#31: Slappin’ the Bass
This trio of English words may be one of the more challenging and bewildering homonyms in the English language. “Bass,” “base,” and “bass” all have different meanings. The version of “bass” that is pronounced like “base” is a musical instrument. When the word “bass” is pronounced the way it’s spelled, with a short “a,” it’s talking about a type of fish.
If you look at the word “bass” there’s absolutely no indication that it would be pronounced with a long “a” sound. How is that even possible? The reason these different pronunciations and spellings exist in English is because one word is from the Italian “basso” and the other is from Middle English. One thing’s for sure. You can tune a bass, but you can’t tuna fish.