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Why is English so Confusing? Breaking it Down with KC Rickerd of @milestonesandmotherhood
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In this episode of the Play On Words podcast, host Beth Gaskill welcomes KC Rickerd to dive into the quirks and oddities of the English language, sparked by a viral TikTok video. They explore why certain words are spelled and pronounced the way they are, sharing humorous anecdotes and personal stories along the way. The conversation touches on topics like the origins of words, the science of reading, and the impact of language on childhood education. With a mix of laughter and insight, Beth and KC engage in a lively discussion that highlights the complexities and peculiarities of English.
Takeaways:
- The word 'cue' is just a 'Q' with four silent letters.
- Why do we hammer with a hammer, rake with a rake, but sweep with a broom?
- The English language loves turning nouns into verbs.
- Misheard Monday is a segment where people share funny misheard lyrics and words.
- The science of reading includes understanding word morphology.
- The word 'fridge' is spelled with a 'D' to maintain the 'j' sound.
- The pronunciation of words can change based on their origins.
- The concept of 'survivor bias' in education and language learning.
- The importance of teaching reading skills based on research and evidence.
- Humor and personal stories make language learning engaging.
Keywords:
English language, word origins, TikTok, reading science, language education, humor, podcast, KC Rickerd, Beth Gaskill, Play On Words
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
The word cue is just a cue with four silent letters waiting their turn. Okay, that that comes from, so we kept the original spelling of that because like if we're like cueing or something is cued.
00:00:11
Speaker
So those letters those letters seem like they're not doing anything, but they actually are. Are they though? please Play On Words. This is Play On Words from Big City Readers.
00:00:24
Speaker
And this is Beth. Okay, so why do we hammer with a hammer, rake with a rake, but sweep with a broom?
Viral TikTok and Language Quirks
00:00:33
Speaker
This question has been...
00:00:36
Speaker
making everyone on TikTok go mad in the last few weeks. and Casey and I decided we need to dive in and talk about, first of all, this viral video and everyone's comments about why the English language is very confusing. English, explain yourself. um Maybe we'll figure out a way to explain it in this episode, or maybe we'll just... Have a little
Guest Introduction: Casey from Milestones and Motherhood
00:01:01
Speaker
laugh together. So I missed that. This is the Play on Words podcast. And I'm so excited to have the very funny, very tall Casey from, is it mother milestones and motherhood? I always want to say motherhood and milestones. Really?
00:01:20
Speaker
Yes. And when I was typing your email, I mean, I know what I see it every day. i literally like watching your content every day. I'm like, I can never remember which word goes first. Maybe motherhood. Maybe there's a reason from the English language that motherhood should have gone first.
00:01:34
Speaker
Maybe we're going to discover that right now. Oh my gosh. What a good segue. Okay, so can we play this viral sound? you think that you're, yeah, you know. I think we need to. And for the record, Beth is the expert on this and I'm just here for a Miss Heard Monday good time.
00:01:52
Speaker
That's it. That's right. Yeah, you do. Wait, can you, was sorry, can you can you tell people who you are? I did not do a good job introducing you. No, that's okay. I'm Casey. I'm from Milestones and Motherhood on Instagram and you'll be listening to this on my podcast as well, which is more than Milestones. And yeah, so I do something called Miss Heard Monday.
Miss Heard Monday: Language Misunderstandings
00:02:09
Speaker
Okay.
00:02:09
Speaker
probably like every other, every third week. And people can submit like the the song lyric they had wrong, the word that they were misspeaking, like so all stuff like that. And it is hilarious and it never fails to like rock me and I learned something new. So when I saw this TikTok, I was like, oh my God, we we have to do this. so And you, I have to say, okay, like, so i'm I find sometimes I'm like, you you do such a good job balancing like sharing tips about kids and also like doing fun stuff.
Balancing Education and Entertainment in Social Media
00:02:42
Speaker
Cause I feel like on big city readers, sometimes I'll be like sharing something. I'm like, ah, people don't care. They're like, give me a language tip. But you like, I'm like, Oh, is it time for misheard Monday? Oh, I love that. Thank you. Well, I feel like too, it's just like,
00:02:55
Speaker
I need the relief. Like I need to laugh sometimes and just like come to social media and not have it feel like heavy and like all educational and all that stuff. So it's, it's good for me too. And I, I genuinely enjoy like connecting with everyone like that, but I can't, I can't, I can't wait. to fight it
00:03:16
Speaker
Okay. Roll that beautiful bean footage. Do you know that? Do you know that? ride playing it I'll play it. I think I have it right here. I can play. oh Okay. You do it. You do it. So his Tik TOK handle is turned Tim O Teo T U R N T T I M O T E O. Just to give credit where it's due. Here we go.
