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7. Came across these common gripes on-line: Stupid English teachers make English too hard. It’s all crazy with no rhyme or reason: There’s no egg in an eggplant and can’t find a bit of eggs in an eggroll . . . Hamburger is made of beef, not ham . . . Why is it the same when your house burned up or burned down? Sheese, why?
It's all in the trivia:
a. English teachers don’t make up the language or its rules. People have produced both over several centuries through talking and writing. Good English teachers explain it; great English teachers inspire it's use.
b. The fruit of an eggplant is ovoid. That means in the shape of an egg. Duh. Egg roll (two words, not one) is a translation of a Chinese dish wrapped in a thin pancake made mostly from eggs and water. Double duh! They could have called it "water roll," but that would upset as many complainers.
c. English is a pot of many languages. Hamburger is a German term meaning “from Hamburg” (a German city). In that city, they were known for grinding meat and making patties of it. The name has nothing to do with the type of meat. The same is true of frankfurters. In Frankfurt (another German city) lots of butchers prepared ground meat in sections of tubes (don't ask what they used for the tubes).
d. Actually, correct English is “Your house burned.” Period. Adding an unnecessary preposition to the end of a phrase is poor grammar, so again, don’t blame English teachers.
It’s like “Where are going to?” should be simply “Where are you going?”
“That’s where it’s at” would more correctly be “That’s where it is.”
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