Posted on 08/11/2005 3:49:11 PM PDT by SandRat
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?
Let's face it - English is a crazy language. 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. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea 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? One index, 2 indices?
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?
If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. 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.
PS: Why doesn't "Buick" rhyme with "quick"?
I were gowan to Deetroit with ma truck full a PrOduce
whin ah got stopped by the POlice!
No you're homophones ... it's what separates us from the savages! (And the trolls, who are often distinguished by their rampant homophonia.)
BTTT
I'll always remember an argument with my HS English teacher once over tear (wet eyes) and tear (rip). Can't remember the poem but it ended with "a tear on her skirt" or some such. I argued a tear (wet eyes) would be ON the skirt while a tear (rip) would be IN the skirt. She won with rip because I needed the grade and that was back in the day one didn't argue with the teacher.
Or psycho the rapist and psychotherapist.
Heh
Hey, who are you calling a homophone? You some kind of thespian or something?
A skunk sat on a stump. The skunk thought the stump stunk and the stump thought the skunk stunk.
Now those two are a bit close for comfort.
Why do the phrases "slow up" and "slow down" mean the same thing?
No, I'm not Greek. We're from Oklahoma.
Six thick thistle sticks.
Thanks for clearing that up. I thought you were one of those masticating perverts who matriculate everywhere.
Oh no, not me. But I went to college with a few ...
Hee hee. So you not only deny the allegations, you will take action against the alligators?
Mary where John had had has had had had had had had had had had the teacher's approval
Care to have a go? ;^)
No, actually I think I'll go take a drink! (Not a fifth, though ...)
When Hugh fell into the loo, he flew into a rage and threatened to sue. His attorney friend, a Sioux, pulled off quite a coup in winning the case.
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