40 Times People Were Confused By The English Language

Who's up for the defenestration of Donald Trump. I say we do it overmorrow.

*mind blown*

You just ruined the ending for me!

This is genius!

Oh shit.

It took me a while to remember which one is positive and which one is negative between horriffic and terrfic...

I feel you dude

This is definitely really interesting!

That is incredible ha ha

We have the exact same word in french and with the same meaning ... others meaning too ;)

In french it's called Double-V

Because the /w/ sound was originally written as uu. The letter W is comparatively recent.

And why isn't a "m" called a "Double-N"?

Why not just call it a "We"? I'm Flemish and we do it like that. And no, the Dutch don't do it right. They pronounce a W like a V. And a V like an F. And a G like a snot couching gargling sound. Dutch pronounciation is odd.

Because script has changed at one time is was literally a double u!

It can also be written to look like two "U"s.

Because Latin.

U and V used to be used interchangably. Like the upper and lowercase version of a letter. There really wasn't much of a standard then and the reader knew if it was a u or v sound by the context. Later typesetters finally standardized it, but English kept the old Double U name for W. French must have been more progressive with their Double V.

Judging by the replies, English likes to feel REALLY REALLY SPECIAL. Like its word for pineapple.

Because cursive writing is a thing

Because Welsh.

not in Indonesian. it's pronounced 'wé'. The V is pronounced 'fé'. That's why we don't have Miss V here 😄

It all began with Latin, where we get our alphabet. But Latin had no U. The letter U was invented to distinguish the U sound from the V sound. It's not "double V" because it doesn't make the V sound.

If you write it in cursive, it’s literally two “u”s

Originally it was two Us, but they ended up being pronounced as Vs since that's what they looked like in script.

The Classical Latin alphabet had only 23 letters, not the 26 that we have today. ... Uppercase and lowercase letters are allographs. Before the use of the letter U, the shape V stood for both the vowel U and the consonant V. In the picture below you can see the letter V used in places were it would be pronounced as a U. https://www.dictionary.com/e/theletteru/

In script writing it's two U letters

Before the U became a U, it was written as a V

some are written like U's

I always wondered if the people labeling the letter were looking at two different version. Discarding cursive a capitalized W is a double v, but a lower case w is usually written as a double u. Of course typing screws that idea up completely.

how would a double v sounds??

in french it is adouble V

It’s Vay & double vay in German and Dutch

It depends on which font you use.

I've often wondered just that!!

In Swedish it is call double V

Agreed. I always thought that!

It’s “doble-ve” in Spanish

Because Wheelbavvrow would just sound silly

Depends on how you write it I guess. Maybe the English were at some point in time "u"ing what they now "v" in writing.

in all these languages double w is pronounced like a v, but in English it isn't pronounced like a v, more like a u. not vindov, but uindou

m is a double-U upside down

"V" is the original "U", when carving stone, arcs are difficult, straight lines easy. As stone masons got better and printing came into fashion so much later, the sounds were separated with the letters but "W" still has roots in double "U". It's an art/printing thing . . .

In spanish you can say "double-v" and "double-u" you can choose :)

English pronunciation was invented by Satan

What profession is a handyman in then?

Brits also use 'Quite' in a sarcastic manner if agreeing with someone (who they don't agree with).

This is my kind of pun

no one knows

I sent a cent with a peculiar scent.

Two questions, same answer: because you don't wash properly.

America explain... I am confusion!!

I’ve also heard, “I before E except when your feisty foreign neighbor Keith leisurely receives eight counterfeit beige sleighs from caffeinated atheist weightlifters. Weird.”