Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Just You Wait - song from My Fair Lady




Here's a scene from My Fair Lady. Eliza Dolittle, a flower seller wants lessons to improve her pronunciation. So she asks Henry Higgins to teach her. But his methods are a little too much for her and she vents by imagining how she would take revenge on him.

Click here to watch video clip Just You Wait.

Just you wait, 'enry 'iggins, just you wait!
You'll be sorry, but your tears'll be to late!
You'll be broke, and I'll have money;
Will I help you? Don't be funny!

Just you wait, 'enry 'iggins, just you wait!J
ust you wait, 'enry 'iggins, till you're sick,
And you scream to fetch a doctor double-quick.
I'll be off a second later
And go straight to the the-ater!
Oh ho ho, 'enry 'iggins, just you wait!

Ooooooh 'enry 'iggins!
Just you wait until we're swimmin' in the sea!
Ooooooh 'enry 'iggins!
And you get a cramp a little ways from me!
When you yell you're going to drown
I'll get dressedand go to town!
Oh ho ho, 'enry 'iggins!Oh ho ho, 'enry 'iggins! Just you wait!

One day I'll be famous! I'll be proper and prim;
Go to St. James so often I will call it St. Jim!
One evening the king will say: 'Oh, Liza, old thing,
I want all of England your praises to sing.
Next week on the twentieth of May
I proclaim Liza Doolittle Day!
All the people will celebrate the glory of you
And whatever you wish and want I gladly will do.

''Thanks a lot, King' says I, in a manner well-bred;
But all I want is 'enry 'iggins 'ead!''

'Done,' says the King with a stroke.'
Guard, run and bring in the bloke!'

Then they'll march you, 'enry 'iggins to the wall;
And the King will tell me: 'Liza, sound the call.'

As they lift their rifles higher, I'll shout:'Ready! Aim! Fire!'
Oh ho ho, 'enry 'iggins,Down you'll go, 'enry 'iggins!Just you wait!

source:http://www.allthelyrics.com/lyrics/my_fair_lady_soundtrack/just_you_wait-lyrics-78098.html

Pronunciation Poem 2 ( with apologies to its author; can't recall where I found it!)

Here is some pronunciation.
Ration never rhymes with nation,

Say prefer, but preferable,
Comfortable and vegetable.

B must not be heard in doubt,
Debt and dumb both leave it out.

In the words psychology, psychic, and psychiatry,
You must never sound the p.

Psychiatrist you call the man
Who cures the complex, if he can.

In architect, chi is k.
In arch it is the other way.

Please remember to say iron
So that it'll rhyme with lion.

Advertisers advertise,
Advertisements will put you wise.

Time when work is done is leisure,
Fill it up with useful pleasure.

Accidental, accident,
Sound the g in ignorant.

Relative, but relation,
Then say creature, but creation.

Say the a in gas quite short,
Bought remember rhymes with thwart,

Drought must always rhyme with bout,
In daughter leave the gh out.

Wear a boot upon your foot.
Root can never rhyme with soot.

In muscle, sc is s,
In muscular, it's sk, yes!

Choir must always rhyme with wire,
That again will rhyme with liar.

Then remember it's address.
With an accent like posses.

G in sign must silent be,
In signature, pronounce the g.

Please remember, say towards
Just as if it rhymed with boards.

Weight's like wait, but not like height.
Which should always rhyme with might.

Sew is just the same as so,
Tie a ribbon in a bow.

When You meet the queen you bow,
Which again must rhyme with how.

In perfect English make a start.
Learn this little rhyme by heart.

Pronunciation Poem 1 ( with apologies to its author; can't recall where I found it!)

I take it you already know
Of tough and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble, but not you
On hiccough, thorough, slough, and through.

Well don't! And now you wish, perhaps,
To learn of less familiar traps.
Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard but sounds like bird.

And dead: it's said like bed, not bead,
For goodness sake don't call it deed!
Watch out for meat and great and threat
(They rhyme with suite and straight and debt).

A moth is not a moth as in mother
Nor both as in bother, nor broth as in brother,
And here is not a match for there,
Nor dear and fear, for bear and pear.

And then there's dose and rose and lose--
Just look them up--and goose and choose
And cork and work and card and ward
And font and front and word and sword

And do and go, then thwart and cart,
Come, come! I've hardly made a start.
A dreadful Language? Why man alive!
I learned to talk it when I was five.

And yet to write it, the more I tried,
I hadn't learned it at fifty-five.