00:03:40
Speaker
I would open my Tik TOK, but I'm not allowed to right now. sweet with a broom But if you told me to broom with a broom and it sounds crazy, but we rake with a rake shovel with a shovel.
English Language Inconsistencies
00:03:50
Speaker
We mow with a mower.
00:03:52
Speaker
We drill with a drill. We hammer with a hammer. But then we bake cookies and cook bacon and then sweep with a broom instead of brooming with a broom. So, yeah. why Why is that? And we have 25...
00:04:06
Speaker
thought you were gonna we're going to pick the top ones i bet you're going to say, and we're going to read all of them. We're going read every single one. Beth is going to try to explain some of it to us. I am going to try some of it, but mostly I was just like crying laughing last night trying to screenshot my favorite ones. And I was like... Like, okay, what was the dump one?
00:04:27
Speaker
i and well ah Where is it? ah Why is it called taking a dump? You're literally leaving it behind. From from now on, I will broom my floors. Wait, but this one I think you could answer. Why is there a D in fridge, but not in refrigerator?
00:04:44
Speaker
ah That is a good question. so the there is a reason, but I feel like it's too boring to start with this. Okay, never mind. Yeah, we'll circle go back. Why? Okay, maybe this one.
00:04:54
Speaker
Naked is pronounced naked, but baked is pronounced baked instead of naked. Why is that?
00:05:03
Speaker
Bomb comb tomb. All said different. Oh, bomb comb tomb. Okay. I can't explain that. Well, okay. Oh my gosh. There's so many different directions I want to go. So, okay. So linguistically, so,
Science of Reading and Language Learning
00:05:17
Speaker
okay. Let me give like a backstory of like how I think I started connecting with you was because you were posting about English being confusing with your first grader, right? Mm-hmm.
00:05:29
Speaker
Yes. And I'm like, oh I love to explain this. But it's really hard to do it in like tiny moments. But essentially... There is a there is a body of research known as the science of reading research that talks about like these major components in learning to read. And one of them is called morphology, which is kind of like the study of where a word comes from.
00:05:52
Speaker
And it sounds like confusing to do this, to talk about it with adults, but kids learning in kindergarten and first grade like from the first time actually can understand this really well. So refrigerator comes from the Latin origin. But but see what I mean? Like this is like so – you're so much more fun than me. Wait, but does this also relate to why a block of cheese is really just a loaf of milk?
00:06:20
Speaker
That one don't have an answer for. But okay, like most of the reason that like words are spelled differently or like said differently is because of the origin of the word. So like my favorite example of this is actually the word healthy. um Because if you look at the word healthy, it's spelled H-E-A-L-T-H-Y. But...
00:06:44
Speaker
but E-A, we typically know says E, so that kind of seems like it be healthy, but the root of that word is heal. So we honor the original spelling, but we change the pronunciation.
00:07:00
Speaker
decided that was a good idea? i don't know. That's a great question. don't know. That's really confusing.
00:07:13
Speaker
You're right. i don't know who specifically decides it. So actually, the broom one.
The Transformation of Nouns to Verbs in English
00:07:19
Speaker
Okay, so why do we hammer with a hammer, rake with a rake, but not broom with a broom? This is like kind of my favorite kind of weird because English loves turning nouns into verbs. Text, like text me or Google it or hammer it. But broom never made that jump. The original verb has always been sweep from Old English. So it kind of like stuck around. But in certain dialects, people do say to broom. But um sweep is like what won the popular vote here.
00:07:48
Speaker
oh interesting. ok I'm going to read a couple funny ones and then I have another. Why do people say tuna fish but not chicken bird? I don't know. That's weird, right?
00:08:01
Speaker
We also, all this speaks to what you were just saying. We also blend, refrigerate, mix and toast, but we don't oven or stove. so Oh, someone said stove is actually a verb that's heating something.
00:08:14
Speaker
The word Q, the word Q is just a Q with four silent letters waiting their turn. Okay, that that comes from, like, if we, so we kept the original spelling of that because, like, if we're, like, queuing or something is queued.
00:08:28
Speaker
So those letters, those letters seem like they're not doing anything, but they actually are. Are they, though? If they were there, it would be the same. if we're If we're waiting on the waiter, doesn't that make us the waiter?
00:08:45
Speaker
I, oh my God, wait. Mint, lint, tint, hint, bent. Somehow don't rhyme with pint. yeah So good. Actually, my favorite one is,
00:08:57
Speaker
is it it, how come all of the, the letter C does three different jobs in Pacific? Yeah. why What is that? I know you know the answer. i know, but I want to hear it. We need to know and why do we pronounce the G in longevity twice?
