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Thursday, October 18, 2007


I found this write up in the net and I am in total agrrement of it's message! :) It is written by Richard Lederer:

English is not as Easy as the English think it is......Even the English Know that...

Let’s face it: English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant or ham
in hamburger, neither apple nor pine in pineapple.
English muffins were not
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, two indices? Is cheese the plural of choose?

If teachers taught, why didn’t preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables,
what does a humanitarian eat?

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? Park on driveways and drive on parkways?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? How can the weather be hot as hell one day as cold as hell another?

When a house burns up, it burns down. You fill in a form by filling it out and an alarm clock goes off by going on. When the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible. And why, when I wind up my watch, I start it, but when I wind up this essay, I end it?

Now I know why I flunked my English. It’s not my fault; the silly language doesn’t quite know whether it’s coming or going.

Isn't it true?? I've studied this language all through my life as a second language and until now i get confused? I may have been better but not in full command of it's proper usage.

But what do I know? My first language doesn't even have enough words to live by... ;)

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