Crazy English language.....

[Filonian]

We'll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
but the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.

If the plural of man is always called men,
why shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen?
If I speak of my foot and show you my feet,
and I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth?

Then one may be that, and there would be those,
yet hat in the plural would never be hose,
and the plural of cat is cats, not cose.
We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
but though we say mother, we never say methren.
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
but imagine the feminine: she, shis and shim!

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.

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?

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 folks who grew up speaking English should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.
In what other language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?

We ship by truck but send cargo by ship.
We have noses that run and feet that smell.
We park in a driveway and drive in a parkway.
And 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.

And in closing..........


If Father is Pop, how come Mother's not Mop??????




Graham

[Vancouver]

Fabulous! I don't think there is any other language on the planet that is as wordy as English. German is beautiful but very structured, the French claim theirs is beautiful and Italian very Romantic, but English being a hybrid of them all is surely the most interesting and varied.

[airboatr]

If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them,
what do you call it?


Lonley,

I'd miss my stuff.

[nigelb]

At least our nouns don't have gender like the beautiful????? German nouns do. Masculine, Feminine and Neuter. A church is feminine but a girl is neuter! No wonder they lost th war!

Nigel²

[airboatr]

don't mention the Germans.

[Vancouver]

At least our nouns don't have gender like the beautiful????? German nouns do. Masculine, Feminine and Neuter. A church is feminine but a girl is neuter! No wonder they lost th war!

Nigel²

If you spoke German and read Schiller or Goethe in German you would understand.

[Airspeed]

I remember our German teacher being furious with us because we couldn't grasp the accusative, dative etc cases.
I think that was because although we had English Language and English Literature classes, I really don't recall being taught the full Grammar bit, and still have difficulty with it now.
Strangely, that was in Grammar School!
Graham, your point is well made!

[JohnWillimas]

Yepp, I'm having the same problem at the moment learning Greek. And that's a language with umpteen words for "the" and the word for "yes" is "nai"... Aaargh!