On Wed, 2 Feb 2005, Paul Echeverri wrote: @> >So who here can verbally distinguish between "merry", "marry", and "Mary"? @> > @> Er, those are all pronounced distinctly from each other. It's not hard. You'd be surprised. For instance, I can't distinguish them. (I have similar trouble with ferry and fairy, although apparently I actually pronounce them differently without being aware of it.)