Thursday, February 12, 2026

Not a Gutter

On the light side of life, I don't know a gentler way to tell Americans this, but . . .


When I posted this on FB, I had an old blog friend, whose first language is not English, ask how we would pronounce it. She speculated eaves as in leaves and trough as in tough but with an r added. I wrote yes but then added that trough would be pronounced more like trawf, as in raw and straw. 

Her name is Iona, but she hasn’t blogged for a long time, so probably none of you know her, but I’m mentioning her just in case she might be a former blog acquaintance of yours. 

By the way, we do know what a gutter is, and some people do, indeed, have their minds in them, but eavestrough seems to be the favoured word by most Canadians.
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8 comments:

  1. Debby8:34 am

    Say it ain't so! It makes me wonder what else we might be wrong about.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anvilcloud9:04 am

      You're not wrong, but we are righter. 😁

      Delete
  2. Barbara Rogers8:42 am

    Very interesting. Now along those lines, what is the plural of roof?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anvilcloud9:03 am

      Although I want to say 'rooves' ... 😁

      Delete
  3. Ed9:32 am

    So do your eavestroughs have downspouts like our gutters do?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sandra9:47 am

    I'm familiar with trough as it is often used instead of water tank, but eavestrough is new to me. It sounds too polite for, say, get your mind out of the eavestrough.

    ReplyDelete

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