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English is a funny language - Part 2

As we saw in part 1, 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, 
  • you fill in a form by filling it out and 
  • 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' ?  Do you agree that English is a Funny Language...

Stay tuned for the last and final part of this series and please share....

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