Interesting Observations

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Did you think English was an easy language?

Can you read these right the first time?

The bandage was wound around the wound.
The farm was used to produce produce.
The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
We must polish the Polish furniture.
He could lead if he would get the lead out.
The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present. red for you
A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
I did not object to the object.
The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
They were too close to the door to close it.
The buck does funny things when the does are present.
A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
Upon seeing the tear in the painting, I shed a tear.
I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

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 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 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, 2 indices? If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? 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?

Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. 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? red for me

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.

PS. – Why doesn't Buick rhyme with quick?

You lovers of the English language might enjoy this:

There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is UP.

It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or toward the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP? At a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report?

We call UP our friends. We use something to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver, warm UP the leftovers, and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car. At other times the little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses. To be dressed is one thing but to be dressed UP is special.

And this UP is confusing: A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP. We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.

When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP. When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP
When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP
When it doesn't rain for awhile, things dry UP

We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP! To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions. If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more.

We could go on, but I'll wrap it UP, for now my time is UP; so: Time to shut UP!

Oh… one more thing: What are the first thing you do in the morning and the last thing you do at night? UP

PS: BTW I found this message in my inbox this morning and it gave me a chuckle, thought I'd share it with you. hope it brought smiles to you too..

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72 comments
SnakeLobve

To be honost, I was born in Canada, and am 13 years old. I STILL get confused with english, and I have been speaking it all of my life. I always get tongue tied when I try to talk, and it is kind of funny xD. So, no way! English is the hardest language ever! Haha, I always wonder why I attempt to learn a DIFFERENT language, when I already have troubles with this one xDDD.

Russian

Haha, this is not meant to offende anyone but English is incredibly easy language to learn.
In 2 years i can speak and write fuently, without any complications or mistakes. No wonder its so widely used, its so damn easy. Any book writen in English just feels so empty.

Also writing down the most complicated bits of English language isnt gonna convince anyone that it’s hard, and its not very likely that anyone will use those phrases anywhere but a book.

If you think English is hard, I’d like to see what you think of Russian or Chinese languages :)

Benjamin

I love this post.
My native language is German, which is also very confusing in its own way. I also speak a bit French, Spanish and Italian and I’m quite good at Latin and Classic Greek. I guess it’s always the same: The more you know, the more you see that you don’t understand certain things.
I’ve been learning English for about twelve years now and I’m currently preparing to take the CPE test. I’m very glad to see I’m not the only one who is sometimes struggling to get through all the small wonders of the English tongue. If you just look at the morphological stuff, English seems to be simple. Take a look at syntax, prepositions and phrasal verbs and you’re gonna need a stiff drink.

Teaspoon

I have read this twice and I still find it to be inanely stupid and childish.

Teaspoon

And French fries are called such because of the way they’re cooked.
Same with French toast (Which may have come from Belgium, but, Belgium and France are not the same place.)

mez

That’s right, there’s no egg in eggplant…nor is there an aub in aubergine.

alex

I’d just like to point out that while, yes, everything you listed is, in fact, confusing, they are only so because people don’t bother to learn where words come from. For example:

boxing rings are square – “ring” also means “arena”, not just “circle”

nor ham in hamburger – “Hamburgers” are so named because they come from Hamburg, Germany

make amends but not one amend – this is because it is assumed that more than one thing needs to be reconciled in order to fix the situation

slim chance and a fat chance be the same – in the first case, they mean “a slim (small) chance that it will happen” and in the second, “a fat (large) chance that it won’t

As for things like “playing at a recital” vs. “reciting at a play” and “runny nose” and “smelly feet”… these things are called “idioms”. I suggest you revisit the 6th grade… English teachers are very fond of them there. Finally, idioms and irregularities in spelling rules (especially with past-tenses of verbs and plurals of nouns) are found in every language on earth. In fact, differing rules for forming the past-tense of a verb is institutionalized in a great many foreign languages, and is ubiquitous in the older languages (Old English, Old German, Old French, Latin, etc)… meaning, of course, the languages that all current languages stem from. It would be just as easy for a native German-speaker or a native French-speaker to do the same for their own languages.

The only reason that English *might* be more confusing (seriously, have you looked at Scandinavian languages? 20 times worse)is that its rule sets are made from several different origins, not one or two set linguistic traditions as in most languages.

dave so

ok this has me quite confused. think i might have to UP my reading skills. ha ha!

dave sos last blog post..Chinese New Year 2009

Nat

What kind of stupidity is this? Almost half of the times you mentioned “up”, it was used in a consistent way. Some of the others were used in idiomic expressions (like “calling up” a friend), most uses of “up” were just flat out unnecessary and could be expressed with another word or verb.

Whoever said that English syntax is confusing needs to go back to their grammar books. English is my 4th language (Russian my first, Spanish and French my second and third) and I find that English syntax is quite consistent and logical.

Astrid Lee Reiki Master Teacher

Ha ha, as a non-native English speaker for 20 years now, you are making me laugh! It is true: English is not an easy language. But then again, it’s handy when you can speak it.

Ever tried Japanese?

Astrid Lee Reiki Master Teachers last blog post..Suze Orman