Hi
Try this for madness
Reasons why the English Language is so hard to learn;
1. The farm was used to produce produce
2. The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
3. We must polish the Polish furniture.
4. He could lead if he would get the lead out.
5. The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
6. Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.
7. A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
8. When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
9. I did not object to the object.
10. The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
11. There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
12. They were too close to the door to close it.
13. The buck does funny thing when the does are present.
14. A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
15. To help with planting the farmer taught his sow to sow.
16. The wind was too strong to wind in the sail. A
17. After a number of injections my jaw got number.
18. Upon seeing the tear in the painting, I shed a tear.
19. I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
20. How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?
Let’s face it English is a crazy language. There is neither 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.
We take English for granted. But if we explore the 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 finge, 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, two geese. So one moose, two meese? One index, two indices? 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, are humanitarians cannibals?
Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an Asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite 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? And if I’m uncouth, are you couth? And finally, why doesn’t Buick rhyme with quick?
Many thanks to Margaret W
ARAS NEWSLETTER V.66
John F
