So, a woman walks into a yoga studio to ask about their classes. She sees a class in progress and asks the administrator who it was for. The administrator smiles confidently, and answers:
“It’s a divers’ group.”
The woman is confused.
“Divers?” she asks. She also wonders how many divers there could be in the town? And why would divers be so interested in yoga?
“Why divers?” she asks.
“Because this class is for anyone,” she says. “We have specialized classes for specific groups — but this one is divers.”
That’s when the woman catches on, and realizes the misunderstanding.
“Oh,” she thinks to herself. “A diverse group. Of course!”
___________________________
Explanation — This is an issue of syllable stress. The word DIVERS is stressed on the first syllable whereas the word DIVERSE is stressed on the second syllable.
This really drives home the importance of syllable stress. It just reminds me of one incident. This man kept saying sending a massage while he meant sending a message. I took it as his accent and translated massage into message on my head during that conversation. And I still don’t know his version of massage. Appreciate your message!