Let's face it -- English is a crazy language! > > > >There's 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, two geese. So one > > moose, two meese? One index, two indices? > >Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend, > > that you comb through the annals of history but not a single annal? > > 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 preacher praught? If a vegetarian > > eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? If you wrote a > >letter, perhaps you bote your tongue? > >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? Park on driveways and > >drive on parkways? > > How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise > > man and a wise guy are opposites? How can overlook and oversee be > >opposites, while quite a lot and quite a few are alike? How can the > > weather be hot as hell one day and cold as hell another? > >How you noticed that we talk about certain things only when they > > are absent? Have you ever seen a horseful carriage or a strapful > >gown? > > Met a sung hero or experienced requited love? > >Have you ever run into someone who was dis-combobulated, grunted, > > ruly or peccable? And where are all those people who ARE spring > > chickens or who would ACTUALLY hurt a fly? > >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 out and in which an alarm clock goes off by going on. > >English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects > >the creativity of the human race (which, of course, isn't a race at > >all). > > That is why, when 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 end it! > > This joke is from the collection at www.usaone.net/jokenet
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