Thursday, March 18, 2010

Lets learn how crazy english is!

ENGLISH is a MAD MAD language..

 

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) Upon seeing the   tear in the painting, I shed a tear.
19) I had to   subject the subject   to a series of tests.

20) 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. 



 

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