English as she is Spoke

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vclavin

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You think English is easy??

I think a retired English teacher was bored.

THIS IS GREAT!

Read all the way to the end.................
This took a lot of work to put together!

You think English is easy??


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

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

20) 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 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.
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 ways 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!
 
Once, long ago, it was published that the word "intoxicated" had more synomyms than any other word. They then went on to a long list. It was amazing.

Acronyms have taken over. We now forget the real words. We have begun duplicating acronyms excessively. For well over 30 years TMI was used for Three Mile Island. Today's generations have never heard of Three Mile Island.
 
backhoeboogie":27erq3x3 said:
Once, long ago, it was published that the word "intoxicated" had more synomyms than any other word. They then went on to a long list. It was amazing.

Acronyms have taken over. We now forget the real words. We have begun duplicating acronyms excessively. For well over 30 years TMI was used for Three Mile Island. Today's generations have never heard of Three Mile Island.

I have a problem with the word "pimples" kids don't know what those are and I don't understand "zits" ? Or whatever they are called these days.
I'm sure there a lot of them that do not know what LSMFT stand for.... daddy said it was broadcast over the radio for weeks... building up curiosity . then finally they gave the meaning. Do you remember?
Valerie
 
No I don't remember exactly. Dad smoked LS non-filtered, but I do not remember the rest of it. I used to ask him why he smoked non-filtered and he'd say, "Cause I don't wash my feet with my socks on."

The old timers didn't call them pimples or zits. They called them a hickey.
 
backhoeboogie":2vwdc20j said:
No I don't remember exactly. Dad smoked LS non-filtered, but I do not remember the rest of it. I used to ask him why he smoked non-filtered and he'd say, "Cause I don't wash my feet with my socks on."

The old timers didn't call them pimples or zits. They called them a hickey.

I understood "hickey" as something totally different!! lol

Lucky Strike Means Fine Tobacco
 
I always thought a 'Hickey' was a love bite! :?
a pimple I know as a 'zit'
LSMFT I wouldn't have no idea what that was a we don't have that brand here.
It is said English is the easiest language to learn, it is the grammar that is hard.
 
Well I've had hickeys on my neck but never anywhere else. Now wait, I was thinking about my lips!!!!

TLA's have taken over the world. We have a course at my day job to teach new hires how to speak the language, BHA, FTT, TLE, BOP, ROPS, WOB, TOB and BOB.

Ok so a quick lesson.

TLA Three Letter Acronym
BHA Bottom Hole Assembly
FTT Failure To Transmit
TLE Top Level Equipment
BOP Blow Out Preventer (the thing that failed on the deep water horizon in the Gulf)
ROP Rate Of Penetration (Never seen it without the "S" and have no idea what it stands for)
WOB Weight On Bit
TOB Torque On Bit
BOB Bend On Bit
.... and on and on and ....
 
lavacarancher":1el0565j said:
Well I've had hickeys on my neck but never anywhere else. Now wait, I was thinking about my lips!!!!

TLA's have taken over the world. We have a course at my day job to teach new hires how to speak the language, BHA, FTT, TLE, BOP, ROPS, WOB, TOB and BOB.

Ok so a quick lesson.

TLA Three Letter Acronym
BHA Bottom Hole Assembly
FTT Failure To Transmit
TLE Top Level Equipment
BOP Blow Out Preventer (the thing that failed on the deep water horizon in the Gulf)
ROP Rate Of Penetration (Never seen it without the "S" and have no idea what it stands for)
WOB Weight On Bit
TOB Torque On Bit
BOB Bend On Bit
.... and on and on and ....

You duplicated some:
BOP Balance of Plant
ROP Report of a Problem

We've got hundreds here at the nuke plant.
 
backhoeboogie":30kb3ap0 said:
Once, long ago, it was published that the word "intoxicated" had more synomyms than any other word. They then went on to a long list. It was amazing.

Acronyms have taken over. We now forget the real words. We have begun duplicating acronyms excessively. For well over 30 years TMI was used for Three Mile Island. Today's generations have never heard of Three Mile Island.
Most have no idea what happened at Hiroshima or Nagasaki either. History tends to get dim with most folks over time.
 
vclavin":32ea0gr7 said:
backhoeboogie":32ea0gr7 said:
No I don't remember exactly. Dad smoked LS non-filtered, but I do not remember the rest of it. I used to ask him why he smoked non-filtered and he'd say, "Cause I don't wash my feet with my socks on."

The old timers didn't call them pimples or zits. They called them a hickey.

I understood "hickey" as something totally different!! lol

Lucky Strike Means Fine Tobacco

Chrisy read above bold print for LSMFT
 
TexasBred":25p3b8ps said:
backhoeboogie":25p3b8ps said:
Once, long ago, it was published that the word "intoxicated" had more synomyms than any other word. They then went on to a long list. It was amazing.

Acronyms have taken over. We now forget the real words. We have begun duplicating acronyms excessively. For well over 30 years TMI was used for Three Mile Island. Today's generations have never heard of Three Mile Island.
Most have no idea what happened at Hiroshima or Nagasaki either. History tends to get dim with most folks over time.
You got that right, TB. Most folks can't remember what happened a couple of years ago let alone something like the nueclear attack on Japan that ended WWII. This is especially true when dealing with politicians.
 
The first post missed one that *really* bugs me about the english language

You don't know to pronounce something you read until you've read passed it
 
Nesikep":1v4uhjpc said:
The first post missed one that *really* bugs me about the english language

You don't know to pronounce something you read until you've read passed it
Whole heartedly agree with you on that one Nesi.....ie:- 'As in they sat in a row they had a row on who would row, so the boat went no where'....now wouldn't it be better put by saying 'They sat in a line and had an argument on who would row the boat'.
 
vclavin":1gvkompd said:
backhoeboogie":1gvkompd said:
No I don't remember exactly. Dad smoked LS non-filtered, but I do not remember the rest of it. I used to ask him why he smoked non-filtered and he'd say, "Cause I don't wash my feet with my socks on."

The old timers didn't call them pimples or zits. They called them a hickey.

I understood "hickey" as something totally different!! lol

Lucky Strike Means Fine Tobacco
Remember when Luckies came in a green pack.
Remember when Johnny advertised them on the radio and he used to wear a red costume that I think was a bell hop uniform.

Arthur Godfrey advertised Old Golds until he died of lung cancer.
 

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