Pronunciation and Linguistic Explorations
00:09:15
Speaker
Okay. So the longevity one is interesting because it's actually, there's two schools of thought here. So it's actually pronounced longevity. Like you're not supposed to say longevity.
00:09:27
Speaker
It's longevity. Okay. So that one, we're kind of saying it wrong. yeah okay Amelia Bedelia going in nuts right now. this is car but ah But it's like a lot of words. Actually, remember being little and like saying hanger. And my dad was like, it's not hanger, it's hanger. And it's like that NG sound is like a bit like more nasally than the G by itself. So it's long. Yeah.
00:09:59
Speaker
Like lasagna. It's longevity, not long-gevity. And then the second G, okay, this is this might this might rock your world.
00:10:11
Speaker
So did you know that G usually says g unless it's followed by an I, E, or Y? Of course I didn't know that. i don't I'm fighting for my life out here. I don't even know how I got a doctorate degree at this point. I'm like, do I even speak English? Why is it?
00:10:31
Speaker
This is really funny because whenever I like talk about words and like teaching kids to read the right way, people are like, I have a doctorate degree and I turned out fine. And like. And it's like, yeah, because like the the whole point of like teaching people the right way is that it's like, so everyone has the same fair shot, but it's like, so, you know, like some people are like, yeah, you, you figured it out because you had access to more resources, not you in particular, but, yeah but like that it's like, okay, so what if we just taught every kid, no matter if they had like parents who went to
Teaching Reading with Word Origins
00:11:03
Speaker
college and could pay for a tutor or like,
00:11:06
Speaker
have a single parent who works two jobs and only sees them for 10 minutes before they put them to bed. Like, what if we just started right from the beginning and we're like, this is the word family, i N T. And most of these words are from the Germanic root. and stay consistent with short I and NT, int. But pint is really actually interesting. It came from French Latin background and had a long eye but it shifted over the years. But we wanted to honor its original roots, so the spelling stays the same. And then you go into like an activity and like it makes it stick. So like to us, it like feels like so much extra work, but to like kids that are five, they're like, eating this up. It's like yeah two different histories, but...
ADHD and Language Processing
00:11:58
Speaker
It's like you know two different countries and we're wearing the same style, but like such different lives are lived, you know? So this is like, basically, don't know if you know this about me. Probably not. Although I think it's I've talked about it a little bit. My brother and I both have ADHD and I got diagnosed in adulthood.
00:12:16
Speaker
He has been diagnosed because he had the more like boy typical presentation where like he, he was disruptive with his hyperactivity. Whereas my hyperactivity was very similar to like,
00:12:27
Speaker
females where it's like my hyperactivity was all in my brain, but I was like an excellent student. I had all of whatever. So I didn't get diagnosed until adulthood, but I have always had like, I like stim with like movie quotes or like certain like sayings or songs. And like, that's how him and I have always like communicated. Right. And all I can think about as you're explaining this is that scene from Talladega Nights where have you, please tell me you've seen that.
Borrowed Words in English
00:12:55
Speaker
Remind me. This was like 20 years ago. No, Talladega Nights is Will Ferrell. And, um, 20 years ago. Was it? Oh my God. It better not be that old. I will be done. If it's 20 years old.
00:13:07
Speaker
Don't tell me what you find on Google. It's 2006.
00:13:12
Speaker
That is so freaking depressing. Oh my God. Okay. That is 20 years ago next in two months. Well, all I can think about is that scene where he's like, let me find it where he he's the, he's French and he's like, Will Ferrell's trying to to come at him with like what Americans came up with and like French fries. And he's like, that's from France. He's like pizza. He's like, that's from Italy. This is reminding me of that. like we Do we have anything that we came up with or did we just steal everything from other countries? That's a good question. Let's look. Many words come from America. Prove it.
00:13:53
Speaker
I don't believe it. This is just, oh, like avocado, chocolate, coyote, and tobacco.
00:14:03
Speaker
don't believe that. so yeah I know. Yeah, avocado. Those aren't, they're not even from here. Why would we come up? google That was a Google search. don't Don't quote me. That was like a quick Google search because I don't really have like a list of what words are from America.
00:14:20
Speaker
I don't believe that there's any. That is my. actually don't either. feel like we have nothing. We have nothing. We have nothing to offer anyone. Okay. Wait, hold on. Let's find some more good ones. Okay.
00:14:33
Speaker
Okay. So do you want to know why? the the Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry. No, the the the naked and baked. Yes. Yes, I do. Wait, can you guess?
English Spelling Rules and Anomalies
00:14:44
Speaker
Because I feel like if you think about it, you can figure it out.
