And you think English is easy, think again

[whs]

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.
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 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'?

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

You nailed English quite well. It's a language of shady parentage (forum software censored the B word I tried to use) with origins in the Old High German, Old French (essentially a mixture of Frankish and Norse), Norse, various Celtic languages, and Latin. And, if that wasn't bad enough, English devolves due to lazy speakers of the language. The English, who "invented" the language, are the worst for butchering an already butchered language, frequently deleting syllables, dropping Rs from some words and adding them to the end of other words where they don't belong. Yeesh!

 

[Britton30]

I love it Wolfgang, it seems like a routine Gallagher could have done.
Why doesn't cough, rough, slough, rhyme? When there's a breeze do you feel a draft or a draught? Is that drought?

 

[z3r010]

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5- year phase-in plan that would become known as "Euro-English".

In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c".. Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of "k". This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f".. This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible.

Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling.

Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent "e" in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.

By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" with "z" and "w" with "v".

During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou" and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensi bl riten styl.

Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi TU understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.

Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas.

 

[boohbah]

u got to be phoking joking ja?

 

[Golden]

Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas.

Hahaha

 

[strollin]

English certainly isn't consistent, is it? Unfortunately for me, it's the only language I know.

BTW, this one -> "13) They were too close to the door to close it." begs to be changed to something like, "The two of them were too close to the door to close it."

 

[whs]

There is one good rule in German - every letter is pronounced and sequences of letters are always pronounced the same way. If the German grammar would not be so damn complex, German would indeed be easier than English because in terms of pronounciation, there are no real mysteries.

 

[Britton30]

As a native English speaker, I'm not sure of this. I have heard that English is one of the hardest languages to learn if one isn't born into it.

I think what we speak in the US is American, not English although very similar. If you'd ask one of us for a torch, you'd get something other than a hand held light.

Opinions?

 

[whs]

Nah, that's not so. If it was not for the lack of any pronounciation rules, English would be the easiest language of those that I know.

 

[z3r010]

I've found myself a few times reading through a page in German and mostly understanding it without hitting translate on the browser, to speak I know a lot more Spanish than any other second language but if I look at a page of it I need to hit translate to make any sense, German and English are not that far apart.

In UK Schools they mostly seem to teach french as a secondary language, I've always been baffled by this as only a few country's in the world speak french and we mostly go to Spanish countries on holiday/vacation

 

[Slartybart]

Methinks, therefore meam

Where, wear, ware, werewolf -> there wolf

Bear left

English is the child of many languages

 

[Britton30]

That's where, I think, most of the US education system fails is not making a second language mandatory. Depending on where one lives this second language would be English or Spanish.

In our University environment, add Korean, Japanese, Hindi, or Russian

 

[SIW2]

9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes

That isn't English.

When shot at, the dove dived into the bushes.

 

[whs]

I've found myself a few times reading through a page in German and mostly understanding it without hitting translate on the browser, to speak I know a lot more Spanish than any other second language but if I look at a page of it I need to hit translate to make any sense, German and English are not that far apart.

In UK Schools they mostly seem to teach french as a secondary language, I've always been baffled by this as only a few country's in the world speak french and we mostly go to Spanish countries on holiday/vacation

We go to France every year and you would be amazed how many Brits are there on vacation or permanently. In one little town in the Lot they even make the announcements during the Sunday market in English. They have speakers all over town.

You may want to read this book from Peter Mayle. It is very amusing. I bet you won't put it down before the end. He has written other books about France too.

 

[z3r010]

I think in all English speaking counties that Spanish followed my Mandarin Chinese should be mandatory, the only thing anybody needs to learn in french is "I'm a cheese eating surrender monkey" although I think most of the french have learnt that in German anyway

 

[whs]

French is one of the most beautiful and amusing languages. It happens to be my second mother language and the one I prefer to speak. Unfortunately now I don't get to France too often- Just vacation and an occasional trip to Alsace which is not far from my German home.

 

[linnemeyerhere]

I took French in High School and I have to wonder the wisdom of that choice here in Southern California, I wish I had a way to practice speaking and listening to it. But speaking of English to the regional surf dialect here that has warped English into now common phases but back in the early days it was a way to communicate without the adults having a clue and I'm sure it drove them batty! Now with the whole rap culture it's funny how difficult just understanding someone can be and we're in theory speaking the same language for the States but a far cry from the Queens English !

 

[Fantail]

I didn't say that I didn't say it. I said that I din't say that I said it.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Nah, that's not so. If it was not for the lack of any pronounciation rules, English would be the easiest language of those that I know.

Oh, we have pronunciation rules. It's just that we have more exceptions to the rules than adherence to them.

Methinks, therefore meam

Where, wear, ware, werewolf -> there wolf

Bear left

English is the child of many languages

English is the illegitimate child of many languages

That's where, I think, most of the US education system fails is not making a second language mandatory. Depending on where one lives this second language would be English or Spanish.

In our University environment, add Korean, Japanese, Hindi, or Russian

Back when I was in school (half a century ago), a second language was mandatory.

9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes

That isn't English.

When shot at, the dove dived into the bushes.

Something like the runner slud into second base?