What reading will do for you

I've been reading books since I can remember. One of the funny side effects is that you sometimes know the meaning of words that you can't pronounce.

For years, I've thought that "whinge" was a word something like wince. Don't ask me why. Recently, I've been reading some online forums where the word "whinge" is used a lot. I've always thought "do they mean whine? How bad can their spelling be?"

Only today did I realize that the Brits must spell "whine" differently. So I looked it up, and, yup, the British and Australians spell it "whinge," even though they pronounce the word the same way we do. Interesting.

Comments

[April]

I was in college before I learned that "façade" was pronounced "fuh-sod" and that the written and spoken words were the same. It was one of those "aha!" moments when I was glad no one else knew what I had been thinking all along.

[Brooke]

actually whinge and whine are two different words, pronounced differently with similar meanings.