00:14:46
Speaker
Wow, am I such a teacher? That was so rude. No, no, no. I'm going to try. I'm going to Take a guess. Why is naked baked? Why are they pronounced differently? One is of verb and one is there. it Does it have anything to do with a silent E? I love the silent E. I perseverate on the silent E. If I see an E, I'm like, oh, are you silent or are you not? But I don't think that's right. are just like a first grader. Do you know that every single first grader, once when they learn the magic E rule, which is, ah for for the listeners that don't know it, it's like that usually when we're learning to read, we learn CBC words, consonant, vowel, consonants, and the vowel in the middle is short, like cat, but if we, or kit, let's go with K-I-T, kit, kit. Then we add an E and it makes that first vowel long, which I want to say long and short vowels are very confusing for people.
00:15:38
Speaker
Even adults think that long means you just say it longer, but it's a different sound. Long means it says its name. So I, when it's short, says if I, when it's long says I. Um, so that E at the end is silent, but it makes the first vowel say its name. So like kit becomes kite.
00:15:56
Speaker
Pot becomes pote. Bits becomes bite. Bits becomes bite. Exactly. You would be thinking of that one. um I mean, because of your line of work. um
00:16:08
Speaker
It's been a while since I got bit, actually. Really? Yeah. yeah Hair pulls are more common for me. but Yeah. Okay. So it doesn't have anything. Well, it sort of does have to do with magic E. So baked comes from the verb bake.
00:16:23
Speaker
Bake. And then we add the E-D. So that magic E in bake makes the A long. But when we add the E-D, the E stays silent and the long vowel stays. So it's baked. But naked does not come from the word nake. It's a different word. So it it actually comes from the Old English word meaning like workout clothes. um Really? Yeah. um How did we get to birthday suit then? Yeah.
00:16:54
Speaker
know okay wait i have some really good i have some really good ones here slaughter and laughter is that the same kind of thing that one's a verb and one's have you seen have you seen that that video on instagram that's like what's one word that you've pronounced the wrong way and it's affected you your whole life someone said laughter he said man's laughter oh god I would never recover. i would never recover. that was pen i
00:17:25
Speaker
i once went to Cold Stone when I was like in eighth grade, and I ordered a strawberry banana rendivus. Instead of rendezvous, was it supposed to be? That's rendezvous. Did you know that's how you spell rendezvous?
00:17:37
Speaker
I did know that, but I might not have known that at that age. But I love that you sounded it out. yeah I think about it. i think about it every day. oh my God. That's why I love Miss Heard Monday so much because there's so many things that I'm like, that's the kind of thing i I would think about every night as I fell asleep, like forevermore because I just wouldn't be able to shake it. But is there something about slaughter and laughter? Yeah.
00:18:03
Speaker
it's It's about where it comes from. But it's it's just like about like the root of the word. And like so it's like we keep the original spelling, but the pronunciation changes.
00:18:16
Speaker
But one that I think is interesting is why do we drink a drink but don't food a food? Yeah, why is that? Um, well, drink started as a verb originally.
00:18:29
Speaker
um it meant to swallow liquid and then later it became a noun, like a drink, something you drink. So verb came first, noun followed. i think, um, um i sometimes I'm like, well, i should really like have my like notes with me at all times. But how you ever, like, this is like Okay, like who decided the word for words was going to be words. That's what I don't know.
00:18:56
Speaker
Like who decided a word? Yeah. i think that i think that all the time about like parenting that like you could like tell your kids that like this water bottle is actually called.
00:19:07
Speaker
like a slushy. And yeah so that whenever they like their friends say they have slushy, they're like, Oh yeah. you And like, or and like how where used to you could tell them that it's illegal to drive with the car lights on at night and they'll believe your parents tell you that. Of course they did. And I genuinely thought that until a misheard Monday. And I had to fact check it with a friend of ours that's a state trooper because I'm like, get out. i My parents would never. Why would they lie about that? He was like, yeah, no, it's not illegal. He said he said we might use it as a reason to pull you over if there is – if something else about – Like the vehicle is suspect. Like if they can see in and they see something weird happening, they can use that as maybe like kind of a justification. But he said that in and of itself is not legal. Just like I thought it was illegal to drive with flip-flops on until like three years ago. It's not?
00:19:55
Speaker
yeah Sure not. Sure not. Sure not. There are so many things that like I thought, why did our parents lie to us so much? i know. I know. Just say that you're having trouble seeing with the light on. You don't have to scare the crap out of us. Like I thought, I genuinely thought that I was going to drown if I swam.
00:20:13
Speaker
Within 20 minutes of eating? Yeah, no. I just would have gotten a cramp or like had a stomach ache or a thrown up or something. Like what? where That's where the anxiety started. Really? Like if you if you think about that.
00:20:24
Speaker
Do you want to talk about starting anxiety? Yeah. This is so embarrassing. And also the sun is like so on my face. I feel like it looks like a really good glow though. But okay. Do you remember?
