there is a common confusion in english surrounding the word polish.
**polish (first syllable pronounced like go) is the nationality of people from poland. when talking about people from poland, Polish is usually capitalized.
**polish (first syllable pronounced like the first syllable in politics) is a substance that makes a surface look shiny (bright, reflecting light).
this clip from big bang theory is a funny example of how even geniuses can confuse the two words.
during a game of picitionary, sheldon believes he is spoonfeeding (making it extremely easy) leonard the answer. he draws a polish sausage, a model of the solar system developed by nicolaus copernicus and a deceased (dead) marie curie. copernicus and curie were both polish. none of sheldon’s illustrations help leonard get the right answer.
a baby not appreciating a spoon-feeding (shutterstock)
penny, on the other hand, very quickly gets the correct answer from amy by drawing a picture of nail polish. to add insult to injury (make a bad situation worse), penny points out (shows) that the word they were drawing starts with a small p, and thus is referring to the substance that produces a shiny surface, not the nationality.
polish sausage, also known as kielbasa polska
listen to the pronunciation of both words here.
fun esl practice 
richyrocks english on youtube
do u have any comments or questions related to these examples? can u think of any additional examples for Polish or polish? share your observations under leave a reply
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