Thursday, June 28, 2018

Clothes, Closes, Close, Closed

My students often pronounce the word "clothes" with two "s" sounds.  They think it sounds the same as "closes".  I write CLOTHES, CLOSES, CLOSE on the board and explain the difference.  They are always surprised.  


Another difficult thing for Japanese is putting the "d" at the end of close.  It seems that if something is not open here, it must be close. I say no, no, no - if it is not open, it is closeD.




English.  Muzukashi desu.


9 comments:

Jeanie said...

I'm not sure which is harder to learn -- English or Japanese!

Jen L said...

State of being closed occurred in the past ; ). Not so evident to native English speakers, we are just used to hearing it that way.

Anonymous said...

Hi Pamela i dont think i would be good at learning another language ,lol,how interesting the way they want to say it ,hope you have a lovely day my friend xx

Janie said...

That's funny.
I wonder if any of their friends will believe them if they
use the words correctly?

kiwikid said...

Interesting the differences between languages

Carol- Beads and Birds said...

This makes me think of my husband and a discussion we repeatedly over the years have talked about bow, bowl and bull which he pronounces the said way. OK, I guess you have to be there.
xx, Carol

Queeniepatch said...

Unfortunately there are many printed signs for shop owners to hang on the door with the incorrect 'CLOSE'.
You see theses signs everywhere, so the mistake is widespread and imprinted in people's brains.

Leonore Winterer said...

We used to dedicate whole lessons so that 'th' sound when I was learning English in school...I can see why it's difficult for your students as well!

Von said...

It's so hard to explain these things to our students! Sometimes I just have to shrug and say, "Crazy English!" Lol!