00:20:36
Speaker
how old are you? 30, 36. thirty thirty six Okay. We're the same. So we, I feel like in that era, there was a lot of talking about starving children in Africa.
00:20:48
Speaker
Yes. Why? Why? Why? i don't know. And also, oh, go ahead. Go ahead. No, go ahead. I was going to say, Truly, i can still vividly recall the feeling of them.
00:21:03
Speaker
Do teachers still make kids read paragraphs out loud in class in a rotation?
Critique of Reading Aloud in Education
00:21:08
Speaker
Because like, you know, like good teachers, you'd be practicing it and you'd like have yours nailed down and then someone else would read into your paragraph. And now all of a sudden you're shifting last minute or like, or even like stand up and tell me something about yourself. Like, are you so a serial killer? Who does that to people still?
00:21:23
Speaker
You know what's weird? I tell this to parents all the time when they're like, I talk mostly to first grade parents because I feel like that's where most of like the anxiety in school starts like with like reading and writing. these There's so much pressure and they're like, you know, they're really good at reading. like They can do it, but they are so stressed about reading out loud. And I'm like, you know what's weird is that like we don't read out loud as adults. like You don't actually have to be good at reading out loud.
00:21:49
Speaker
It's an unnecessary practice to have to be able to read out loud in front of your class. The teacher should hear you read out loud to know what you can do, like in a one-on-one setting. But it's unnecessary for a child to read out loud front of a group. All that does is like make nerves. Unless unless you're in like ah working on public speaking, thing like that. But for reading, that is the unnecessary practice. There's no research behind that being... um helpful for kids to develop good reading skills. Why did they do it then? What was, I would love to hear the rationale from like an old school teacher.
00:22:23
Speaker
oh my gosh. If you can get an old school teacher to like calmly and confidently talk about the reason they do something without getting triggered and like mad that like other younger generations have changed. Mm-hmm.
00:22:39
Speaker
Please, I'll have them on my podcast too. But like anytime I say like, here's the best research to make sure that every child learns to read successfully. They're like, well, I've been doing it differently for 30 years.
00:22:50
Speaker
How long have you? And I'm like 20. And then they're like fighting that I was like, there's no way. and I'm like, thank you. larry you fifteen yeah It's literally the Facebook grandmas. You should take a couple minutes and just peruse the comments on Facebook on some of my posts. Just...
00:23:07
Speaker
so angry. They're so mad. They're so mad at me. And they're like, we did this without... And I'm like, right, but we know better now. And you also... like I can give you the whole history on why you didn't do tummy time with your kids. There is a reason for it. There's a reason why, like well, we didn't do tummy time is not a valid argument. And that's because things are totally different now. There's the back to sleep campaign. There's tummy...
00:23:29
Speaker
What? Like, just because you don't know you don't know the newest stuff doesn't mean that you're still right and everybody else is wrong. Like, that's wild behavior. Well, and that's similar to what I was – like, we were just talking about that, like, people being like, well, I have my PhD and I didn't learn to read like this. And it's like, that is – what is that called? Like, the what about you? Survivor bias. Yeah. Survivor bias. Or the bean soup theory. I was just – I was just going to go on a rant about this in stories yesterday and I stopped myself. That is the bean soup theory. Like in
Importance of Effective Reading Education
00:24:00
Speaker
what about me? Like what about me ism? Why?
00:24:03
Speaker
yeah It's so bad. This is what I feel with teachers that I'm like, like, The teachers are like, you are attacking us for not teaching the exact way you want us to teach. I'm like, this isn't about you. This is about kids. And we know that illiteracy is directly related to anxiety, depression, homelessness, incarceration. Like this is about their lives. You are ruining their lives if you are not teaching this way. This isn't about my way. I didn't invent this way. This is just a hundred... years of research and evidence-based practice and science that shows us most kids benefit from learning to read this way. So if you feel offended, that is about you. This is a bean soup. Like wow this is not about you. Can you think about this for a moment and be like, this is about, you know what?
00:24:52
Speaker
this is about kids. It's not about me. Or I'm triggered. Maybe it's time for me to take a year off of teaching and really evaluate if this is what I want to be doing. Totally. But thinking about how that bleeds into every aspect of life too, like if you literally don't have the capacity to take a step back and be like, whoa, I'm like super triggered by this. Why is that? Like, did they actually say something that offended me as a person or threatened me as a person? Or is it that like, I'm just so firm in my stance right now that I'm like,
00:25:16
Speaker
literally unable to see someone else's point of view, like, and doubling down instead of being like, okay, let me look into it too. Like, i really don't get it.
