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Trinity
3 Oct 2003, 9:28am
Found this and thought it was kinda interesting ;) It also reminds me of a typical messenger convo with shorty aka Mr Typo King ;D

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Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe.

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 nor 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, 2indices?
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 a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship?

Have noses that run and 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.

Why doesn't "Buick" rhyme with "quick"?

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Reasons why the English language is so hard to learn:

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


Trin x

Enverex
3 Oct 2003, 10:29am
Trinity said
One index, 2indices?

Multiple "Indexes" are called Indicies.

Trinity said
That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

Because the lights are out as in out of the clouds or out in visible placing, as opposed to lights being (turned) out (off).

NS

danball1976
3 Oct 2003, 6:37pm
Maybe since I am already an english speaker it doesn't seem hard, but consider another language.

Japanese for example doesn't really have personal identifiers like you and I know of. You can say one word differently and it means several different things. Sentance structure is crazy if you translated the sentance with the same order of the orignal language. Many words do not tranlate into Japanese, which is why on occasion, you'll hear english words intermixed into Japanese speak.

I understand that the Chinese language is the most complex in the world, and there are more than one dialect. They have over 5000 different symbols for their written language.

leishi85
3 Oct 2003, 8:05pm
yeha i speak chinese. and 1 dialect of chinese also. and i speak english, so that makes me able to speak 3 language.

w00t me.

danball1976
3 Oct 2003, 8:15pm
leishi85 said
yeha i speak chinese. and 1 dialect of chinese also. and i speak english, so that makes me able to speak 3 language.

w00t me.

Wouldn't that be 2 languages? Did you mean that you speak Japanese, as well as Chinese?

leishi85
3 Oct 2003, 8:50pm
i speak chinese(madrian), and i speak a dialect of chinese(it's so different, even if u speak madrian, u wouldn't beable to understand), anmd english, so it makes it 3.

danball1976
3 Oct 2003, 8:59pm
I understand there are 3 dialects of Chinese so different from each other, that a person fluent in one wouldn't be able to understand the others.

a2jfreak
3 Oct 2003, 9:04pm
I park on a driveway and drive on a parkway.

Thrax
4 Oct 2003, 12:52am
Piano-players are pianists, what does that make a race-car driver?

a2jfreak
4 Oct 2003, 1:23am
A hick?

panzerkw
4 Oct 2003, 3:08am
Chinese is unique in that even though there are different dialects, but use the same written language. A guy from Canton wouldn't be able to talk with a guy from Peking easily, but they can understand each other's handwriting just fine.

a2jfreak
4 Oct 2003, 3:40am
Kinda like a guy from San Diego probably can't understand a guy from LA--Lower Alabama--but can read the guy from LA's writing just fine (assuming the Alabaman can write). What is Alabama? 48th in the nation in education?

bothered
4 Oct 2003, 6:49am
English is a bit odd yeah but German? At work we had some electrical drawings for a machine that were in German and a German guy worked there. We asked him if he would translate it for us, He said he couldn't as it was technical German, almost another language.
I stayed at a hotel in Africa and the menus were in English, French and German. English, no problem (oviously) French could be made out but the German version? The English word 'soup' has four letters, the German word for soup had around 15! (I think it must have had the recipe hidden in it)

bothered.

Geeky1
4 Oct 2003, 6:58am
Bothered, it's interesting that you should say that... English is a Germanic language.

bothered
4 Oct 2003, 7:05am
English is a mongrel language, evolved from French, German and countless others. I think unless you live on an isolated Island all languages are.

bothered.

Enverex
4 Oct 2003, 8:04am
German is funny. The more complicated thing that the word represents is, the longer the word is.

NS

Nomad
4 Oct 2003, 7:13pm
Currently, I'm learning German and reaching the so-called point of fluency. The only thing that really needs work is the extent of my vocabulary really. In my class I've spoken to two different students who came from Germany on foreign exchange and I've also spoken to a lot of people in Europe online. While most of them prefer their own language, except all the Dutch I've talked to say they despise their language, they say English is relatively easy to learn. The main problem with the language is all the changes in pronounciation, but other then that, the English language is very simplified. They all loved the way we have one word for the, words don't change depending on what gender you're talking to, etc.

Infidel
15 Nov 2003, 3:38am
bothered had this to say
English is a bit odd yeah but German? At work we had some electrical drawings for a machine that were in German and a German guy worked there. We asked him if he would translate it for us, He said he couldn't as it was technical German, almost another language.
I stayed at a hotel in Africa and the menus were in English, French and German. English, no problem (oviously) French could be made out but the German version? The English word 'soup' has four letters, the German word for soup had around 15! (I think it must have had the recipe hidden in it)

bothered.

Just stumbled over this thread so I had to bring it back :)

Actually the German word for soup is "Suppe." Tomato soup would be "Tomatensuppe." When you pronounce it in German, Toemahtenzuppeh, it sounds a lot like the English "tomato soup."

And I salute the bravery of anyone trying to learn German. It is difficult, but I think also rewarding.

Infidel

Geeky1
15 Nov 2003, 3:40am
I dunno... I've always had less difficulty attempting to get something meaningful out of german documents than I have out of french, spanish, etc.

pseudonym
15 Nov 2003, 9:59am
Eh, learning German wasn't all that bad. 6 years of fun in school and I still suck at it. Least everything in the language is spelled just like it sounds.

Templar
15 Nov 2003, 12:47pm
Funny you should say other languages are more difficult than English, when english has all those fking rules and exceptions to those rules.

Gargoyle
15 Nov 2003, 4:44pm
I've taken 10 hrs of Spanish, and I've got to take 6 more before I graduate. At first, I liked how logical the romance languages are. How verbs are conjugated and how certain words are feminine, masculine, and things of that nature. Then we got to all the exceptions. Irregular verbs suck. :banghead:

It's memorizing vocabulary and the irregular verbs that gives me trouble. The grammar and rules of conjugation I don't have a problem remembering, since it's like memorizing a method instead of just a word.

EyesOnly
1 Dec 2003, 1:05pm
I read german for 3 years but never learned it that well. On the good side is that german is not that different from swedish. But that didn't make it any easyer when exeption came to play. I still remember entschuldigung but sometimes it was entschuldigen sie. Both mean excuse me but are different depending on who you're talking to.

About translation i see you point since case as in computer case can be translated to both låda and väska. The first meaning just case the other can also mean suitcase. And some call it chassie which is the same in both languages. Due to all computer terms i've rad it would be easier for me to tell people about computer parts in english since most terms are in english and translating every word would be difficult.

As inspired by a line from the movie K-PAX. You don't have to go to a hospital to be hospitible. I'll see if i can think of another.

EDIT
I just thought of some more. You can eat bass if you like fish but it's not the same bass that comes out of a subwofer. :D
You can eat a piece of something just as you can can eat peas but you can't eat peace.:vimp:

a2jfreak
1 Dec 2003, 1:16pm
That was such a stupid movie.

I remember when he was in the room with all these scientists and he was going to demonstrate his ability to "travel." The scientists said, "well, when are you leaving?" He replies, "I already did." That was just too much. :thumbsdow

EyesOnly had this to say
As inspired by a line from the movie K-PAX. You don't have to go to a hospital to be hospitible.

mmonnin
1 Dec 2003, 5:01pm
Thrax had this to say
Piano-players are pianists, what does that make a race-car driver?

A racist.

Geeky1
1 Dec 2003, 5:13pm
;D

Thrax
1 Dec 2003, 11:41pm
Give the man a cigar for not being annoyingly literal. ;D