I am amazed by bi lingual peole. How can they get their brain to switch back and forth from one language to another? I thought Spanish would be fun to learn. 4 of my 5 kids know it and the some of the girls at the office put post it notes all over my office to help me. I decided to finally take the post it notes down. Then a friend of mine sent me this and I guess learning our language isn’t all that easy after all. #15 is my favorite.
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!
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? You know this can go on and on.
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 visiblebut when the lights are out they are invisible.
You lovers of the English language might enjoy this… or is this just TEXAS language?
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 ¼th 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 is rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP.
When is 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!
Gotta go make UP some quilts. Have a good weekend.
-Modalissa
Did you ever wonder how I came up with modalissa? Watch for my post about that next week, opps week after next.
LOL – great post! We do have a funny language…and that's before we talk about terminology! I'm from Canada and my DH is English and there are days I'm sure we are talking two different languages! My idea of pants (trousers) and his idea of pants (underwear) is just the start of some of the confusion in our house!
Oh Lissa..you provided such an entertaining post. thanks 🙂
haha.
and then if you are from the south and you move to the north you have to add some crazy things to this list.
example:
crick in the south = a crick in your neck
crick in the north = a creek
WHAT?!?!
{oops. i was signed in under my hubby's profile. looks like he forgot to sign out. lol.}
haha.
and then if you are from the south and you move to the north you have to add some crazy things to this list.
example:
crick in the south = a crick in your neck
crick in the north = a creek
WHAT?!?!
For me the funiest word to learn in english was eggplant…. does plant lay eggs in USA? and tell me why is it an Hamburger and not a beef burger? 🙂
Have a nice day!
Thank you for the funny! I always said in high school I wasn't taking a foreign language because English was hard enough 🙂 Have a super weekend!!
Why do we park in a driveway, and drive on a parkway???
Love this. I've never understood why my Mom who was born in Iowa, lived in Texas for awhile (where I was born), and then settled in Nevada pronounces "wash" like "wash your clothes" "Warsh"…just don't understand why the "r" is in there…if it came from Iowa or Texas or Nevada!
And in this area we say;
"It went UP"
for when something breaks. LOL!!!
Cynthia
this post made me crack UP!
xo
for Caroline Ingalls: re hamburger. [waving hand wildly] I know! I know! OH! pick me! pick me! 🙂
our flat circle of protein originally came from the German town of Hamburg … hence, hamburger. No pigs involved. 🙂
And then we can add ever popular "fixin' to", as in I'm fixin' to go to the store. Is that Texas or what!
Love the post- it's TOO truE! I only know every-other word in Spanish with a few specialties thrown in, like Margarita!
English is a crazy language is actually an excerpt from a book (or the intro of it) [title is English is a Crazy Language and there is a sequel too]. It goes into detail like this over an entire book!!!
I grew up in South Africa and we _had_ to learn Afrikaans at school, it was more like speaking in both languages at the same time than switching.
Then had to filter out all the stuff that wasn't proper English when I moved to a country where nobody would understand the Afrikaans.
Lissa – you quack me UP!!! Thanks for sharing your greatest sense of creativity and humor!!
Love this Lissa! Being a Texas gal this totally makes sense to me! LOL!
Just plan love this post. Its a shame there aren't enough words out there that we have to keep reusing them. Sewer with a needle/thread and then sewer the stinky one always had me wondering. Thanks for the laugh of the day.
I love languages and that was heaven to me. I'm Scottish and confused my English hubby talking about going out for the messages – food shopping in Scotland. Communication can be quite difficult!