English - pronunciation exercises (продолжение)

[HacTpoeHue]

Had this invalid invalid
Worthless documents? How pallid,

How uncouth he, couchant, looked,​

When for Portsmouth I had booked!​

Zeus, Thebes, Thales, Aphrodite,
Paramour, enamoured, flighty, 170

Episodes, antipodes,​

Acquiesce, and obsequies.​

Please don't monkey with the geyser,
Don't peel 'taters with my razor,

Rather say in accents pure:​

Nature, stature and mature.​

Pious, impious, limb, climb, glumly,
Worsted, worsted, crumbly, dumbly,

Conquer, conquest, vase, phase, fan,​

Wan, sedan and artisan. 180​

The TH will surely trouble you
More than R, CH or W.

Say then these phonetic gems:​

Thomas, thyme, Theresa, Thames.​

Thompson, Chatham, Waltham, Streatham,
There are more but I forget 'em -

Wait! I've got it: Anthony,​

Lighten your anxiety.​

The archaic word albeit
Does not rhyme with eight - you see it; 190

With and forthwith, one has voice,​

One has not, you make your choice.​

Shoes, goes, does. Now first say: finger;
Then say: singer, ginger, linger.

Real, zeal, mauve, gauze and gauge,​

Marriage, foliage, mirage, age,​

Hero, heron, query, very,
Parry, tarry, fury, bury,

Dost, lost, post, and doth, cloth, loth,​

Job, Job, blossom, bosom, oath. 200​

Faugh, oppugnant, keen oppugners,
Bowing, bowing, banjo-tuners

Holm you know, but noes, canoes,​

Puisne, truism, use, to use?​

Though the difference seems little,
We say actual, but victual,

Seat, sweat, chaste, caste, Leigh, eight, height,​

Put, nut, granite, and unite​

Reefer does not rhyme with deafer,
Feoffer does, and zephyr, heifer. 210

Dull, bull, Geoffrey, George, ate, late,​

Hint, pint, senate, but sedate.​

Gaelic, Arabic, pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific;

Tour, but our, dour, succour, four,​

Gas, alas, and Arkansas.​

Say manoeuvre, yacht and vomit,
Next omit, which differs from it

Bona fide, alibi​

Gyrate, dowry and awry. 220​

Sea, idea, guinea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.

Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean,​

Doctrine, turpentine, marine.​

Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion with battalion,

Rally with ally; yea, ye,​

Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, key, quay!​

Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, receiver. 230

Never guess - it is not safe,​

We say calves, valves, half, but Ralf.​

Starry, granary, canary,
Crevice, but device, and eyrie,

Face, but preface, then grimace,​

Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.​

Bass, large, target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, oust, joust, and scour, but scourging;

Ear, but earn; and ere and tear​

Do not rhyme with here but heir. 240​

Mind the O of off and often
Which may be pronounced as orphan,

With the sound of saw and sauce;​

Also soft, lost, cloth and cross.​

Pudding, puddle, putting. Putting?
Yes: at golf it rhymes with shutting.

Respite, spite, consent, resent.​

Liable, but Parliament.​

Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew, Stephen, 250

Monkey, donkey, clerk and jerk,​

Asp, grasp, wasp, demesne, cork, work.​

A of valour, vapid, vapour,
S of news (compare newspaper),

G of gibbet, gibbon, gist,​

I of antichrist and grist,​

Differ like diverse and divers,
Rivers, strivers, shivers, fivers.

Once, but nonce, toll, doll, but roll,​

Polish, Polish, poll and poll. 260​

Pronunciation - think of Psyche! -
Is a paling, stout and spiky.

Won't it make you lose your wits​

Writing groats and saying 'grits'?​

It's a dark abyss or tunnel
Strewn with stones like rowlock, gunwale,

Islington, and Isle of Wight,​

Housewife, verdict and indict.​

Don't you think so, reader, rather,
Saying lather, bather, father? 270

Finally, which rhymes with enough,​

Though, through, bough, cough, hough, sough, tough??​

Hiccough has the sound of sup...
My advice is: GIVE IT UP!