astonbuilder
Member Since: 29 Sep 2006
Location: MIDLANDS
Posts: 8052
  
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| English language (old but good/relevant still) |
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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 dessert 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 the sail.
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 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'?
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 29th Jun 2018 2:01 pm |
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Oswiperus
D3 Decade
Member Since: 02 Apr 2010
Location: Chelmsford, Essex
Posts: 1590
  
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Very good.
Some food for thought there! (another odd one) Stu
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| 29th Jun 2018 2:51 pm |
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RRSTDV8
Member Since: 07 Apr 2014
Location: Here
Posts: 13098
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I guess that's a problem with a language that is made from Latin, Greek, Old English, Old French, French/Italian, Old High German, German, Old Norse and doubtless a few others.
Our language is rich because it is full of immigrants from other languages... Visiting from rrsport.co.uk
2012 RRS SDV6
2008 RRS TDV8
"When you fire that first shot, no matter how right you feel, you have no idea who's going to die! You don't know who's children are going to scream and burn. How many hearts will be broken. How many lives shattered. How much blood will spill, until everybody does what they were always going to have to do from the very beginning: SIT DOWN AND TALK!"
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| 29th Jun 2018 3:32 pm |
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Scott #55
Member Since: 15 Apr 2015
Location: Glasgow
Posts: 1664
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Has your post been thoroughly thought through? Made me cough when I read it. 2014 - D4 2010 HSE Nara Bronze
2012 - FL2 2009 GS Stornoway Grey
2001 - VW Passat Estate Inky Blue
1999 - Ford Mondeo Light Blue
1998 - Rover 25 Red
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| 29th Jun 2018 4:23 pm |
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astonbuilder
Member Since: 29 Sep 2006
Location: MIDLANDS
Posts: 8052
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| 29th Jun 2018 5:03 pm |
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