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I've thought of this numerous times and am soooooooooo glad it is my native language. Almost
every English word I can think of has two or more meanings!
It's come up more often as conversation here in Tucson, AZ, because I've had many Hispanic aides who find English
a difficult language to learn. That is an understatement! Spanish is relatively simple in comparison.
The only thing that trips me up in that language is that they put the adjective AFTER their nouns so
it seems so backward. In Spanish it'd be "Bed Red:' rather than a "Red Bed" like we're used to
saying.
Lori
-------Original Message-------
Date: 06/30/05 11:01:07
Subject: [QUAD-L] to put it in perspective-with a smile FW: [CONTENT] Fwd: FW: The English Language
This is really interesting, and so RIGHT!
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.
21) 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"?
Candy Roberts, ABR, GRI, RCE
Executive Vice President
Middle Tennessee Association of REALTORS
Murfreesboro, TN 37127
http://mtar.org
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
615-893-2242 / fax 615-893-2250
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