xpsal

English is really crazy
There is no egg in eggplant nor 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 and 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.

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MikeL

And that's only the beginning...

What about the spelling?

Remember GBS's "ghoti"...

blejz

Nice one, pretty funny actually. Didn't realise English was a language of misused words :P

Nadine

Very amusing !!!

Droops

Hello,

For some of the examples you give, you enter the deep and treacherous realms of etymology and philology...
both rime with : "Long story"

However, I like the way you put it ... human beings are so strange... they have this unique ability to ... imagine.

ilkar

yeah..well, english is english, and i think that it has always been a paradoxal language..but i guess there are others like that!!

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Gott weiß ich will kein Engel sein..
Rammstein - Engel.

siddiqui

In any case, it is easier to learn than any other European language. I struggled too long to learn French