00:25:28
Speaker
i don't either. Okay. Let's circle back. Circle back. Circle back. i Goose equals geese. Moose equals meese. Moose. Why? What? Well, I was going to come back to, well, wait, there's two things. now Since you have ADHD also, I feel like I can say this to you, but like, you know, when you have a tab open in your brain and like people think that people with ADHD like interrupt, but it's like, I have this thing that I can't move on because it's yes sitting there and I have to say it. So I have to go back to the starving children in Africa and anxiety yeah in childhood is that I...
Childhood Anecdotes and Family Dynamics
00:26:00
Speaker
But there was also at that time that we were worried about starving children in Africa. People also were always like talking. I feel like on Arthur, there was an episode where they were like digging a hole and they're like, I'm digging a hole to China. And I thought like you could like dig a hole to China. thing And I thought, you know, like pipe system, all of this is connected. Right. So I used to, i heard the starving children in Africa and that you could dig ahold of China. I knew that piping went underground like sewage, so I used to pull full pour full gallons of milk down the drain. No. Because I thought it was going to the starving children in Africa. my God. That's really sweet, though. That's like the nicest thing I've ever heard. This is what I say when like when people are like,
00:26:43
Speaker
Oh, a deeply feeling kid is not a thing or like a highly sensitive processing. Like that is, that is my, like my example when people are like, my child is just, it's like, that is what highly sensitive processing in a child looks like that. I like could not just hear that and like move on. Like I was like, I have to do something. I would like get up in the middle of the night, pour gallons of milk down the drain because I got caught. and My mom was like, no it's not. No, don't do that. And I was like, well, I just have to try.
00:27:12
Speaker
I've got to give it my all. But also I like sort of had like an interesting childhood because like my, I have eight adopted siblings with special needs and I, my parents took in a hundred foster babies. So like, I think that like my, my eyes were like open to like, this is what we do. We just take care of people.
00:27:34
Speaker
Oh my Wait, you, All of your siblings are adopted? No, I'm the youngest of four biological and then the eight after me are adopted. So there's 12 total?
00:27:45
Speaker
but Yeah. Whoa, that must have been so much fun. Was it like... Oh my God. i have to say like when you share stories about like your whole big family, like going out to dinner, doing family things, I am so like, like not mad jealous, but like I'm like so jealous. Like I'm, I always wanted to have like a huge family. i just like that. That's so cool. That's so cool. it it It is. It is really fun. How many siblings do you have?
00:28:13
Speaker
Uh, two. have an older brother and older sister. Three is a good size. It's not small. Yeah, yeah. yeah i wanted i think like i I love the like the idea of like tons of cousins, tons of... like You know, like that's so special. I have three cousins.
00:28:32
Speaker
Really? yeah total on both on my parents' side. it's like but like But our kids will all have... you know like Now that that next generation, is like 10 kids. Yeah. Already. So they they, Oh my God. I love it.
00:28:47
Speaker
Okay, i do have i do have the fridge. um Then the other tab I had open was fridge that I said I would answer. But then I was like, people are going to think I'm boring. You're so much more fun than me. um Okay, you love this so the big word is refrigerator. think it descended from ah refrigerator, like meaning making it cold. um But then along the lines, Americans were like,
00:29:14
Speaker
That's too long. That sounds like us, doesn't it? Um, and so then we started just calling it a fridge, but, um, again, i don't know who, but we changed the spelling because, um D G e is the sound for J. So fridge, um, is spelled D G E. So if you spelled the word F R I G E, um,
00:29:38
Speaker
It would be like fridge. Why can't we do a J? That's a good question. Then it would be frige because the the silent E would make the I say its name.
00:29:51
Speaker
There you go. There you go. Yeah, you're right. You're right. So actually we fry, it would be fries. If it was a G, cause G usually followed by an IE or Y says, g so F R I G e would be fries.
00:30:03
Speaker
Um, And, yeah. And if it was, like, F-R-Y-G, it'd be, like, Fry-A-G-A. It doesn't really sound like chill, like the part of the word we're looking for. So the D is like the phonics hero, like, I'm here to save the day. We can still make it have that j sound.
00:30:24
Speaker
So we usually use DGE to spell J after a short vowel. So since it's a short vowel, i fridge, think like words like bridge or badge or fudge.
00:30:35
Speaker
So fridge is actually doing the right thing. Refrigerator is the one being weird. Huh. Okay, that makes sense. Now, can we talk about Gooski's Moose Meese so I can close this tab? Wait, is moose doubled meese? No, it's moose.
00:30:53
Speaker
Oh. I think. I didn't even know that. i saw a um I saw mooses. I saw mice? wait why am i so kind Wait, what do you say? i I've never seen a moose. Mooses?
