Daily Post: English is Priceless

It’s really beverage, not beaverage *sigh*

Everyone knows that English is weird. English is also priceless. Since English is my second language, I’ve learned the hard (and hilarious) way.

I discovered just today that the word beverage is not only not spelled beaverage, as I’d thought, but is also not pronounced bee-ver-age. Until now, every time I ordered a beaverage, I was really ordering a drink made out of beavers. I also thought it funny that when you ask for a beaver-age, you’re apparently asking for the beaver’s age. Its being beverage in fact explains it somewhat (and also takes some of the beaver magic out of it).

Mousse came to English by the way of French, which might explain my ignorance (or not). Again, I was mispronouncing mousse as mouse. So, when I was telling a waiter with a serious face that I’d like a coffee with mouse, I was literally ordering a hot beaverage with a beaver and a mouse on top of it. The waiter and my company of two native English speakers maintained their poker faces. I wanted to hide under the table and die when I realised my mistake. But I just drank my hot beverage with mousse, ashamed.

Being a lifelong learner of English really brings you in priceless situations.