2008 14:50:00 GMT
Post by Alan Palmer on Aug 3, 2008 14:50:00 GMT
This was posted in another forum:
SEEING DOUBLE
We’ll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes, But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes. One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese, Yet the plural of moose should never be meese. You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice, Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice. If the plural of man is always called men, Why shouldn’t the plural of pan be called pen? If I speak of my foot and show you my feet, And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet? If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth, Why shouldn’t the plural of booth be called beeth? Then one may be that, and three would be those, Yet hat in the plural would never be hose, And the plural of cat is cats, not cose. We speak of a brother and also of brethren, But though we say mother, we never say methren. Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him, But imagine the feminine: she, shis and shim?
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houses
Aug 3, 2008 15:57:47 GMT
Post by Paul Doherty on Aug 3, 2008 15:57:47 GMT
Very good!
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houses
Aug 3, 2008 18:37:51 GMT
Post by Barry on Aug 3, 2008 18:37:51 GMT
Barry (and his labial fricatives) have been away for a while - but, yes, that's how I'd explain it too, Susan! They're both generally alveolar (or post-alveolar, depending on your nationality/region) fricatives.
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houses
Aug 3, 2008 19:26:55 GMT
Post by TfS on Aug 3, 2008 19:26:55 GMT
Thanks for that, Alan.
I've seen it before and it's very cleverly constructed.
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houses
Aug 3, 2008 20:49:08 GMT
Post by Tone on Aug 3, 2008 20:49:08 GMT
Twoddle, >The "Wait to see if you go mad or die" test can be deceptive, as we'll all die eventually and many of us will go mad through other causes.<You miss my (delphic) point entirely. Anyways, it's simpler than that. Hard water comes in glass bottles, soft water in plastic ones! Now -- let's test for hard or soft radiation? Tone
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houses
Aug 3, 2008 22:43:45 GMT
Post by SusanB on Aug 3, 2008 22:43:45 GMT
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houses
Aug 4, 2008 5:05:09 GMT
Post by goofy on Aug 4, 2008 5:05:09 GMT
Can anyone tell me why it is: one mouse, two mice one louse, two lice but one house, two houses or is it just another example of the eccentricity of English ? Old English singular mus, plural mys, and singluar lus, plural lys. The vowel change in the plural is known as i-mutation. Earlier forms of the plurals had a suffix with /i/, and this fronted the vowel from /u/ to /y/ before it was lost. It can also be seen in German Maus - Mäuse, Laus - Läuse. house in German is Haus, plural Häuser. For some reason i-mutation didn't affect the English word. Perhaps it was regularized. For the same reason there are voiceless - voiced alternations in thief - thieves, mouth - mouths, etc. In Old English, the voiceless consonants were regularly voiced between vowels.
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houses
Aug 4, 2008 19:46:17 GMT
Post by Tone on Aug 4, 2008 19:46:17 GMT
Susan, >"If you have hard water and find that it's causing your coffee or tea to be distasteful..." <Or, more likely, to improve it! Tone
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