Reasons Why the English Language is Hard to Learn

me_punctured

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Reasons Why the English Language is Hard to Learn

The bandage was wound around the wound.

The farm was used to produce produce.

The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.

He could lead if he would get the lead out.

The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.

A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

I did not object to the object.

There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.

They were too close to the door to close it.

The buck does funny things when the does are present.

A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

After a number of injections my jaw got number.

Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.

I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

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 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, 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?

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? Park on driveways and drive on parkways? 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? 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, 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? English is a silly language — it doesn't know if it is coming or going.

(from an unknown source)
 
:lol: Some cool one-liners-- ;)


Now it's time for me to post at the post! See ya, that is if you'll see to it! :D
 
But wait . . . if a boss can can you, what do we do with fruits and vegetables that are inside them?

One from Snickers: "If I'm a dog, why do not pretty women get called "dogs?" Isn't this to insult dogs . . . you know, us, the ones on four legs, pant and put up with your silly jokes? :D
 
I spoke to people from other countries and they will tell you how hard it was to learn English (of course, other languages seem more difficult to us).

A good friend of mine is from Russia and she still does not understand the concept of die, dies, death(s), dead, and her term 'deads'.
 
Show me the sound..

The bandage was wound around the wound.

The farm was used to produce produce.

The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.

He could lead if he would get the lead out.

The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.

A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

Cued English/Cued Speech can distinguish the nuances of English. When the vowels "sounds" change the hand placement for the vowel sound also changes.
 
To avoid "sign" english language,

Why do farts smell?
So deaf people can enjoy them, too.

That's my miserable joke because I'm english, hmph!
 
I heard somewhere (though I would need a linguist to correct me) that we have over 20 different vowel sounds in English but just 5 vowels (6 if you count "y") that we're trying to use to cover them all. I would bet the consonant situation is just as bad...
 
me_punctured said:
Reasons Why the English Language is Hard to Learn

The bandage was wound around the wound.

The farm was used to produce produce.

The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.

He could lead if he would get the lead out.

The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.

A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

I did not object to the object.

There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.

They were too close to the door to close it.

The buck does funny things when the does are present.

A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

After a number of injections my jaw got number.

Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.

I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

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 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, 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?

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? Park on driveways and drive on parkways? 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? 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, 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? English is a silly language — it doesn't know if it is coming or going.

(from an unknown source)
Wow, no wonder we are so damn smart, cuz we learned it already! LOL! :thumb:
 
Rose Immortal said:
I heard somewhere (though I would need a linguist to correct me) that we have over 20 different vowel sounds in English but just 5 vowels (6 if you count "y") that we're trying to use to cover them all. I would bet the consonant situation is just as bad...

Yes, that's about correct. The number of vowels depends on the dialect of English. Linguists may interpret the findings differently, too. General North American English is relatively limited in the employment of vowels compared to Received Pronounciation.
 
Taylor said:
I spoke to people from other countries and they will tell you how hard it was to learn English (of course, other languages seem more difficult to us).

A good friend of mine is from Russia and she still does not understand the concept of die, dies, death(s), dead, and her term 'deads'.

Speaking of the concept of dying, "die" and "dye" both exactly sound the same in English speech. So does "waist" and "waste." And "to", "too", and "two." How about words that are spelt exactly the same but contain different meanings? "Mean" and "mean" comes to mind. :) As a native English speaker, I was oblivious to homonyms until I started reading up on linguistics and became fascinated with the study of deconstructing the language!

My parents are not native English speakers. They've been speaking it for more than half of their lives but occasionally falter with the more nuanced aspects of English. And once in a while, their verbs remain in the present tense when they speak of an occurrence that has already taken place or has yet to take place.
 
me_punctured said:
Speaking of the concept of dying, "die" and "dye" both exactly sound the same in English speech. So does "waist" and "waste." And "to", "too", and "two." How about words that are spelt exactly the same but contain different meanings? "Mean" and "mean" comes to mind. :) As a native English speaker, I was oblivious to homonyms until I started reading up on linguistics and became fascinated with the study of deconstructing the language!

The part about this which I find frustrating is the shockingly large number of people who can't get the words right! Just tonight my mother emailed me and said, "Not much going on hear." "HEAR"??? She's nearly 49-years-old, and still hasn't figured out the differences with "here" and "hear." Forget about "their," "there" and "they're." I don't even try anymore. :)
 
English Rules of Thub (sic)

1. Don't use no double negatives.
2. Make each pronoun agree with their antecedents.
3. Join clauses good, like a conjunction should.
4. About them sentence fragments.
5. When dangling, watch your participles.
6. Verbs has got to agree with their subjects.
7. Just between you and i, case is important.
8. Don't write run-on sentences when they are hard to read.
9. Don't use commas, which aren't necessary.
10. Try to not ever split infinitives.
11. It is important to use your apostrophe's correctly.
12. Proofread your writing to see if you any words out.
13. Correct speling is essential.
14. A preposition is something you never end a sentence up with.
15. While a transcendant vocabulary is laudable, one must be eternally careful so that the calculated objective of communication does not become ensconsed in obscurity.
16. Eschew obfuscation.
 
Over hear, their are lots of English experts. Its' pretty cool. Want to partake in counting them with me?
 
ayala920 said:
The part about this which I find frustrating is the shockingly large number of people who can't get the words right! Just tonight my mother emailed me and said, "Not much going on hear." "HEAR"??? She's nearly 49-years-old, and still hasn't figured out the differences with "here" and "hear." Forget about "their," "there" and "they're." I don't even try anymore. :)


Quite frankly, the mind of a hearing person baffles me to no end. ;)

But there are always exceptions!

I have a good friend who became stone deaf at the age of four and has remained that way since then. He grew up speaking Signed Exact English. His English is impeccable and flawless. I have yet to meet anyone else who can measure up to his level. Once we discussed about how one cannot conjugate the verb "read" to indicate its tense in writing (unless you write "she will read" or "he had read"), but one can pronounce it to indicate the time of the activity. He admitted that he unintentionally types "red" instead of "read" when he writes about the activity in the past tense. Then upon realizing his error, he curses himself.
 
Endymion said:
How does one verbally enunciate using SEE?

He just did. He was able to retain some of his speech over the years. You will have to ask my friend when you meet him someday.

Pardon my ignorance, but is there a reason why one cannot verbally enunciate using SEE? I'm not a SEE speaker and never was one.
 
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