This is probably like one of those things where some people have good ears and some don't. Some people have a good ear for music, such that they can hear and process the subtle differences in pitch and determine that one person is a bad singer and another is a good singer, or can tell that an instrument is out of tune, even if slightly. So, some of us can actually hear the difference in the sounds, and the minority of us don't. In the same way that I'm embarrassed for someone when they get up at karaoke and think they are good, but they are actually borderline tone-deaf, I am embarrassed for the people in this thread who cannot hear the difference in obviously different-sounding words. Go sit down and have another beer gang; let the pros handle this English language stuff.