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38Today’s episode started because of a TikTok video that made me laugh out loud.
There’s a creator who makes these short clips about how English pronunciation makes absolutely no sense.
And the way he demonstrates it is genius.
He starts with the word: ear
Simple, right?
Then he says: Okay… if ear is pronounced /ɪr/…
Then the word “bear” should just be b + ear. So it should sound like beer, right?
But it doesn’t.
It’s bear.
Okay fine.
Maybe bear is the rule.
Then he adds a “d” to the word “bear”. Should be pretty easy right?
But if you pronounce “b-e-a-r-d” using the bear sound, it becomes baird. But it’s actually beard.
Wrong again.
Then he replaces the “b” with “f”.
Now we get “f-e-a-r”.
But if we follow the bear pronunciation, it would sound like fair. But it’s actually “fear.”
And the more examples he gives, the more you realize something slightly disturbing.
English spelling is not just inconsistent.
It’s unreliable.
At some point, you stop asking:
“Why is this word pronounced this way?”
And you start asking: “Is there even a system at all?”
So today I want to answer two questions.
First: Why is English pronunciation so chaotic?
And second — the more important one:
Is there any practical system learners can rely on?
Because believe it or not — there actually is.
But it’s not the kind of system most people expect.
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