drew_13

I agree that English is a rather randomly constructed language but once mastered it is supposed to allow for much greater articulation and expression than many other languages. But when I say "mastered" I mean that pretty loosely considering that even native speakers make mistakes with it all the time. But like abarlament said, when there's a couple mistakes here and there, a sentence still often makes sense. There's definately much more efficient languages out there though...

pluiepoco

when natives speak together, we Chinese make grammatical mistakes all the way. Can I say that Chinese is also so good?

But I believe so!

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刘晓雨 pluiepoco
Home of Asia, 中国语言论坛(Chinese Forum of Languages), 西瓜村

Valeroso

Look at some great texts I found that further make English look like a hard jumbled language! :D

The English Lesson

We'll begin with box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox should be oxen, not oxes.
Then one fowl is goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a whole lot of mice,
But 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 pen?
The cow in the plural may be cows or kine,
But the plural of vow is vows, not vine.
And I speak of a foot, and you show me your feet,
But I give a boot...would a pair be beet?
If one is a tooth, and a whole set is teeth,
Why shouldn't the plural of booth be beeth?
If the singular is this, and the plural is these,
Why shouldn't the plural of kiss be kese?
Then one may be that, and three be those,
Yet the plural of hat would never be hose.
We speak of a brother, and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.
The masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine she, shis, and shim.
So our English, I think you will agree,
Is the trickiest language you ever did see.

I take it you already know
of tough, and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble, but not you
on hiccough, through, slough and though.
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps
To learn of less familiar traps?
Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird.
And dead; it's said like bed, not bead!
For goodness sake, don't call it deed!
Watch out for meat and great and threat,
(They rhyme with suite and straight and debt)
A moth is not a moth in mother,
Nor both in bother, broth in brother.
And here is not a match for there,
Nor dear and fear for bear and pear,
And then there's dose and rose and lose --
Just look them up -- and goose and choose,
And cork and work and card and ward
And font and front and word and sword.
And do and go, then thwart and cart.
Come, come, I've hardly made a start.
A dreadful language: Why, man alive,
I'd learned to talk when I was five.
And yet to write it, the more I tried,
I hadn't learned it at fifty-five.

[An alternative version quotes the final couplet as:
And yet to write it, the more I sigh,
I'll not learn how 'til the day I die.]

Valeroso

And another one! :D

English Language

There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple or in
pineapple. And while no one knows what is in a hotdog, you can be pretty
sure it isn't canine.

English muffins were not invented in England nor 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 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, two meese?

Is cheese the plural of choose? One mouse, 2 mice. One louse, 2 lice. One
house, 2 hice?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught?

If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?

Why do people recite at a play, and play at a recital?

Ship by truck or car 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 heck one day and cold as heck 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. You get in and out of a car, yet you get on and off a bus. 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?

English is a silly language ... it doesn't know if it is coming or going!!!

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Completely jumbled indeed! :D