Learning English?
Posted: Wed Jan 20, 2010 12:27 am
The recent interest in people thinking the english language is easy to learn has led me to start a new thread. Ok, the basics of the language may not be overly hard, but to understand and use day to day language properly? I think english is pretty tough, and according to quite a few foreign people I know who have learnt english it is quite hard.
Here are some examples of why, I found these on a site and though I would post them up for you all to see.
All the following words are different words with different meanings, some are pronounced the same, some slightly differently:
wound
wound
produce
produce
refuse
lead
lead
desert
desert
dessert
bass
bass
dove
dove
object
object
invalid
invalid
present
present
present
row
row
close
close
sewer
sewer
sow
sow
wind
wind
number
number
tear
tear
subject
subject
Once you have got your head around that, have a read of these:
• 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.
• 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, 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?
• 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?
• 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?
• 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.
• 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?
Here are some examples of why, I found these on a site and though I would post them up for you all to see.
All the following words are different words with different meanings, some are pronounced the same, some slightly differently:
wound
wound
produce
produce
refuse
lead
lead
desert
desert
dessert
bass
bass
dove
dove
object
object
invalid
invalid
present
present
present
row
row
close
close
sewer
sewer
sow
sow
wind
wind
number
number
tear
tear
subject
subject
Once you have got your head around that, have a read of these:
• 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.
• 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, 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?
• 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?
• 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?
• 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.
• 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?