The book piqued my curiosity, so I picked it up and took a peek at the first page. It was written by a artist at the peak of her career.
As a non-native speaker, I guess when I pronounce any of those words: pick, peek, peak, or pique, they all sound the same. So it’s even harder for me to clearly memorise. I mostly get it right, but can occasionally confuse some forms.
Especially peek and peak.
It doesn’t happen with meet and meat, feet and feat, leek and leak though. I wonder why.
Pick is probably common enough not to confuse it with other forms. Pique is unique enough that it’s hardly used, and almost always with “piqued interest”. The other two I guess are trapped in-between?
I’ll try to visualise peAk as the top of the mountain maybe? and peek is a bit more flat, and you need two eyes to peek. Anyway, maybe this silly blog post would help me remember once and for all :)
As a quick, non-official reference:
pick – take, grab, choose
pique – arouse, hurt
peek – glance
peak – top
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