00:31:09
Speaker
Mouse, wait. Oh my God. If there was more than one moose, I don't know what I would say. saw a moose. I don't know. I think moose, that refers to one or many. That's weird. Is it like read and read? Like I read it, I read it. It's spelled the same?
00:31:29
Speaker
I don't know. all right. Well, we can I can do some research on that. House equals home, so mouse equals Yeah. Well, that like deer and sheep and fish.
00:31:41
Speaker
Wait, there's a lot that are really confusing. Ox equals oxen, but not box equals boxen. Well, that's because like those words, okay, words like that or like comb and tomb, is like that's because those are like different words. They're not just like built from the spelling pattern. They're like built from different...
00:31:59
Speaker
from different languages well what about freeze to frozen squeeze to squozen oh my god wait okay hold on these so good read more right one second this is a good one you ever notice the pronunciation of 22 33 44 55 and so on say all the numbers do we say 11 why do we say 11 instead like that i don't know why do we say eleven instead of like one do one that i don't know i this is so interesting okay park in a driveway drive in a parkway oh why is a walkie talkie called a walkie talkie but a vacuum isn't called a pushy sucky hold on uh which orange came first like is an orange and orange because it's orange or like is the color orange because an orange is orange what makes orange orange
00:32:49
Speaker
Kansas is Kansas, but Arkansas Arkansas. Why isn't Arkansas? I got ah a brain buster for you. You'll know the answer to this. I'm sure, though. I don't know. I feel like I'm failing at a lot of these. You're not. Canoes is pronounced canoes. But how do you say volcano?
00:33:05
Speaker
Volcanoes. Wait, what? Wait. Wait. What's the question? You know when you read something too many times and it starts to not look like a word anymore?
English Plural Forms and Family Traditions
00:33:15
Speaker
Canoe and volcano.
00:33:17
Speaker
Canoes is pronounced canoes, but how do you say volcanoes? You mean like why isn't it volcanoes? Yeah. Well, volcano comes, I think, from an Italian word. course it does. Sure doesn't come from us.
00:33:32
Speaker
i though It ends in a consonant O, and that... Like is words like tomato, hero, potato.
00:33:43
Speaker
English, I think is the one that usually adds the ES to make it plural. Like, so it's like volcanoes, but because English is chaotic, did you know this? Both spellings of volcano OS and OES are accepted.
00:33:59
Speaker
Didn't know that. Yeah. Accepted though. What does that mean? Like, like in the dictionary? Yeah, also cancel. Cancel is one of those. Like canceled is, you can spell it with two L's or one. Really?
00:34:12
Speaker
Canceled, not cancel. You know, Miriam Webster has gotten a little sassy with me on over Miss Herd Mondays. I'm serious. The Miriam? Yeah, the hurt the Instagram. She's alive?
00:34:26
Speaker
what know about that, but whoever runs their social media page has like sassed off to me a little bit and made a whole, a whole post that my community sent so many times and they swear that it was directed at us. There's no, there's no official tag, but like I, I, it was stuff we'd had recently really covered in, in, um, misheard Monday and they created a carousel like sassing off about like, okay guys, get it together. This is why, mm-hmm.
00:34:57
Speaker
that's how you know you've made it that the dictionary talks about you imagine imagine that's that's my claim to fame when i'm gone miriam okay so actually i just was like writing down because sometimes you know like you have to like write down the word i just wrote down canoe and volcano canoe is spelled vowel vowel at the end oe volcano is not spelled oe that's why they're pronounced differently Okay.
00:35:20
Speaker
Volcano is n O at the end. Canoe is o E at the end. So, okay so that's why when you add, when you make them plural, they are different. Why, what about rough through and dough all being? oh I love that one.
00:35:37
Speaker
Um, much like I love that. This is hurting my brain. I don't know how much i have. I'm going to have to get off in like five minutes so that my i can i can function and and work for the rest of the day. the funny You know what the funny thing is is after this is that I have to go teach a baby language class where I like teach parents how to teach their babies different sounds.
00:36:00
Speaker
Oh, no. So I'm going to be like, guys, I actually don't know. um so okay, the letters O-U-G-H, I like to kind of think of them as like a friend who who reinvents themselves every couple of months.
00:36:16
Speaker
In rough, it says off. In through, it says ooh. And in doe, it says oh All the same spelling, three different vibes. This is not your like your child or your fault for not being able to understand it. They just all have totally different language roots. It's kind of like...
00:36:32
Speaker
Three kids that like are going to the same school and in the same class, but they all have different families. So, you know, like they all do different things for different. They all do different things over winter break for what holidays they celebrate. So, but they're all like getting the same lesson in first grade and they all play together.
