Brainteaser.

[navygreen]

This question came home on one of A.J.'s HAL* papers, and I thought it was neat:

What word is pronounced differently when the first letter is capitalized?

Herb and herb OR Polish and polish. Can you think of any others?

*speaking of HAL, I need to post about that. ;-)

Comments

[fiendfyre.livejournal.com]

Well Herb is a person's name, a herb is something you cook with. Polish is a ethnicity. and polish is something you use to shine your sho\es. this is a great example of how the english langeue is so weird!

Ps. You rock my socks! I wrote you an email ddi you get it?

[navygreen.livejournal.com]

I did get your me-mail. It's one that needs to be answered!

[jeffholton.livejournal.com]

I/i

[navygreen.livejournal.com]

But how do you pronounce those differently? By saying "eye" and "imaginary"? I'm confused.

[jeffholton.livejournal.com]

"Eye" and "one."

[navygreen.livejournal.com]

Ummm.

[nojunecleaver.livejournal.com]

Job and job (if you're biblical)

Mobile and mobile

Lima and lima

Reading (PA) and reading

[navygreen.livejournal.com]

Oooh, those are all GREAT examples! You've got a sense for trivia - that's awesome. :-)

[xellegirlx.livejournal.com]

I get the Polish, polish but I don't get Herb and herb...

[saffirebleu.livejournal.com]

Some people pronounce 'herb' without the 'h' sound, "erb."

[navygreen.livejournal.com]

Yes, what she said. We say "erbs" if we're talking about herbs/plants.

[navygreen.livejournal.com]

Neat - thanks!

[shoebox_addict]

Gasp! Wow, I never would have guessed that! I was sitting here, scratching my head! That's really cool!

[navygreen.livejournal.com]

I thought so!

[jeffholton.livejournal.com]

¿Molé/mole?

Ok, maybe not.

[navygreen.livejournal.com]

I get that one more easily than I get "eye" and "one."

[lolobird.livejournal.com]

Houston, TX and Houston St. (in NYC) - if you're not familiar, they pronounce is House-ton, hence SOHO stands for "South of House-ton"

[navygreen.livejournal.com]

I'd not heard that. How interesting!