ACS Toastmasters

                                                       Club 9458, Area 21, Metropolitan Division, District 69

WHY IS ENGLISH SO DIFFICULT?

Let's begin with a box, and the plural is boxes; but the plural of ox became oxen not oxes. One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,   yet the plural of moose should never be meese.

You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice; yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.

If the plural of man is always called men, why shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen?

If I spoke of my foot and show you my feet, and I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet? If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth, why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth?

Then one may be that, and three would be those, yet hat in the plural would never be hose, and the plural of cat is cats, not cose.

We speak of a brother and also of brethren, but though we say mother! we never say methren. Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him, but imagine the feminine, she, shis and shim.

Some reasons to be grateful if you grew up speaking English;

•       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.

•       We must polish the Polish furniture.

•       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.

•       At the Army base, a bass was painted on the head of a bass drum.

•       When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

•       I did not object to the object.

•       The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

•       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 Novocain 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?

•       I spent last evening evening out a pile of dirt.

Screwy pronunciations can mess up your mind! For example... If you have a rough cough, climbing can be tough when going through the bough on a tree!

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 and French Fries actually come from Belgium.

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?

Sometimes I think all the folks who grew up speaking English 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 wiseguy are opposites?

If Dad is Pop, how come Mom isn't Mop?

I can't explain why? Can you?

Anon.

ACS Toastmasters meets 1st and 3rd Wednesdays each month
To be notified of upcoming meetings, email  Wilma at "[email protected]"
Last updated: May 20, 2008.