English is a Crazy Language




 
--
English is a Crazy Language
 
August 17th, 2005  
tomtom22
 
 

Topic: English is a Crazy Language


English is a Crazy Language
FOUR ALL WHO REED AND RIGHT

We'll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes; but the plural of ox became oxen not oxes. One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese, yet the plural of moose should never be meese.

You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice; yet the plural of house is houses, not hice. If the plural of man is always called men, why shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen? If I spoke of my foot and show you my feet, and I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet? If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth, why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth?

Then one may be that, and three would be those, yet hat in the plural would never be hose, and the plural of cat is cats, not cose. We speak of a brother and also of brethren, but though we say mother, we never say methren. Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him, but imagine the feminine, she, shis and shim.

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. 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?

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 folks who grew up speaking English should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.

In what other 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.



Quote:
Originally Posted by Missileer
Ah, England and America, two countries separated by a common language.
August 17th, 2005  
Charge 7
 
 
And your house burned because it was both flammable and inflammable
August 18th, 2005  
behemoth79
 
 
ok im not gonna ask u everytime so lets just make this a mass request.
May i use everything you post here? lol.
--
English is a Crazy Language
June 11th, 2007  
Pacific Lure
 
 

Topic: I really like this post, Tom.


Very educating and funny!!
June 11th, 2007  
Team Infidel
 
 


June 12th, 2007  
AmericanSweetheart
 
 
Tom you have made me Laugh once again I think you are the comedy king dear!
June 13th, 2007  
tomtom22
 
 

Quote:
Originally Posted by AmericanSweetheart
Tom you have made me Laugh once again I think you are the comedy king dear!
I have lot's of help.