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 or 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?
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?
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, 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.
PS. - Why doesn't "Buick" rhyme with "quick"
*You lovers of the English language might enjoy this .
There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is **"UP."
**It's easy to understand **UP* , meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake* UP* ? At a meeting, why does a topic come* UP* ? Why do we speak *UP* and why are the officers *UP* for election and why is it *UP* to the secretary to write* UP* a report ?
We call* UP* our friends. And we use it to brighten* UP* a room, polish* UP*the silver, we warm
*UP* the leftovers and clean *UP* the kitchen. We lock* UP* the house and some guys fix* UP* the old car . At other times the little word has real special meaning. People stir *UP* trouble, line* UP* for tickets, work *UP* an appetite, and think UP excuses. To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special.
And this* UP* is confusing: A drain must be opened* UP* because it is stopped UP We open* UP* a store in the morning but we close it *UP* at night.
*We seem to be pretty mixed** UP* about *UP* !
To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of *UP*, look the word* UP* in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes *UP* almost 1/4th of the page and can add* UP*to about thirty definitions.
If you are* UP* to it, you might try building* UP* a list of the many wa! ys *UP* is used. It will take *UP* a lot of your time, but if you don't give *UP*, you may wind *UP* with a hundred or more.
When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding *UP*. When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP.
*When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things **UP*
*When it doesn't rain for awhile, things dry* *UP*
*One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it* *UP* , for now my time is *UP* , so............ it is time to shut *UP* .!
VONNI
I have been driving people at work crazy talking about it so it would be great to have other like minded people to talk to.
Life with him wasn't so great and I started to over eat and the kilos piled on. My hubby was quite abusive and made up a lovely little song about how fat I was which he would sing with his son (my stepson). I finally got smart and kicked him out 6 weeks ago and decided it was time to get my self esteem back
My goal is to get back down to my usual weight of 65kg (I'm currently close to 85kg). I don't have the opportunity to go to a gym so I have been walking during my lunchtime and after tea. I have started to lose weight and feel heaps better about myself. My plan is also to meet some really nice people now. So I'm really happy about finding this support on this website.
At the moment you seem to be what keeps me going. And you have No Idea how grateful I am at this moment. Because I really did not want to come in here tonite.
. Well I would except I'm sitting here eating a tiny Cadbury easter egg. Pathetic as it is, I bought it for myself because nobody bought me any this year!
I'm a procrastinator from ****, and avoidance is my favourite mechanism heh. So I'll eat instead of working on my assignments. Clever, huh? I did do 156 minutes of exercise to try and minimise the damage... and managed a 20 minute continuous run, which I was happy about!
to JennyLee and Sue. Looking forward to getting to know you both. These guys here are wonderful. In good and bad they know just what to say or what not to say.