Exceedingly Mundane

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Nov
23
Posted by Stace

English 101

TurkeyHowdy! Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We really did – we ate lots of food, and have lots of yummy leftovers left. I’m going to try a new soup recipe later today using the turkey carcass, hope that works out. We had a blast visiting with everyone yesterday, and most of them are still here today. The guys are going to play golf in this very chilly weather (high in the mid 50’s today). Gail and I are going to run to Target later, no Black Friday shopping for us. Elizabeth has to study 🙁

Hope you all have a good day-after Thanksgiving and weekend. I don’t think we’ll get to any Christmas decorations yet, maybe next weekend. We have a birthday party to go to this weekend, our youngest nephew turned 5 yesterday. Happy Birthday Ethan 😀

OK, I got this email a week or two ago from Tim and really liked it. I thought I’d post it today and let you guys enjoy! I’ve always said that the English language must be so hard for someone else to learn. I know I struggle with it enough, as it is!

—————–
English 101

If you’ve learned to speak fluent English, you must be a genius!

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

21) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

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 (Surprise!). Sweetmeats are candies
while sweetbreads, which aren’t sweet, are meat.

Quicksand works 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? 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? Is it an odd, or an end?

If teachers taught, why didn’t preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats
vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? 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.

P.S. – Why doesn’t “Buick” rhyme with “quick”?

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  1. Desert Songbird Said,

    I’ve received that e-mail in the past, and it always amazes me when I think about how well my parents spoke English. Talk about a confusing language!

  2. jen Said,

    Very cute and something to think about….have fun at Target..I’m doing on line shopping today. Madison is with mom in the middle of Black Friday. Miller and I chose to stay home.

  3. Fresh Girl Said,

    I’m so glad you had a good Thanksgiving! We did, too. There ARE Christmas decorations in our immediate future though — just as soon as Thomas leaves this afternoon, we’re getting to it. We want to have everything up by the time he comes back Sunday afternoon. 🙂

    That’s a great email! English IS a tough language to learn, and it’s not that easy to teach as a second language either! 😉

  4. Stacy aka Vaders Mom Said,

    I feel a headache coming on…the email is quite funny and mind boggling. Jeff & I had a wonderful time with it.

  5. Kim Said,

    Hi Stacey–
    Happy Thanksgiving! It sounds like your day was wonderful as was ours! I have missed you and hope to be back to blogging now. We were just taking about how hard the English language was yesterday–my oldest is taking Chinese at college after 2 years of college Spanish (and 2 years of high school Spanish)–he still thinks it would be harder to come here and learn English than it is for him to learn Chinese!
    Have a great weekend–
    kim

  6. sherry Said,

    And if we can be overwhelmed and underwhelmed, why can’t we just be whelmed?

    Hugs,

    Sherry

  7. Wakela Runen Said,

    This gave me a wonderful laugh! Thanks for posting it.

  8. Susanne Said,

    My head is spinning! It’s so true. It’s no wonder after about 50 years in this country my mom still makes errors with this language. She comes from a country where their language said what it meant and spelled it the way they said it.

  9. mamichelle Said,

    That email is great!! I cannot imagine what it would be like to learn English. Spanish I can handle!

    Hope you had a great turkey day!

  10. Theresa Said,

    Yes English is tough with all those exceptions.
    Glad to hear your turkey day went well!
    Enjoy decorating!

  11. Lauren@Baseballs&Bows Said,

    I am so glad you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Loved the English part. It really is amazing that we ever learn anything about our language!

  12. Kim Said,

    Hey Stacy, I like your new look! Of course, it could be an old look for all I know since it’s been so long since I visited anyone’s blogs!

    The girls and I had a huge conversation about the English quirks this week after seeing some Canadian geese. Some others we thought of are: you see one mouse and two mice, but not one house and two hice. You wear a pair of panties, but only one bra, and there were others, but I can’t remember them.

    Have a great Sunday!

  13. Gail Said,

    English is hard but I’m glad I don’t have to learn another language, or hope I don’t ever have to! Don has said before that other languages sort of say what they mean, put what to do at the first of the sentence type thing, where we have the specific at the end of the sentence and people (aka, children!) quit listening because it was at the end of the sentence….don’t think I explained that very good! Limited knowledge of english for me I guess!

    I’ve also heard stuff like, we park on driveways and drive on parkways!

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