Also, why do we park on a driveway, but drive on a parkway? Why are
"Good Morning, Good Afternoon, and Good Evening" all greetings? But
Good Night is not! Hmmmm! Enjoy the attached fun facts...
Subject: you think English is easy?
Change the words around, and it sounds like an idiot talking. Can you
read these right the first time? [oh, yeah....piece of cake!!]
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 .
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) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.
19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
20) 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. Moreover, 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? 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, 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.
PS. - Why doesn't 'Buick' rhyme with 'quick?' [And, as I explained to
one of my CIA bosses who told me to send out 'a kudo', that can't be
done...it'll have to be'kudos'! Also, you can give 'praise'....but
not one pray!] You lovers of the English language might enjoy this.
There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other
two-letter word, and that is 'UP.'
It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the
list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP ? At a
meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP , and why are the
officers UP for election, and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP
a report ?
We call UP our friends. Moreover, we use it to brighten UP a room,
polish UP the silver; we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen.
We lock UP the house, and some guys fix UP the old car. At other times,
the little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line
UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses. To be dressed
is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special. And this UP is confusing:
A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP . We open UP a
store in the morning, but we close it UP at night.
W e seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP ! To be knowledgeable about the
proper uses of UP , look UP the word UP in the dictionary. In a
desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can a dd
UP to about 30 definitions. If you are UP to it, you might try building
UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your
time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more.
When it threatens to rain, we say, it is clouding UP. When the sun comes
out, we say it is clearing UP.
When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP. When it
doesn't rain for awhile, things dry UP . One could go on and on, but
I'll wrap it UP , for now my time is UP , so… Time to shut UP !
Oh...one more thing!
What is the first thing you do in the morning & the last thing you do
at night? U-P
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