BS: Reasons why English is so hard to learn

Subject: RE: BS: Reasons why English is so hard to learn
From: katlaughing
Date: 10 Aug 01 - 06:05 PM

proactive - antiactive=a sloth?

Oh, Bill, I can just imagine, esp. with the Grey Poupon mustard commercials in mind, with the posh holding the bottle of mustard!

kat

Subject: RE: Help: Reasons why English is so hard to learn
From: Bill D
Date: 10 Aug 01 - 05:56 PM

"The wind was rough,
And cold and blough..
She kept her hands
Inside her mough."

there is a newsgroup called japan.lang.english.communication, where Japanese trying to learn English post questions & comments, trying to discern 'rules' and correct usage...it can be funny, sad, silly, astounding...and more. One of the funniest was a LONG discussion of the meaning of "hold the mustard" when referring to a hamburger...

Subject: RE: Help: Reasons why English is so hard to learn
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 10 Aug 01 - 05:53 PM

i before e except after c and in WEIRD words. Append list. We must mention the tendency to invent new word usage to take care of political and social correctness. Then there are the jerks who invent all of the unnecessary terms for computer users. Why spam and not junk mail, software instead of programs, etc. How many people say impact instead of affect and effect (fuzzying up the language, to coin another unnecessary word), say proactive when they mean active.

Subject: RE: Help: Reasons why English is so hard to learn
From: katlaughing
Date: 10 Aug 01 - 05:49 PM

Dicho, it wasn't me who wrote up the original, I just passed it on. Don't want to take undue credit. Good one on the "bow.":-)

Subject: RE: Help: Reasons why English is so hard to learn
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Aug 01 - 05:46 PM

French isn't too regular either you know, nor Spanish, German, Italian etc

Lets not be too harsh on English.

After all, it's what made America great!!

Subject: RE: Help: Reasons why English is so hard to learn
From: Sorcha
Date: 10 Aug 01 - 05:37 PM

I read the red book. Can you read?

Subject: RE: Help: Reasons why English is so hard to learn
From: GUEST,Sam
Date: 10 Aug 01 - 05:32 PM

Daystar,

What sort of help would you like?

There are lots of dyslexia resorces on the web, a couple of threads here too

Sam

how come dyslexics always know how to spell dyslexia?? (sorry, cheap joke)

Subject: RE: Help: Reasons why English is so hard to learn
From: Daystar
Date: 10 Aug 01 - 05:24 PM

Help Iam English but all these are just confusing to some one with dyslexia!!!!!!!

Subject: RE: Help: Reasons why English is so hard to learn
From: Don Firth
Date: 10 Aug 01 - 05:24 PM

Shelley Berman had a pretty funny schtick on plurals. The only thing I can remember right now though is "One mouse, two mice; one blouse, two blice." More when (if) I can remember them.

Musically speaking, a French horn is not French, it's derived from an English hunting horn, and an English horn is not a horn, it's a woodwind. **Bleaugh!!**

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Help: Reasons why English is so hard to learn
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 10 Aug 01 - 05:20 PM

English is an agglomerative language. Italian is heavily derived from Latin but English has Norse, Teutonic, Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, French and Latin roots (may have missed some) plus more than a soupcon of aboriginal and oriental, Spanish, French and Italian, German, etc.,etc. words. In addition, the words of Latin derivation came from the Church, the Latin brought into French, changed, and given us by the Norman invasion, scholarly Latin, and the Latin invented by scientists to apply in botany, zoology, etc. KatL. missed a good one on bow- bow in the hair, bow the violin, bow and arrow, and the other bow (bough), bow of a ship, bow to a monarch, etc. I have heard experienced newscasters miss on that one. Now add all of the dialects such as Australian, Scots, Celtic, Yorkshire, Cockney and what H. L. Mencken called "The American Language" (see his book) and we have a real OLLA PODRIDA. It is what makes the English language the business language of the world because it is so flexible and encompassing. I also think it is what makes the language interesting and fun!

Subject: RE: Help: Reasons why English is so hard to learn
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Aug 01 - 05:13 PM

i before e except after c

works for receive

not such a good rule for spelling science

Subject: RE: Help: Reasons why English is so hard to learn
From: paddymac
Date: 10 Aug 01 - 05:06 PM

Went to Two, too. Might, mite; Site, cite;

ad nauseum!

I have the greatest respect for anyone who undertakes English as a second language. It seems as though the primary rule is to break all the rules.

Subject: RE: Help: Reasons why English is so hard to learn
From: GUEST,Sam
Date: 10 Aug 01 - 04:56 PM

Great stuff Kat, Thanks

A couple of points:

I 'think' it's only Americans who 'fill out' forms, here in England, we 'fill them in'

Also Buick does rhyme with Quick. at least where I'm from...

Sam

Subject: RE: Help: Reasons why English is so hard to learn
From: Hollowfox
Date: 10 Aug 01 - 04:51 PM

Charley, I prefer to think of it as "wicked good".

Subject: RE: Help: Reasons why English is so hard to learn
From: Hollowfox
Date: 10 Aug 01 - 04:49 PM

And then there's that anthology of early writings and drawings by Dr. Seuss:"The Tough Coughs as he Ploughs the Dough". (Morrow, 1987) (me, obsessive with those citations? Well, sometimes, but this time I just wanted to reassure you all that I'm not making this up. *g*)

Subject: RE: Help: Reasons why English is so hard to learn
From: Charley Noble
Date: 10 Aug 01 - 04:48 PM

You're right. English is "pretty bad".;-)

Subject: RE: Help: Reasons why English is so hard to learn
From: Sorcha
Date: 10 Aug 01 - 04:41 PM

Gallagher used to do something like this. It was hilarious! Thanks, kat!

Subject: Reasons why English is so hard to learn
From: katlaughing
Date: 10 Aug 01 - 04:33 PM

IT'S SUPPOSED TO SAY "BS"...SORRY!

Worth sharing, I think. **BG**

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?

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 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?

Park in a driveway, and drive on a parkway?

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"?