But first I pray yow, of youre curteisye,
That ye narette it nat my vileynye,
Thogh that I pleynly speke in this mateere
To telle yow hir wordes and hir cheere
Ne thogh I speke hir wordes proprely.

Unless you’re a scholar of Middle English, you’ll probably have some difficulty understanding this paragraph from the Prologue of Geoffrey Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” due to the many changes in English orthography (spelling) since the 14th century. One of the characteristics of Middle English that you’ll probably notice right away is the addition of a final e at the end of words, including the word word (or “worde” as Chaucer wrote). While we’ve dropped this final e in Modern English from word and cheer and tell and your, there are still instances in English where the presence or absence of a final e may give you problems. We’ve found several pairs of words that only differ by this one letter, listed below:

breath / breathe
A breath (BRETH) is the air you draw into your lungs, and when you’re doing that, you breathe (BREETH). Notice that the th sound in breath is the same as in the word death, while the th sound in breathe is same as in the words this and that.
Example: She’s holding her breath waiting for the results of the vote, but when she wins, she’ll breathe a sigh of relief.

envelop / envelope
The verb envelop (ehn-VEH-lup) means “to wrap around, to surround.” An envelope (AHN-veh-lohp) is the thing that wraps around something else.
Example: Anna enveloped John in her arms to comfort him when he received the envelope containing the news of his son’s death in the war.

born / borne
While these two words are pronounced the same way, the word born means “brought into existence” and the word borne means “supported or carried.”
Example: I don’t think I could have borne the loneliness in my life if you had never been born.

corps / corpse
Don’t get these two words confused! The noun corps (COR) refers to a group of people who perform the same function (a unit of soldiers in an army, for example, or the Corps of Engineers). A corpse (CORPS) is a dead body, and it’s not performing any functions any more.
Example: He joined the army and was part of the medical corps for seven years, but even with all of his experience he still became nauseated when he saw a fresh corpse.

Take a few minutes to study this list of words, including their definitions and pronunciations, and make sure that you can use them correctly with ease.

Translation: “But first I pray that by your courtesy you ascribe it not to my ill manners if I speak plainly in this matter, telling you their words and cheer, and if I speak their very words as they were.” For a bit of fun with Middle English, check out “Geoffrey Chaucer Hath A Blog.”