We're pronouncing this incorrectly! It started life as a German word Wermuth, which means Wormwood. (Wormwood is a plant, Latin name Artemisia absinthium.) Then it ended up in French as Vermouth. We saw the word in English and pronounced the 'th' at the end to give 'vermooth'. Except, the German and French didn't pronounce the 'h' at the end, so it's vermut and not vermooth.

To get the drink Vermouth, you take some white wine and spice it with herbs, especially Wormwood oil.

In the North East of England, the 'Tel' is stressed and long. The 'e' and the 'graph' are short. It's TEL-e-graf (tum-ti-ti). A tum-ti-ti is called a Dactyl. In the South East of England, the 'tel' and 'e' are short and the 'graph' is long. It's tel-e-graaaph (ti-ti-tum). A ti-ti-tum is called an Anapest (also anapaest). So, The Telegraph is a dactyl in the North East and an anapest in the South East. And, of course, anapest is an anapest.

Imagine you've been flung back in time to the Middle Ages. You hear someone say the following (you can't see them yet):

"Why are you putting this floor in meen boat?"

You'll find yourself scratching your head, no doubt. But you think you've got the gist of it: The man has a mean boat. It has no floor. He's working on it.

Except, you're way off! There is something called The Great Vowel Shift in England. And it is to do with the change in pronunciation from Middle English to Modern English, roughly over a 200 year period. When you turn the corner what you see is one man pouring flour in another man's boot. What he actually said was:

"Why are you putting this flour in my boot?"

(There were some wacky going on in the Middle Ages.)

Here are some words and the way they used to be pronounced:

Here are some phrases to learn, just in case you get transported back in time: (Officer Crabtree from 'Allo 'Allo!, anyone?)

These shape are meen = These sheep are mine

Put the floor in the hoose = Put the flour in the house

Some parson put the pison in the marchant's drink
(Some person put the poison in the merchant's drink)

The marchant took the pison from his boat and put it in the floor
The merchant took the poison from his boot and put it in the flour

He was sartin this parson jined the marchant in putting the pison in the floor
He was certain this person joined the merchant in putting the poison in the flour

Pisoned floor was a big deal in the Middle Ages.

The word 'ye' was not pronounced YEE. So 'Ye olde inn' would have been pronounced 'THEE old inn'. Early printers used a 'y' instead of 'th' to save time. It was still pronounced THEE.