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#71653 05/29/02 06:10 AM
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I wanna ask the pronunciation.
I've checked some dictionary,but the answers quite different.
bow=(bough )<---pronunciation.

b ow= c ow?

or...... bow=(bough) meaning the tool used for archery.
b ow = c ow meaning bending your body?

sorry,i m poor in expression.
Simply ,the quetion is what is bow's pronunciation and meanings related to it?
THNAK YOU VERY MUCH


#71654 05/29/02 07:14 AM
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Hi Aji. I'll do the best I can, but you'll have to wait a few hours for the experts. They're all asleep at the moment.

bow, meaning to bend at the hips, is pronounced like cow, how and now.
bow, meaning the tool used in archery, is pronounced like no, tow, flow and blow.
bow, meaning the shape made by tying ribbon or string a certain way, is also pronounced like no.

And just to confuse things,

bough, meaning a branch of a tree, is pronounced like cow.

Hope that helps.

edit: I may have been first bellig'y, but I like your explanation better.

#71655 05/29/02 07:20 AM
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Hija,

Bow as in 'bow and arrow' (archery) rhymes with 'low', i.e. low like 'searching high and low'. A bow is more generally a bend, for example in a lake. It is also the piece of wood and horsehair with which one strokes the strings of violins and cellos so they resonate. If you're 'bowing' this instrument then it rhymes with 'lowing'(the sound made by cattle: Moooo) of course.

To bow (genuflect, curtsy, bend over) and the noun bow, as in the bow of a ship (front section) rhymes with that ruminating animal, the cow.

If you 'bow to' (like 'cow') someone, then you agree to follow their will.

If you bow out (like 'cow'), then you withdraw from a competition or race or something.

There are other less common uses of 'bow', but you probably wouldn't encounter or need them



edit in: you got in there a tad before me doc, and I wanted to avoid playing second fiddle to anyone too.;-0

#71656 05/29/02 09:11 AM
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"How now, brown cow?"

"Bow wow wow
Who's dog art thou?
Little Tommy Tucker's dog.
Bow wow wow"

Bow wow wow in the above: human imitation of the sound dogs seem to enjoy when warning off competitors or greeting their masters

But dogs are sometimes named "Beau," which sounds like the bow in bow tie, which would have been cuter if it had been called the beau tie. Of course, there are bows on packages and bows in little girls' hair--but by far funnier had beaux been on packages and beaux in little girls' hair. All of the bow, beau, and beaux words here rhyme with no as do the bow used with bowed string instruments and the {-shaped one used in archery.

Now the forward part of the ship is called its bow, too, and we Americans would rhyme it with now. But I'm not sure about the Brits because what we Americans call the bowsprit (rhyming with the nonsense word nowsprit), the Brits pronounce the same bowsprit to rhyme with no-sprit, nonsense word here again. Question: Do the British rhyme the ship's bow with no?

You've posed a word that holds many a pronunciation problem to figure out, and I shall now take my leave, too, by bowing out, not at the hips but at the waist.

Bow regards,
Wordwind




#71657 05/29/02 10:24 AM
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Question: Do the British rhyme the ship's bow with no?

I'm not British, but since I live in one of the "colonies", my observation may count for something: I would say that in Canada, "No, a ship's bow does not rhyme with no, but rather with cow."

The knot you can use to tie your boat to the dock, a bowline, is said BO-lun, 'round these parts. In that word, the bow bit rhymes with no, just to be confusing! But the park called Bowring Park is pronounced like the front of the ship, rhymes with cow-ring park, another nonsense word to add to Dub Dub's list! Argh! I remember trying to help my Turkish friend with this word, and eventually collapsing in a fit of giggles - too many options for this one short word!!!!


#71658 05/29/02 04:02 PM
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Bean is correct in how the British pronounce bow in ship's bow, ie: the sharp end. Also correct on bowline.

Anyone care to have a go at words that contain the numerous ways of pronouncing ~ough and ~augh? Just for our delectation? This has probably been done before, but I can't find it.


#71659 05/29/02 11:08 PM
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Anyone care to have a go at words that contain the numerous ways of pronouncing ~ough and ~augh? Just for our delectation? This has probably been done before, but I can't find it.

Here's one thread that contains some fun discussions about -ough and others.
http://wordsmith.org/board/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=wordplay&Number=56530&page=6&view=collapsed&sb=5&vc=1


#71660 05/30/02 05:05 AM
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thank you all for kind responses~~~~
I've got a lot here.


#71661 05/30/02 05:51 PM
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Thanks Angel, for the link - I shall look into it more deeply.

dxb


#71662 06/03/02 05:50 PM
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Here's my contribution - although, maybe it should go in the other thread?

It's Rough Stough!

The wind was rough and cold and blough;
She kept her hands inside her mough.
It chilled her through, her nose turned blough,
And still the squall the faster flough.
And yet although there was no snough,
The weather was a cruel fough.
It made her cough (please do not scough),
She coughed until her hat blough ough.

For obvious reasons no one claims this one!


What is very unusual about these words?

BOUGH
COUGH
DOUGH
ROUGH
THROUGH

They all end in O-U-G-H, and none of them rhyme!

I'm sorry I don't know who to credit (blame?) for this choice piece! (Don't spell check it, BTW!)

Robert Payne


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