About the English language....

[Guest Guest]

If you ever feel stupid, then just read on. If you've

learned to speak fluent English, you must be a

genius! This little treatise on the lovely language we

share is only for the brave. Peruse at your leisure,

English lovers.

 

Reasons why the English language is so hard to learn:

 

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.

2) The farm was used to produce produce.

3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more

refuse.

4) We must polish the Polish furniture.

5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.

6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the

desert.

7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought

it was time to present the present.

8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

10) I did not object to the object.

11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to

row.

13) They were too close to the door to close it.

14) The buck does funny things when the does are

present.

15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer

line.

16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow

to sow.

17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail

18) After a number of injections my jaw got number.

19) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a

tear.

20) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

21) How can I intimate this to my most intimate

friend?

 

There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger;

neither apple nor pine in pineapple.

English muffins weren't invented in England or French

fries in France.

Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't

sweet, are meat.

Quicksand works slowly, boxing rings are square and a

guine pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. And

why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing,

grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?

If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural

of booth beeth?

One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? Doesn't it

seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend.

If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of

all but one of them, what do you call it? Is it an

odd, or an end?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a

vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian

eat?

In what language do people recite at a play and play

at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship?

Have noses that run and feet that smell?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same,

while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You

have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in

which your house can burn up as it burns down, in

which you fill in a form by filling it out and in

which, an alarm goes off by going on.

English was invented by people, not computers, and it

reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of

course, is not a race at all.

That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible,

but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

 

P.S. - Why doesn't "Buick" rhyme with "quick"?

[Guest Guest]

LOL, some good points to ponder, but I see some of the same problems with languages from across the sea.

 

Nice Sig Happy.......good work Lois!

[Guest Guest]

You're right, Mare...I'm having a tough time explaining to my students why "agua" which ends with an "a" has a male prefix *el agua*...