English is a crazy language - Take a look.

Hello guys,

Aw! in the middle of a pile of paper here in my bedroom - I was trying to straighten it up - I found this genious text created by Richard Lederer who described these out-of-this-world english rules and it would be nice if I shared it with you. After reading this, post your comments about it.

English is a crazy Language

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 blouse, 2 blice?

Doesn’t it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend, that you comb through 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 preachers 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 “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?

Have 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 combobulated, gruntled, 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 it 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?

Notice that there are some controversial phrasal verbs, it is indeed a good opportunity to memorize some and use it in your daily routine, what do you think?

Hope it helps.

Regards

AMPLIANDO O VOCABULÁRIO
Isa Mara Lando é uma referência entre os profissionais de tradução. Ela já traduziu mais de 100 livros, entre eles estão obras de autores aclamados, como: George Orwell, Salman Rushdie e Walter Isaacson (a biografia de Einstein). Nesta aula gratuita, Isa dá várias dicas de vocabulário. ACESSAR AULA
5 respostas
Ordenar por: Data
josneywat 6
I guess all languages are neither rational nor logical. It is not an expection in the English language.
Logan18 1
Thank you for sharing this text with us, It's quite important for all students here. I think this text is very interesting and crazy, by the way, the text calls attention to the humour that is exposed in some points by the writer Richard.

Great idea RenanKenples.

Regards.
Logan18,

It is nice to see you liked it. It is an interesting text that clearly shows up some paradoxes about english. Sometimes it is confusing for some learners to distinguish, for example, 'to fill' in and 'to fill out', but what they don't know, is that if you are filling out a document, you fill it in. After all, it is almost the same thing! And it shows up some athitesis that are really very interesting to see their meanings in an essay. It is not just a matter of mixing and matching as we see fit. And this text ranges from intermediate students to advanced ones [which sometimes gets confused with some things considered to be stupid, which actually aren't].

Thanks so much for your support.

Cheers,
jlmmelo 14 106
When you think about it, English makes NO SENSE at all.

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'English Is Crazy' Poem Proves The English Language Makes No Sense Whatsoever (VIDEO)
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Ref. huffingtonpost

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Proof that the English language is crazy and makes no sense

English isn't the hardest language in the world to learn but it's definitely a crazy one with wacky rules. Things that apply for some words, never seem to be considered for similar ones. Change one letter here and it can sound completely different there but sound the same somewhere else. It's all pretty ridiculous.
Ref. sploid.gizmodo
Although some may say that all the languages are like that the fact is that those anachronism are way more common in English and in European languages, due the fact that those are products of several languages mixed with each other they don`t have a consistent logic of it`s own.