Well, here's a challenge for you, have a look at these words,

好吧，這是對你的挑戰，看看這些詞。

what do they have in common and what don't they have in common?

他們有什麼共同點，有什麼不共同點？

Have you got it? Here's a clue. Listen and watch again.

你有嗎？這裡有一個線索。再聽一遍，再看一遍。

What they have in common is that they all contain the same sound.

它們的共同點是，它們都包含相同的聲音。

A long ee. And what they don't have in common is the spelling,

一個長的 "e"。而他們沒有的共同點是拼寫。

the same sound spelt in six different ways.

同一個音以六種不同的方式拼寫。

Thank you, English!

謝謝你，英國人!

Now I've got that out of my system.

現在我已經從我的系統中得到了這個消息。

Is there a way to make sense of the English language's inability to

有沒有一種方法可以使英語的無力感

agree on spelling and pronunciation? First, let's look at some numbers.

在拼寫和發音上達成一致？首先，讓我們看一下一些數字。

English has twenty six letters, the alphabet, these are the symbols

英語有26個字母，即字母表，這些是符號

we use to write English. However, English has more sounds than letters,

我們用來書寫英語。然而，英語的聲音比字母多。

so we use another set of symbols to represent the sounds.

所以我們用另一套符號來表示聲音。

There are more than 40 of these.

其中有40多個。

The long ee sound is represented by this symbol.

長ee的聲音用這個符號表示。

And when it comes to writing, in all there are over 70 combinations

而說到寫作，總共有70多種組合。

of letters that reflect the sounds of English. For example,

反映英語發音的字母。比如說。

as we saw the sound ee can be written in six different ways. Why is this?

正如我們所看到的，聲音ee可以用六種不同的方式書寫。這是為什麼呢？

English vocabulary has many origins from Latin and Greek,

英語詞彙有許多來自拉丁語和希臘語的淵源。

Norse, Norman, French, Anglo-Saxon and other world languages.

挪威語、諾曼語、法語、盎格魯-薩克遜語和其他世界語言。

Often the original spellings were kept or only slightly adjusted.

通常情況下，原始的拼寫被保留下來，或者只是稍作調整。

So we end up with a wide collection of vocabulary,

是以，我們最終得到了一個廣泛的詞彙集合。

pronunciation and spelling.

發音和拼寫。

For hundreds of years, there have been different systems proposed to

數百年來，一直有不同的系統被提議用於

reform English spelling so that it more closely matches pronunciation.

改革英語拼寫，使之與發音更接近。

But so far none of these have been adopted. So for the foreseeable future,

但到目前為止，這些都沒有被採納。所以在可預見的未來。

we just have to accept it and look for what patterns we can.

我們只需接受它，並尋找我們能找到的模式。

Despite what you may think, there are some patterns in English spelling.

儘管你可能認為，英語拼寫有一些規律。

Let's go back to the spelling of the long ee sound.

讓我們再來看看長ee音的拼寫。

Whenever you see double e in the spelling within a word,

每當你在一個詞內的拼寫中看到雙e。

that will always be [ee], for example: squeeze, between, thirteen.

這將永遠是[ee]，例如：擠壓，之間，十三。

At the end of single syllable words ee is also pronounced [ee]:

在單音節詞的結尾處，ee也被讀成[ee]。

bee, free, three.

蜜蜂，自由，三。

When you have a word with more than one syllable which ends in ee

當你有一個超過一個音節的詞以ee結尾時

and that last syllable is stressed, ee is also pronounced [ee]:

而最後一個音節是重音，ee也讀作[ee]。

agree, degree, settee.

同意，學位，沙發。

But if that last syllable is not stressed,

但如果最後一個音節沒有強調。

then the pronunciation is a little different. It's a shorter e: coffee, committee.

那麼發音就有點不同。它是一個較短的e：咖啡，委員會。

So there is a fairly regular pronunciation of the letters e e.

是以，字母e e的發音相當有規律。

And one other useful way to predict an [ee] sound is what's known as

還有一種預測[ee]音的有用方法是所謂的

'the magic e'.

'神奇的E'。

If the word ends in this pattern:- e consonant e:

如果該詞以這種模式結尾：- e 輔音 e。

concede, delete, these,

認輸，刪除，這些。

the e at the end of the word is silent, but like magic,

詞尾的e是無聲的，但像魔術一樣。

it makes the vowel sound before the consonant long.

它使輔音前的元音變長。

Compare pet and Pete.

比較寵物和皮特。

But this doesn't work if the consonant is r,

但如果輔音是r，這就不行了。

then the pronunciation is [air]: there, where,

那麼讀音是[air]：那裡，哪裡。

or [ear]: here, austere.

或[耳]：這裡，肅殺。

The long ee sound is also commonly pronounced when the spelling has

當拼寫有 "e "的時候，長e的發音也很常見。

the letters e a, like in the words: beach, cream, feast.

字母e a，如單詞：海灘、奶油、盛宴。

But I'm afraid there are a few exceptions here as well,

但我擔心這裡也有一些例外。

like: head, health, swear.

像：頭，健康，發誓。

  You may be familiar with the guide to spelling that goes:

你可能很熟悉拼寫指南的內容。

'I before E except after C'

"I在E之前，C之後除外

Well there are a lot of exceptions to that rule,

嗯，這個規則有很多例外。

but the one thing we do know is that when you do have e i after c,

但我們知道的一件事是，當你在c後有e i時。

that is also pronounced with the long ee sound: receipt, deceive, ceiling.

也髮長ee的音：receive, deceive, ceiling。

And some common words, spelt with i e are also pronounced as

而一些常見的單詞，以i e拼寫的也讀作

[ee]: believe, field, piece. But many aren't: pie, friend, quiet.

[ee]：相信，場，片。但很多不是：派，朋友，安靜。

So where does all this leave us?

那麼，這一切讓我們在哪裡？

Well, yes, English spelling is confusing and complicated,

嗯，是的，英語拼寫是混亂和複雜的。

but it does have some consistent patterns as we've seen with the [ee]sound.

但它確實有一些一致的模式，正如我們所看到的[ee]音。

But all of those patterns do have some exceptions.

但是所有這些模式確實有一些例外。

Unfortunately, there are no rules that cover everything.

不幸的是，沒有任何規則可以涵蓋一切。

There is no simple key to unlock English spelling.

沒有簡單的鑰匙來解開英語拼寫。

And what about the word key? It has the [ee] sound at the end.

那麼鑰匙這個詞呢？它在結尾處有[ee]的音。

Are there any rules or guidelines we can learn from that?

是否有任何規則或準則可以讓我們從中學習？

Well, yes, and this one is one hundred percent certain.

嗯，是的，而且這個是百分之百確定的。

If a word is spelled k e y, it's pronounced key.

如果一個詞被拼成k e y，它就被讀成key。

OK, I know that's not very helpful, but although there are a lot of

好吧，我知道這不是很有幫助，但儘管有很多的

words that end in e y, very few are pronounced with the long ee.

以e y結尾的單詞，很少有以長ee發音的情況。

In fact, key may be one of the only ones.

事實上，關鍵可能是唯一的之一。