I miss you Sam!!

I miss you Sam!!
I miss you Sam!!

Friday, August 14, 2009

English Easy??? I Don't Think So!

A friend sent this to me and I thought it was not only very, very funny, but very, very true!

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.

PS. - Why doesn't 'Buick' rhyme with 'quick' ?

You lovers of the English language might enjoy this .

There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is 'UP.'

It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP ?
At a meeting, why does a topic come UP ?
Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report ?
We call UP our friends.
And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver; we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen.
We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car.
At other times the little word has real special meaning.
People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses.

To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special.
A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP..
We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.

We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP !
To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary.
In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions.
If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used.
It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more.
When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP .
When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP...
When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP.
When it doesn't rain for awhile, things dry UP.

One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP, for now my time is UP, so........it is time to shut UP!

17 comments:

Mark Kreider said...

This is a fantastic post! I'm going to copy it a file it for future reference... Thanks!

nsiyer said...

Fantastic, Sylvia. I amd my wife thoroughly enjoyed your writing. My wife says we take a print out and pin it UP.
And there is no GULAB in GULAB JAMUN, THE INDIAN DESSERT. NO DOG IN THE HOT DOG.

Gattina said...

Thanks for the english lesson, was very interesting to me,lol !

Deborah Godin said...

Man, if English wasn't my first language, I'm sure I'd never learn it!!!

Peggy said...

Wow;

I'm confused...not really,.. but I am so glad that English is my native tongue
...and I thought Italian was hard !

Ziggy Stardust said...

That was really interesting. Thanks

Anne

Sunny said...

I love this post. The English language is crazy!
Don't forget; They're going over there to have their picnic.
Have an nice weekend.
Sunny :)

Darlene said...

I sent this to my friends in Switzerland because I helped them with their English when they first resided in the U. S. The only English my friend knew was "Thank you" and "Hello." when she first arrived on our shore. Now (40 years later) she and her husband are fluent in English and write well in our language. I don't think we appreciate how difficult our language is until we see a funny post like this. Add the slang phrases that keep changing and it's a wonder anybody can speak English.

Linda Reeder said...

And we insist all immigrants must learn English? And immigrant children can be tested in English after one year, or even sooner?
Maybe we should cut them some slack!

Susan at Stony River said...

"An asylum for the verbally insane". OMG. I think I have the title of my next blog. LMAO

@Nsyier: we HOPE there is no dog in the hot dog! LOL

Kay said...

I remember seeing this when I was teaching. This is so neat. I'd like to copy it and send it to our friend in Japan who says English is difficult.

Kay said...

P.S. This was such a fabulous post, Sylvia. I really enjoyed it.

SandyCarlson said...

That was a lot of fun. I think I will have to use these when the school year starts again!

Enjoy that trip to Texas.

kRiZcPEc said...

And german is very hard!

Chris said...

That is funny! Phunny?

magiceye said...

:) the language that manages to keep one smiling!

storyteller said...

Ah yez ... I chuckled all the way through THIS post too as I recalled giving similar exercises to my students over the years and struggled with a number of those paradoxical questions myself. Kewl post. I appreciate the fact that you allow your entire post to show up in my reader. I can catch up more quickly and click on over when I have something to say. You KNOW how I enjoy your lovely photos and words of wisdom too. I'm glad you're out there in the blogosphere sharing humor, beauty, wisdom, and more even when I'm too busy to drop by regularly ;--)
Hugs and blessings,

What Can I Say?

What Can I Say?
I'm interested in almost everything. Use to like to travel, but it's too expensive now. I take Tai Chi classes, swim, volunteer in a Jump-start program for pre-schoolers. I'm an avid reader and like nearly everyone these days I follow politics avidly. I'm a former teacher and Special Projects Coordinator for a Telecommunications company, Assistant to the President of a Japanese silicon wafer manufacturing company. Am now enjoying retirement -- most of the time. I have two daughters, one son-in-law and two sons scattered all over the country. No grandchildren.

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