ENagar

June 16, 2008

English is a crazy language

Filed under: Thoughts — Ankur Aggarwal @ 2:21 pm

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.

2) The farm was used to produce produce .

3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse .

4) We must polish the Polish furniture.

5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.

6) The soldier decided to desert his company in the desert.

7) Since there is no time like the present , he thought it was time to present the present

8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

10) I did not object to the object.

11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row .

13) They were too close to the door to close it.

14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.

15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

17) The wind was too strong to wind in the kite.

1 8) 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 no 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 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? 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 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?

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’

8 Comments »

  1. :D :D :D

    Comment by Sakhi — June 16, 2008 @ 5:46 pm

  2. If T-O is “to”, then why isn’t G-O pronounced as… :)

    Comment by Amit — June 16, 2008 @ 10:19 pm

  3. //ham in hamburger// actually there is… thats why its called ham burger. we call chicken burger also as hamburger. !!! :)

    but vry interesting :D

    Comment by xylene — June 16, 2008 @ 10:34 pm

  4. @xylene…
    thanks
    a hamburger need not necessarily have ham… plus in most india non veg by default means chicken.

    Comment by Ankur Aggarwal — June 17, 2008 @ 11:25 am

  5. Nice one indeed. Thoroughly enjoyed it. But I was wondering if we have similar things in other languages as well. Tried to think about it and found a few in Hindi too.
    some similar examples from Hindi..

    main tumhare baare mein jaan kar tumhari jaan loonga.
    main kaha to tha ki kaha jana hai par tumne kuchh kaha hi nahi..

    Others can add too. :-)

    Comment by Saket — June 17, 2008 @ 7:34 pm

  6. @ Saket

    Kamaal rey!

    Voracious Blog Reader

    Comment by Voracious Blog Reader — June 17, 2008 @ 8:36 pm

  7. :-) old, but still humorous

    Comment by Prax — June 18, 2008 @ 12:37 am

  8. This poem is amazing for my recitation i love it sooooooooooooooo good the writer who wrote it gave me a good idea for speaking in front of the whole school thanks to google it has so good poems.

    from dhruvi

    Comment by dhruvi — July 19, 2008 @ 2:46 pm

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