Language Differences

Today, I was talking with Thimo at lunch, and we were discussing the difficulties of learning each language. I brought up the verb conjugations and pronouns associated with each word. He was telling me that these things are difficult for some Germans even. His example:

• der Junge - "the (male) child" - The pronoun used here is "er" or "he".
• das Mädchen - "the female child" - The pronoun used here is "es" or "it".

Now how does that make sense?

Then he got to his rant about the English language and how many of the same letter combinations have very different pronunciations. Again, he gave me an example. He said pronounce this word:

• "gheoti"

I had no idea how to pronounce it. He said, "But you speak English, don't you?" Well, yes, but I still didn't know how to pronounce it. He offered to help me out.

• "gh" makes an "eff" sound as in enough
• "eo" makes a soft "i" sound as in luncheon
• "ti" makes a "sh" sound as in function

Put them all together, and it is pronounced "fish". English is just as odd as any other language I guess.