English pronunciations are not constant..?

Question

for example, "Put" is not similarly pronounced as But, Nut, Hut...why ?

Answer 1

You're right. They are not constant.
Just take the first letter from the words below and see how the pronunciation changes:

spear
slaughter
shave
simply
sword
danger
clover
vomit
islander
.

Answer 2

Yes, English is one of the more difficult of languages to learn, as far as pronunciation is concerned. There could be several reasons for the different ways of pronouncing the combinations of letters which differ from each other only in the first letter!
The origin of the words, probably plays a part in their pronunciation. Local usage of a word in different part of the world where English is spoken, and within England itself, also makes for different pronunciation of the same word, leading to hilarious results in some cases.
We have to live with this!

Answer 3

English is derived from many different languages, and has gone through a lot of shifts -- you can see it, for example, in the way many Canadians pronounce "about" like "aboot" and many US-ers pronounce it like "abowt".

The easiest explanation is that we have 26 letters, but more than 26 sounds, so before dictionaries, people spelled them as best they could. They were standardized at different times and different ways -- in fact, there are many differences between spellings in GB and the US, even today. So, we inherited a hodge-podge of spellings, and that's why we native-speakers have to study reading in school for several years. (-: And many of us *still* can't spell!

Answer 4

English is one of the most irregular languages on this planet.
Now you wonder how so many people have managed to learn it.

"Put" comes from the Middle English word "putten"....this is probably why "put" is pronouced the way it is.

Answer 5

just be happy you know this language already and do not have to learn it!! it did not take me long at all to learn spanish, but i would absolutely hate to have to learn our language!!