Lesson 7.2

I am soooo puzzled. Why is Ski pronounced without the "k" sound? Like "Shee" I even checked my dictionary, and it appears to be the only word that starts with "sk" that doesn't pronounce the "k". Confusion reigns!!! Thanks Judy

I know-isn't it weird?! A lot of words are pronunced differently to what they look like, or to what you would expect. Some words keep the pronunciation from their root word or from the language they originally came from. Like "computer" for example. The pronunciation in German is just like the English one, even though theoretically it should be pronunced more like "kompoota". The word "ski" has Indo-European roots and comes from "skei" to split. There is also the norwegian version which means "snowshoe". This is one of the reasons why learning a new langauge is never boring, there is always something new to discover, something unexpected. I guess in the case of "ski" it's acutally easier to say "shee" rather than "ski", it just flows better. :D

Oh, well! Thanks!