المساعد الشخصي الرقمي

مشاهدة النسخة كاملة : Let's face it - English is a crazy language



SuPeRLaRk
16-07-2009, 02:51 PM
English Language



Let's face it - English is a crazy language.

In what other language do people drive in a parkway and park in a driveway?

Why does night fall but never break and day break but never fall?

Why is it that when we transport something by car, it's called a shipment, but when we transport something by ship, it's called cargo?

Why are people who ride motorcycles called bikers and people who ride bikes called cyclists?

In what other language do thay call the third hand on the clock the second hand?

Why is it called a TV set when you get only one?

Why - in our crazy language - can your nose run and your feet smell?

Sometimes you have to believe that all English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane:

If olive oil is made of olives, what do they make baby oil from?

If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian consume?

A writer is someone who writes, and a stinger is something that stings.

But fingers don't fing and grocers don't groce.

If the plural of tooth is teeth, shouldn't the plural of booth be beeth?

If the teacher taught, why isn't it also true that the preacher praught?

If harmless actions are the opposite of harmful actions, why are shameless and shameful behavior the same?

English is a language in which you can turn a light on and you can turn a light off and you can turn a light out, but you can't turn a light in;

In which the sun comes up and goes down, but prices go up and come down.

In which your nose can simultaneously burn up and burn down and your car can slow up and slow down, in which you can fill in a form by filling out a form and in which your alarm clock goes off by going on.

English is a crazy language. What is it that when the sun or the moon or the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible?; and why when I wind up my watch, I start it, but when I wind up this essay, I shall end it?



************

postgraduate
16-07-2009, 03:28 PM
SuperLark
To some extent yes it is! but not all English vocabularies are of English origin .There is something called loanwords .Such kind of words is derived from other languages such as French ,Arabic and so on .There is also an other kind called Complex.Such kind composes of more than one part such as breakfast , handbreak ,deadline ....etc. Being aware of that may help have a wide concept of how to use the language properly . Reading books such as Linguistics and those kinds of books which focus on the words structure may also help avoid that misunderstanding occured when reading something in English . At last , Regular and Irregular forms of some verbs and nouns cause a terrible misunderstanding .Some learners focus on the regular cases and forget about the Irregular ones . Thanks dear for sharing that

BloumagrieT
17-07-2009, 03:11 AM
SuPeRLaRk

With twisted words like these, I'd definitely say," Yes, it's"

Thank you brother or such an interesting topic

The tolerant
17-07-2009, 09:32 AM
http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/2927/e1pp7yy2fg41qd7.gif

CHARLES DICKENS
17-07-2009, 09:48 AM
The funny part is that we know or rather use all these craziness and contradictions
but we never realize it....till now
(-:
great topic ...I learned a lot
p.s
you kindda stuck to Moon, Sun, Light and Nose examples
let's call them the crazy English icons
!!!
All the Best Bro