Reasons
why the English language is so hard to learn:
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) After
a number of injections my jaw got number.
19) Upon
seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.
20) I had
to subject the subject to a series of tests.
21) How
can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?
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.
Quicksand
works 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? 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? Is it an odd, or an end?
If
teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats
vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? 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.
P. S. - Why doesn't "Buick" rhyme with "quick"?