I enjoy reading aloud. I started when my son was an infant. He used to toddle around the house hugging a book the size of his torso, then plop himself into my lap. He’s an adult now, but I still read out loud, even when only the mutt is in the house.
I read aloud because I comprehend better – and because it reveals the accidental rhythms, odd intonations and peculiar pronunciations that occur only when you put your voice to words on a page and blow them into the air.
Here are a few word surprises that I stumbled upon recently as I read aloud to my dog:
- “You will need some archivists’ supplies.” – Slow down as you near the end of that sentence. The transition between those last two words required a series of s’s that sound suspiciously similar to a snake.
- “She used a felt tip pen to write the note.” – Say the middle three words quickly and they sound like one: “feltipen.” Say them slowly – correctly – and it’s “Felt. Tip. Pen.”
- “The youths ran wild.” – Unlike the word “clothes,” “youths” has nothing to help an out-loud reader navigate from the th to the s. So you have to find a way to pronounce ths as one. Hint: Using a mirror helps.
- “Let’s meet at the Fifth Third Bank Pavilion.” – You’ve probably heard people pronounce it “Fithird.” That’s lazy. This is correct: Say “Fifth,” then pause for a millisecond, and say “Third.” That’s two th’s in a row!
- “They lived in Worcestershire, England.” – It’s not “Wor-chest-er” or “Wooster-shire,” I discover when I looked it up. It’s “Worse-ster-shire.”
- “Isthmuses are everywhere.” – One isthmus is hard enough to say. Make it plural and you’d wish you’d missed isthmuses altogether.
- “There were plural rural jurors.” – OK, occasionally, I make up a sentence just for the pleasure of reading it aloud.
Neil Chethik, aka the Grammar Gourmet, is executive director of the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning (http://www.carnegiecenterlex.org) and author of “FatherLoss” and “VoiceMale.” The Carnegie Center offers writing classes and seminars for businesses and individuals. Contact Chethik at neil@carnegiecenterlex.org or 859-254-4175.