Hi,

I am cofused between the pronounciation of these words.

country and count

they have same letters cou

Mahdi

The ou in country is pronounced like what we commonly call "the short u." It's the vowel sound in words like but and run.

The ou in count is a diphthong. It is pronounced like the ow in now.

Sorry to butt in...

But what I think Mahdi is asking about is why isn't country pronounced with the sound ou as in count or vice versa. I think he is saying so because he finds both words have the same letters i.e. C-O-U-N-T but the pronunciation is different.

Well, let's see if that's what he means.

Yes. That's what I meant.

I'm afraid it's much too long an answer to post here on the GE, my friend. You should find a book on the history of the English language if you really want to know.

We have an expression in English: "Too many cooks spoil the broth." It means that when too many people get involved in a project or some such thing, the situation ends up getting very complicated, and there are usually all sorts of mistakes made. That basically descibes why the English spelling system is seemingly so illogical and difficult to master.

It's funny . . . I remember how frustrated I felt when I started learning how to read and write in Arabic. The lack of written vowels made me crazy. I just don't know why somebody or some group of people way back when decided that they didn't need to account for all the vowel sounds in the written form of the language. Very strange! Do you know why that's the case?

Thanks Richarad

Mahdi