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leelee88
04-10-2008, 06:21 AM
I Thought This was Cute and Interesting!


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 nor French fries in France (Surprise!). Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat.

Quicksand works 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? 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'?

VickiB
04-10-2008, 09:05 AM
Our language is crazy isn't it?

I had recently looked up the plural for bear, not knowing what is correct, after a friend had said "bears" in a sentence. Most people I know just say bear when speaking of more than one, (like deer is correct both singular and multiple).

Found I'm not the only one wondering, and the search brought no definitve answer. -And that was almost more than I could bear!

Vicki

SharonA
04-10-2008, 09:14 AM
Why do we park in a driveway and drive on a parkway?

Berkshire Road
04-10-2008, 11:16 AM
George Bernard Shaw once pointed out that, according to English phonetics, you could spell the word "fish" like this: ghoti




Explanation?

GH -- as in "enough"

O -- as in "women"

TI -- as in "nation"

leelee88
04-10-2008, 01:51 PM
Yeah I thought this was really fun tying to think of more things. Like what Yall have pointed out..

Reminds me of when my son Aaron was small. He ask, How he could make some money I said "Aaron you have to Earn it".. He left and then came back and said well where can I plug it in.. I said "What do you mean Aaron?" He said well, You said I had to Iron some money.. So I need to plug the Iron in.. Another thing is the southern twang.. Iron/Earn gets confusing to the little ones..lol

VickiB
04-10-2008, 03:10 PM
You're so right on the regional differences even with-in America!

I remember stopping once in Georgia while traveling to ask directions to a laundramat. The man was very helpful,.....and I didn't understand a word he said!

We have a company that receives orders from all over the country by phone. A while back I received an order and just couldn't understand the guy. His first name was "Bail", or so it sounded. A trick I've learned,...can you spell it please? After a long pause, (presumably 'cause he'd decided I was a complete idiot),...."BAY",..."AAAY",...."AIL",....."AIL",.........."BAY-AIL!"

Turned out it was Bill.

leelee88
04-10-2008, 03:29 PM
:biglaugh::biglaugh: Yup< Vicky Southerns do have that twang...lol

Berkshire Road
04-11-2008, 08:18 PM
Well every language has regional dialects. We're no worse than most. But English spelling is so hard to learn. There are just so many exceptions to every "rule," we might as well not have rules. I still get headaches just remembering trying to master the written language... ugh.

kuntrygurl78
04-14-2008, 03:36 PM
Vickie..your story wa funny:biglaugh:

I worked as a dispatcher for a trucking company. I had guys that lived all over the country. Imagine going from talking to a guy from the northeast, to a southern talker, to a person with a hispanic accent. You talk about a hard job! Then for them to listen to me..Im a midwesterner..but when I really get to listening to my southern music..well watch out yall..my southern accent can really shine. My husband was raised in Biloxi and I have more of a southern accent than he does:bonk:

leelee88
04-14-2008, 03:44 PM
Lol Kim.. I bet that was interesting Listening to all the differant accents..lol well I can relate to your hubby and accent.. When you get a chance ask him if he knows where Bay Saint Louis is..lol

dg2901
04-14-2008, 04:13 PM
We vacationed in W.VA this past summer. We live in Va Beach so not too far from our destination. We had dinner one night at a pizza joint in a tiny town. My son went up to the counter to get a refill on his drink; the girl helping him struck up a conversation with him--trying to get the low down on him..haha..Funny thing was neither one could understand the other, but moreso her trying to understand him. She ended up telling him in her W. VA drawl "I kin tail yer not from 'round here...are you from England 'cause you sound British". To this day I cant for the life of me figure out where she mistook my sons Va Beach accent to sound anything remotely like a Brit. On the plus side, he finally managed to get his refill..haha..and she still ended up coming to our table and asking him his name again because she couldnt understand "Kenny".

VickiB
04-14-2008, 05:37 PM
And then we can throw in,...

Is it catty-corner or kitty-corner? A creek or a crick? A lightning bug or firefly?

I love the different regional accents in this country! My Wisconsin accent is pretty well diluted now, to the point I can't even imitate it any longer. 20 years in Wisconsin, 10 years in Texas, 21 in Idaho,...and as soon as I open my mouth people ask -Where are you from?

I tell them Nebraska!

Vicki