LEARNING THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE



If you ever feel stupid, then just read on. 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?

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? 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"?

A guy I worked with once asked me me about homonyms, so I explained that it is two different words that sound the same, but with different meanings. He asked for an example and this is what I came up with... "he cannot bear to bear a bare bear that bears her little bare bear!" Meaning, "he can't stand to carry an unclothed momma bear that is pregnant with her naked baby bear".

Reminds me of the time when a different co-worker stumbled into my office holdering her head and asking if I had a couple of bears. Wasn't sure I heard her right, so I asked her to repeat it. After several tries, I finally realized she was asking for some Bayers - she wanted a couple of aspirin!

__________________
~~~Teelbee
Back to GOAL!!!
start weight: 176/goal range: 137-134/now: 138
Reached goal in Aug. 2003 - 4rd year of maintenance.

where was this when i was takeing english my 12 grade yr in high school we had to come up w/ i think 50 difrent senteces useing at least 1 word in 2 difrent meanings
i think i got about 20.. befor the time was up.. The english language is by most the hardest language.. even tho we look at forigen languages as very hard to learn.

It is funny that in America english is not consider our language.. there are actualy only 2 countrys that consider english to be their language..

a little question.. anyone actualy know wich two they are.. might be surprised to know wich ones they are..

__________________
01/02/04-248{ 4/29/04- 218} 6/30/04- 204
7-05-04 198 8/30/04 - 190 (got lost after that-)
4/03/08- 261 -
Goal-140-145

Actually Chinese is considered the most difficult because they have words that sound the same but have different meanings depending on the intonation that you use. (i.e. spoken softly or loudly, empasis on the beginning or end.

__________________
Libby

2004 174/142/138

Begin Again 2007

164/159/142

I used to know the answer to that question, Gilley, but I cannot recall...aren't they both in South America? I believe that one is Belize. Wait, now I am thinking there is a country in Africa.... nope, can't recall...

__________________
Cynthia