this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2025
642 points (99.4% liked)

Curated Tumblr

5850 readers
44 users here now

For preserving the least toxic and most culturally relevant Tumblr heritage posts.

Here are some OCR tools to assist you in transcribing posts:

Don't be mean. I promise to do my best to judge that fairly.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] TheLowestStone@lemmy.world 56 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Mouse -> Mice

Louse -> Lice

House -> Hice

[–] teft@piefed.world 36 points 1 month ago (1 children)

ox - oxen
box - boxen
equinox - equinoxen
xerox - xeroxen

[–] foofiepie@lemmy.world 24 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)

Die - Dice
Pie - Pice
Tie - Tice
Lie - Lice

[–] teft@piefed.world 13 points 1 month ago

All these lice and misinformation....smh

[–] Klear@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Lice <- Louse
Tice <- Touse
Pice <- Pouse
Dice <- Douse

[–] hobovision@mander.xyz 3 points 1 month ago

But also

die - dies

If we're talking about tools.

[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Moose -> Moose

Cher -> Cher

[–] otacon239@lemmy.world 34 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Check out this sweet moof!

[–] IndiBrony@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago

I checked out your ma's sweet moof last night 👉😏👉

[–] eatCasserole@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

I'll accept groof if it means we get moof and rooves.

[–] don@lemmy.ca 29 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Language is descriptive, so there’s nothing stopping you from using “rooves”, other than what typically results from using words others may not understand. Get enough people over long enough a timeline, and “rooves” becomes the norm, and “roofs” becomes archaic. Just gotta put in the effort.

[–] bran_buckler@lemmy.world 28 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] don@lemmy.ca 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] otter@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Not really, unless they're booving that groofy moof. Then, they're lost to us, in the land of boxen and meeses.

[–] don@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 month ago

That sounds exactly like the kind of thing a dirty groofer would say!

MODS BAN THIS ONE RIGHT NOW WON’T SOMEONE PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN!

[–] otter@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Dialectic morphology is a mofo.

eg. "w00t" is a word. 🤮

[–] lars@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 1 month ago

🤮

is a word

[–] azertyfun@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Linguistics is a descriptive science.

Language though is not science, it's a cultural practice. Adhering to a specific set of rules to signal belonging to a specific cultural subgroup is perfectly normal; and deviation from those rules is not a socially neutral act. When and how you deviate signals a lot of things about you and what you're saying.

That's why slang is fascinating. It always tells a story. Whether it's English Prep School jargon that breached containment, whitewashed AAVL, group in-jokes, unconventional emojis, etc., a slang word says a lot about the person who uses it.

That is to say, if you unironically start saying "rooves", I can't say whether you'll start a trend that will ultimately change English forever (weirder things have happened). But I can assure you that the immediate effect will be that people will label you "tumblr weirdo". Which would be a correct assessment, so that's effective subtextual communication. Yay linguistics!

[–] ThisIsNotHim@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 month ago

I think I've been saying rooves my whole life. I don't think I'd generally write it that way, but it feels more natural to say.

If I have, I'm not sure anyone's noticed. My speech patterns are odd though, so it might not be terribly noticable. It's also possible I've never had to say the word. It's not common that you need to pluralize roof.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] SaltSong@startrek.website 18 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Because the English language is known for its rigid consistency of pluralization.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] EffortlessEffluvium@lemmy.zip 16 points 1 month ago

I am Groof.

[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 16 points 1 month ago

This dude thinks that the singular of hooves is "hoove"

[–] Jiggle_Physics@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 month ago (2 children)

rooves and roofs are both accepted as correct though? Roofs being the standard is a pretty new thing, and not the more common one everywhere

[–] SereneSadie@lemmy.myserv.one 9 points 1 month ago

I haven't once seen 'rooves' used, let alone be considered as correct.

[–] MimicJar@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Wiktionary says it changed in the 17th century, so depending on your definition of "new", sure. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/roofs

It doesn't sound weird to me personally, although it does look weird when written out.

[–] Jiggle_Physics@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 month ago

It is how I was taught in the 80s, and I went to school in Europe, and the US. So, pretty recently it was quite common.

[–] NotASharkInAManSuit@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago
[–] Susaga@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Okay, but think about this: Groofy.

As soon as I typed that, I changed my mind. No longer defending groof.

[–] rumschlumpel@feddit.org 2 points 1 month ago

One might say it sounds ... goofy.

[–] Mac@mander.xyz 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

They're on the roof, they've found the groof

Vulfmon - Disco Snails (YT)

[–] A_Very_Big_Fan@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

You beat me to it. When I saw this post I wondered if this is where they got the word from lol

[–] rumschlumpel@feddit.org 4 points 1 month ago (7 children)

Would most native speakers actually pronounce "rooves" differently from "roofs"? Is "grooves" already pronounced differently from a hypothetical "groofs"?

[–] bdonvr@thelemmy.club 3 points 1 month ago

There is a difference, but it depends on accent. I don't think anyone would notice in speech if you switched though

I think there is a slight difference. Ooves is slightly longer and softer sounding than oofs.

[–] teft@piefed.world 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

f is the voiceless labiodental fricative and v is the voiced labiodental fricative.

Basically for roofs your vocal cords don't vibrate on the final f sound. For rooves your vocal cords vibrate on the final v sound.

[–] rumschlumpel@feddit.org 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

I know the difference between f and v, the question is whether it makes a difference in this specific case and if yes, whether most native English speakers actually know that. I'm not a native English speaker and words that end in -ooves aren't that common (when is the last time you said "grooves" or "hooves"?).

English is famously inconsistent about how written letters are pronounced, and there are a lot of accents.

[–] teft@piefed.world 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I am a native speaker. The pronunciation difference between those two words, even though one doesn’t actually exist, is only the vibration of vocal cords in the final sound. It’s like belief and believe.

[–] ThisIsNotHim@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 month ago

Grooves and hooves are more common words than roofs.

I think I would notice if someone said groofs or hoofs (although that's also a word with a different meaning), but I'm really not sure I'd notice rooves vs roofs.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] skrrtly_ambrose@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

the plural of roof should be roof. fite me

[–] m_xy@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

milf - milves

[–] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

We are groof.

[–] BananaIsABerry@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 month ago

I propose we use roofies! It sounds cute and probably isn't taken already.

load more comments
view more: next ›