00:36:49
Speaker
But the spelling froze hundreds of years ago. It's kind of like, like if you like think about the traditions that you do, you're like, i actually don't really know where that came from. But our family, like sometime along the way, started doing this. In my family, one of our deep, deep, deep family traditions, it has to do with a piece of rubber poop. I just know your mom was tired. I know your mom was so tired at the end the day. My mom is the craziest one My mom is so silly. My mom will put, we'll be out shopping currently this day and age 2025 and she will, without fail, she goes into a public bathroom and she comes out and she wears a toilet seat cover around her neck and she goes, they were giving away these Dickies for free. Like that, like it was a style. Or she like on purpose tucks toilet paper into her pants to see if somebody's like, oh ma'am, you have toilet paper coming out of your pants. Oh my God. I love it. I love He's ridiculous. Okay. But the poop thing actually generated like recently. And it is, it I am not kidding when I say this is our family's longest standing tradition.
00:37:53
Speaker
And okay. So like, maybe like, yeah. 15 years ago because my sister was nine months pregnant. She was due on Christmas and she like peed in her pants laughing at this.
00:38:04
Speaker
um But she, okay, so my dad gave my little brother, my little brother Ray is autistic and he's like very proud of it. He often calls it awesom-tistic, but he's like the funniest. His sense of humor is very dry. So he, my dad gave ray a racco the game racco like a card game box for christmas and we're like okay you know usually it's like presents from my mom and dad like we don't it's not like oh here's from mom here's from dad like but like it was like oh from dad to ray okay and he opens it and inside of it is not a game but a piece of rubber poop and um and we're all like what and ray and my dad are
00:38:45
Speaker
crying out of breath, laughing, just like so hysterical. And we're like, what is this? And Ray was like, okay, fine. And i guess like 15 years before that, when Ray was like six or seven, he was playing hide and seek in the basement of our old house. And he was in a really good hiding spot and he didn't want to lose it. And he had to go to the bathroom.
00:39:10
Speaker
so so he emptied the rack-o-box and pooped in the rack oh my god this is like i wonder if i'm gonna get in trouble for sharing such a deep personal gas kill family story oh but my god so i guess my dad found it like a couple weeks later and was like what is this and ray was like oh my gosh and he told him the story he's like please don't tell mom my go Because my mom was going to be so mad. And so he didn't. And then like, I, that was just like, that was it. And then 15 years later, my dad remembered it gave Ray this thing. So they told us this story, but then we're like, what do we do with this piece of rubber poop? And it became this weird accidental game where you didn't want to like see the poop. So like, it would like, you know, we like put it in the fridge and be like, mom, can you get us some orange juice? And then like the poop was like sitting on the orange juice.
00:40:02
Speaker
And so then like you would just like have to yell poop. like You got caught. like Oh, the poop is here. And and then like you then had to hide it for someone else to find. And then like that was just that Christmas. And then like it was gone. And then... like I like was remembering my boyfriend at the time. Like I was like telling him this like family story and I was remembering it and I was like, um, Oh my gosh, it's such a funny story. And he was like, you should give your dad that ah poop for Christmas. So I gave my dad a rubber poop for Christmas, like 10 more years later. And then we like, we're like poop. we like started this game. So now every year somebody gifts somebody to poop, but like, you're always like, no matter the holiday now, like it's like not every holiday, but sometimes it's there. And like, so I,
00:40:46
Speaker
I like took this box of memories home like a few like five years ago from Christmas and like I had friends over and I was like telling them about Christmas and blah blah blah and I'm like opening my memory box and I'm like poop. huh And in my dad put in my box of memories, this little rubber poop. And so anyway, that is that is the story of our family.
Conclusion and Future Plans
00:41:11
Speaker
Oh, my God. I love it. I feel like that is literally the perfect spot to end this episode and that we should make a part two of going through all of this all over again.
00:41:20
Speaker
These things. And you know what? I can actually pull out my notes. If you send me specific ones that you have questions on, I'll pull out some notes rather than just be like, well, this one I know the answer to off the top of my head. Okay. We will do a part two. Or maybe we should have our community submit their own and then we can go through them that way.
00:41:38
Speaker
You are so good at everything that you do. Stop it. Oh my God. Okay. This was a amazing. I'm so excited. We're going to do a part two and we're going have to have everybody submit. So start thinking now, guys. You drink a drink, but you don't food your food.
00:41:50
Speaker
Start thinking. And if you see a word like rendivus or man's laughter, write it down say, I got to talk to those those two girls that go off in tangents. I love it. I love it. It's like we share a brain. This is we do this perfect.
00:42:06
Speaker
I love it. Oh my gosh. This was so fun. Such a fun start to my day. Totally. Totally. Oh my God. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. How do we end it? I don't know. We'll see you next time on whoever's podcast you're listening to.
00:42:20
Speaker
both our podcasts.