Generate the answer for a given question. The question requires common knowledge of English. Make sure that the answer is in detail, long, consistent with the context, and requires general knowledge of English. To be less repetitive, please vary your language for each question. Give a proper explanation to answer, and if necessary, provide the definition of various terms. And conclude your answer if it's long. If you have used other resources (e.g., Merriam Webster's.) to answer the question, include citations in your answer. You don't need to paraphrase the context of your resources, but make sure that your answer is consistent and complete.
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Question: A few days ago, a friend and I were discussing how every 'rule' of English spelling or pronunciation has an exception, and every exception has an exception as well. Then I brought up the rule of a ph cluster equaling an f sound (as in phonetic, elephant, morph, etc.) as a pronunciation rule that didn't have any exceptions I could think of. Is this a true hard-and-fast rule or does it have some exceptions as well? I'm not counting abbreviations such as pH scale.

Answer: The exceptions come in two categories: Greek words that were originally pronounced with an 'f' diphtheria, diphthong, ophthalmology, phthisis but have come to be pronounced with a 'p' by no process I understand. Compound words uphold, saphead, peephole that are just a word ending in 'p' run up against a word beginning with an 'h'. Neither of those really feel like exceptions: mispronunciations that have become accepted and two words being treated as one. Then there is aphelion. Arguably, that's a compound word and a mistake. By analogy with apogee and apastron, it should be apohelion: 'apo' ('from') + 'helion' ('sun'). Several people brought up 'Stephen', which is often pronounced like 'Steven'. Eh, I think we should play with Scrabble rules: no proper names. Finally, there is an example that will really blow your minds: phthalate. The ph- is silent.


Question: I am looking for a list of all English words that are their own antonyms. Off the top of my head, I can only think of 'either', 'fast', 'to dust' and 'to lease', but there must be dozens more. Can you provide a link to a comprehensive list, if such exists? Also, what are such words most commonly called? I like the term 'Janus word' I once heard, but is that widely understood? Edited by popular demand to make it absolutely clear that this is not a community wiki poll.

Answer: I think you're referring to Auto-antonyms. They are not the same word but a homograph (a word of the same spelling) that is also an antonym. I guess, Janus word is also acceptable. There was a list on Wikipedia (List of Auto-antonyms in English), since moved to Wiktionary's Appendix of English contranyms.


Question: I'm having a serious argument with a friend on the status of the word 'suck' when I used it about him by saying 'You suck!' because he missed a train. We are both non-native English speakers. He claimed that I used it as a foul or slang term. I vehemently disagreed with him about it. I told him that the word 'suck' can be used to describe something inefficient or not good enough as well like it is used in the example 'Samsung mobile sucks'. Am I right to describe the use of the word 'suck' in such context?.

Answer:
Yes, you can use the word in the way that you have described, but it's considered more harsh than polite, and it has somewhat vulgar overtones. How it's regarded or received might be generational. I typed is suck vulgar? on Google, and found mixed responses. Feel free to do the same if you want diverse opinions on the matter. I thought this excerpt from a blog post, though, was worth pasting into an answer here: Some may not believe this, but suck as in 'Man, this class sucks' was also in the raw obscenity category when I was a teenager. It was used plenty in the school hallways but not in front of your teacher and never in front of your mother. I remember some agitation by certain culturally-advanced youngsters who tried to railroad their elders into accepting sucks as a safe and harmless substitute for stinks. The elders weren't having any of it, last I checked, but the liberalizing linguists seem to have carried the day. I have always assumedrightly or wrongly, I do not know that the word was originally intended to carry sexual overtones, which was the reason for its suppression. Today, the sexual overtones are either forgotten or are now acceptable in mixed company. I'm not sure which explanation disturbs me more. I think you and your friend are unlikely to come up with an agreed-upon viewpoint, because you're both right in a way. Feel free to use it on message boards and the like when you want to express a negative opinion, but realize you'll risk sounding a bit uncouth to some when you do. Then again, maybe I'm just showing my age here. As a footnote, you might want to check out our sister site, English Language Learners.