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Our English Language


Nikira

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Something for us English speakers to think about.... until our brains implode. :wacko:

 

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.

 

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 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, then 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.

 

~Nikira

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Great point you bring up. The desert one is the funniest. Nice work.

 

Ever seen the following, BTW?

European Union commissioners have announced that agreement has been reached to adopt English as the preferred language for European communications, rather than German, which was the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations, Her Majesty’s Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a five year phase plan for what will be known as EuroEnglish (Euro for short).

In the first year, 's' will be used instead of the soft 'c'. Sertainly, sivill servants will resieve this news with joy. Also the hard 'c' will be replaced with 'k'. Not only will this klear up konfusion, but typwriters kan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year, when the troublesome 'ph' will be replaced by 'f'. This will make words like 'fotograf' 20 per sent shorter.

In the third year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Government will enkorage the removal of double letters, which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling.

Also, al wil agre that the horible mes of silent 'e's in the languag is disgrasful, and they would go.

By the fourth year, peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing 'th' by 'z' and 'w' by 'v'. During ze fifz year, ze unesesary 'o' kan be dropd from vords kontaining “ou” and similar changes vud of kors be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters.

After zis fifz yer, ve vil hav a reli sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubls or difikultis and evrivon vil find it ezi tu understand ech ozer. Ze drem vil finali kum tru.

 

That's the funniest statement on English language I've ever heard.

 

LZ

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English is a rather strange language. Filled with huge amounts of irregular words of every sort. However, I do like the fact that the adjectives come before the noun unlike some other Latin based languages. I'm glad I first learned English so I will never have to again! :P
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I'm glad I first learned English so I will never have to again! :P

 

I would die if I had to take English as a second language. :wacko:

 

~Nikira

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Lol, my English teacher read the list of same spellings but different meanings/pronunciations in class. The Italian Exchange student was very, very confused.

 

TMD

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Bwahaha. English has no regularity at all between spelling and pronunciation. Which makes it, I'm fairly certain, the hardest western language to learn. I would love to sit in on a class where it was being taught...

 

(And yet those who do become fluent in it as a second/third/fourth language speak it so much better than native speakers, because they actually learn the grammar, which the average anglophone might never actually do.)

 

I love it. :evilgrin:

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I've actually listened in on a Spanish-English class.

 

It's very confusing, to a degree. XD

 

To ToM:

It's just the nature of the first-language speakers to be lazy with their vocabulary. I know Spanish speakers that are as bad as some English speakers when it comes to grammar and articulation. :P

 

~Nikira

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