Friday, July 25, 2008

Wordplay Giveaway

Words, words, words...

Beware of heard, a dreadful word,
That looks like beard and 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.
Anonymous

(I found this poem in a book called The English Language by David Crystal.)

Do you ever play with words? Here's a contest that just takes a couple of them. Tell me two words that should rhyme and don't, or two words that do rhyme and shouldn't.

Leave your comment on this post by Monday at midnight, and I'll announce two random winners on Tuesday. The winners will each get a book (with more words to play with!)


Giveaway Details:
I have a whole bookshelf of books that have served their purpose, and need a new home. Once a week I'll have a little contest that matches the category of the book you could win. If you enter (by leaving a comment) I'll put your name in a hat, and if you're lucky, you'll get a book!

11 comments:

Theresa N. said...

Shot me now I'm probably way off,
but I'll give it a try.
Line/time
air/scare
Theresa N
weceno(at)yahoo(dot)com

Hannah said...

one/done
tough/bough
dead/read

What a fun giveaway!!

diane said...

sleigh and play?!
bird and turd?
bluff and slough
sorry, I'll stop now

Unknown said...

I've been teaching my little boy to read this summer. It's been an eye opening experience for this very reason. English is hard!

straight and ate
said and Fred
great and eat

Christie said...

Rate/weight.

Pathethic, but it's all I've got. These children seem to have sapped all brain cells.

ELLOUISESTORY said...

Fun game. My husband and I are enjoying it - in fact its hard to stop.
flirt/blurt
clock/crock
pine/whine
won/one
sight/cite
mime/lime

Alessandra said...

I'll give it a try:
son/sun
great/pear

Alessandra
outofblue1[at]gmail.com

Bev said...

ok, all my little brain cells are on vacation -- as soon as I read this, the only thing I could think of was that NOTHING rhymes with orange!

(too many days of 90+ degree heat!!)

great post Marty

Anonymous said...

love/move
blood/good/food
foul/ghoul/soul

This was fun!
Thanks for the brain puzzle.

doot65{at}comcast[dot]net
Elizabeth

Keri said...

True Bamboo Canoe Bayou Review

Plaid Egad

Sean Gone

My Brother is deaf, and when he reads the words from a page, he isn't sounding them out (it took me a while to realize that he obviously didn't know the actual sounds and was reading the words as a 'whole' symbol).

The rhyming thing is a difficult thing for deaf people when the words are spelled so differently from one another.
I couldn't understand why at times, my brother refused to acknowledge that two specific words actually rhymed. Then I learned to spell.

Fun stuff Marty!

Travelin'Oma said...

I love your answers! Thanks for playing along. One more day, and we'll have a winner.