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Why English is so hard to learn

PostPosted: Apr 6, 2011 12:10 pm
by Phil Winkler
If you've learned to speak fluent English, you must be a genius!
This little treatise on the lovely language we share is only for the brave. Peruse at your leisure, English lovers.

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?
22] I want it to be on record that I will record my record
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.
Quicksand works 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? 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? Is it an odd, or an end?

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?

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.

P.S. - Why doesn't "Buick" rhyme with "quick"?

Re: Why English is so hard to learn

PostPosted: Apr 6, 2011 12:59 pm
by BrianC
To much to think about too.

Re: Why English is so hard to learn

PostPosted: Apr 6, 2011 4:06 pm
by nathanroser
We cave in a cave, people commune at the center of the commune, I water plants with water after I plant a plant. The bear liked to run, so he went for a run by the salmon run, at which he will also fish for fish. We will probe the mind with a probe. The farmer seeds the field with seeds. Some jokers thought dyeing a dying deer would be funny. Kayakers paddle with a paddle. You have the right to bear bear arms.

There are probably thousands of them out there.

Re: Why English is so hard to learn

PostPosted: Apr 6, 2011 4:51 pm
by NZcaver
Study up! :goodjob: There will be a quiz first thing in the morning. :tonguecheek:

Re: Why English is so hard to learn

PostPosted: Apr 6, 2011 5:50 pm
by nathanroser
Being a college student I would much rather study up on random information than physics, calculus (I'd probably choose death over taking calculus again actually), or icthyology, I rarely study for anything and it's worked out well so far.

Re: Why English is so hard to learn

PostPosted: Apr 7, 2011 11:40 am
by cavedad
Phil, your examples are GREAT! Not great as in large, but great as in good. (Just had to throw that in...)

I'm sending them to my English-major wife!

Reminds me of my favorite Dr. Suess book: The Tough Cough Ploughs the Dough

Re: Why English is so hard to learn

PostPosted: Apr 7, 2011 12:28 pm
by Anonymous_Coward
The word "fish" can be spelled ghoti.

You use the gh from enough
the o from women
and the ti from action

Re: Why English is so hard to learn

PostPosted: Apr 8, 2011 6:20 am
by paul
I've always liked the phrase: "Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana".