WHY?

i before e except after c (sometimes !)

do fools fall in love?

What's wrong, kitty ?

So, Ariadne, what's this: bua

Still didn't get 'dgog'! Please someone explain, it's driving me mad!??!

Sorry - been out! "dgog" = hedgehog; "avenjilly" = eventually. Bless them. She says, from a safe retirement.

Oh, and it's "i before e when the sound is ee" Dunno why.

beauty?

Boy?

Say it in 'London.'

Bra? Tell me!!!!!

Oh dear, not familar with those born east of the Tower and west of Essex then?

It's butter of course.

Oh bu.a - you forgot the glottal stop - makes all the difference!
I had a lodger once with a broad N Ireland accent. He bemoaned that he could not make himself understood in fishmonger in Swansea market. He was pronouncing it as "Hurn" with a longish u , as in burn.
Everyone knows it has two syllables, with a strong emphasis on the first one.

Reading +When's* response on the 'Grandparents as parents' made me wonder why I constantly call my 2 DGDs (cousins) by each other's names but never mix them up with my DGS's name. My friend with 2 x DGDs and 3 x DGSs says she also often mixes up their names but never cross gender. Is the influence of gender really so strong?

G23, I have been known to address my sister by my DS1's name! She wasn't impressed.

G23 I call my brother, son, and grandson indiscriminately by one another's names.

I think it may be because my brother is a lot younger than I am, and I was a teenager when he was a toddler. I was almost a third adult in the house, and I got in quite a bit of practice which came in useful when I had my own children, so my relationship is quite similar to that with my son. Having established the confusion, it then carried on to grandson.

I have not descended to MiL's level, though. She often called her sons by the dog's name.

I don't cross the genders either, and my daughters get their own names.

I mix up one daughter with my sister's name, and don't get me on the subject of three toddler cousins, who are Polly, Poppy and Pepper!

JessM is it Herring ?

Pepper?

Musician with Coldplay leanings, Ana! (Chris Martin's baby Apple convinced them they could/should/would choose a name for her future as a rock musician!)

my DGS's middle name is Danger, the midwife attending asked how to spell it.

Oh, I see! Actually, it's quite a cute name, although watch her turn out to be a very serious professor of archaeology!

She'll probably change it by deed poll before then, Ana!

My mother used to run through the whole range of family names (my aunt, cousins and the three of us - no boys) before she hit on the right one.