You Think English Is Easy?

Discussion in 'Off Topic' started by NO-ONE-HERE, Oct 10, 2013.

  1. You think English is easy?

    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. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.
     
  2. r/funny

    Goose, geese, moose, meese ;).
     
  3. Slightly different version.....

    The English Lesson (version one)

    We'll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes;
    But the plural of ox should be oxen not oxes.
    One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
    Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.

    You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
    But the plural of house is houses, not hice.
    If the plural of man is always called men,
    Why shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen?

    If I spoke of my foot and showed you my feet,
    When I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
    If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
    Why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth?

    If the singular is this, and the plural is these,
    Why shouldn't the plural of kiss be kese?
    Then one may be that, and three would be those,
    Yet the plural of hat would never be hose.

    We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
    But though we say mother, we never say methren.
    So plurals in English, I think you'll agree,
    Are indeed very tricky--singularly.
     
  4. Best thread by far. I laughed while reading the entire thing. Thank you for sharing this with us
     
  5. In England we say "chips", not "french fries."
     
  6. I love words 
     
  7. We don't say eggplant either
     
  8.  that was enjoyable!
     
  9. eggplant is aubergine :|
     
  10.  Amazing and so true!
     
  11. I honestly love stuff like this. Thanks for the post.
     
  12. How much wood can a wood chuck chuck if a wood chuck could chuck wood.

    Anyway.. i didn't read it all, but you are wrong about 1 thing️ (no hate intended)

    "why can writers write but fingers cant fing"

    Fingers can finger too
     
  13. What you call Chips we call Crisps.

    Lovely thread. I thoroughly enjoyed that.

    x
     
  14. You call them crisps because they're crispy..

    Chips (crisps) should be chips and 'french fries' should be potatoe sticksjks
     
  15. Guinea pigs make pig noises
     
  16. Fingers can finger but they can't fing....
     
  17. Is fing a word or an action?

    Coz my dictionary said Fing is the alternative spelling of 'effing' by UK people.

    If fing means effing, then yeah, fingers can fing alright
     
  18. This post made me giggle. But...I read everything perfectly. lol