The Chaos
Gerald Nolst Trenité

I take it you already know
Of tough and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble, but not you,

On hiccough, thorough, slough and through.
Beware of heard, a dreadful word,
That looks like beard but sounds like bird.

And dead: It's said like bed, not bead
For goodness' sake, don't call it deed!

Watch out for meat and great and threat...
They rhyme with suite and straight and debt.
A moth is not the moth in mother,
Nor both in bother, nor broth in brother.

And here is not a match for there,
Nor dear and fear for bear and pear,

And then there's dose and rose and lose --
Just look them up -- and goose and choose.

A dreadful language? Why, sakes alive!
I'd learned to speak it when I was five.

And yet, to write it, the more I tried, I hadn't learned it at fifty-five.
Gerard Nolst Trenité

Gerald Nolst Trenité wrote the poem "The Chaos"./ Gerald Nolst Trenité is the writer of the poem "The Chaos".

In the poem "The Chaos", the poet indicates the chaos of pronunciation. Despite having same spellings, the words may be pronounced differently, which apparently creates confusion and chaos among the learners.

In the poem "The Chaos", the line "tough and bough and cough and dough" implies that though these words have the same letter combinations in their spelling, they have different pronunciation.

Some words from the poem "The Chaos" that are pronounced differently despite having similar spellings are tough and bough, hiccough and thorough, heard and beard, dead and bead, here and there, dear and bear, rose and lose, goose and choose, etc.

According to the poem "The Chaos", 'heard' is a dreadful word. The poet thinks so, because it is spelled like the word 'beard', but it is pronounced like the word 'bird'.

In the poem "The Chaos", the poet used the expression "For goodness' sake" to express frustration and annoyance as the poet is having troubles with the pronunciation of the words.

In the poem "The Chaos", English is called dreadful by the poet.

In the poem "The Chaos", the poet calls English dreadful as he had not been able to learn English well in fifty years.

According to the poem "The Chaos", the word 'here' does not match with the word 'there', because they are pronounced differently.

According to the poem "The Chaos", the poet was fifty-five years old when he wrote the poem.

According to the poem "The Chaos", the poet learnt to speak English when he was five years old.

According to the poem "The Chaos", the words meat, great and threat rhyme with suite, straight and debt respectively