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Last post 19 years ago by eleltea. 8 replies replies.
English Lessons
RDC Offline
#1 Posted:
Joined: 01-21-2000
Posts: 5,874
Why the English language promotes drinking

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?





Further:



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? 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?



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? You park in the driveway and drive on the parkway? How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? 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 and 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.

And, why doesn't Buick rhyme with quick?

eleltea Offline
#2 Posted:
Joined: 03-03-2002
Posts: 4,562
Nicholas Pritchard, of Southampton English Language Centre, wrote: "My late grandfather used to tell me that while there were only 36 words in English containing the letters 'ough', there were nine different ways of pronouncing it, all of which could be found in the following rather obscure sentence: Though a rough cough and hiccoughs ploughed through him, he houghed the horse with thorough thoughtfulness. I wonder, however, where this leaves Lough Neagh, the largest lake in the United Kingdom?"

It sometimes takes the Patience of Job to find a great job.

In Denmark, what we call Danish are called Vienna cakes.
eleltea Offline
#3 Posted:
Joined: 03-03-2002
Posts: 4,562
How many words can you name where 'su' is pronounced 'shu'?

Biscuit?

cexshun Offline
#4 Posted:
Joined: 09-23-2004
Posts: 1,289
Why is it a pair of pants but brazier is singular?
tailgater Offline
#5 Posted:
Joined: 06-01-2000
Posts: 26,185
One elevator goes from floor 4 to floor 2.
I wonder if the other elevator goes from four to two too?
tailgater Offline
#6 Posted:
Joined: 06-01-2000
Posts: 26,185
I ate eight apples.

They will raze that building to raise another one.

We won one million dollars, which is some sum of money!

We yelled fore four times, for they didn't hear us from here.
tailgater Offline
#7 Posted:
Joined: 06-01-2000
Posts: 26,185
if "ph" is pronounced like "f", then why isn't "loophole" pronounced "loofole"?
tornado Offline
#8 Posted:
Joined: 05-27-2004
Posts: 244
And everyone complains about foreigners that "won't" learn the English language. More like "can't" learn it because it doesn't make any sense (cents, since).
eleltea Offline
#9 Posted:
Joined: 03-03-2002
Posts: 4,562
Oh, yeah, and fish can be spelled ghoti.
gh as in rough
o as in women
ti as in nation.
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