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OT, Totally OT, But I Had to Bring it UP!

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  • OT, Totally OT, But I Had to Bring it UP!

    This was from my HS group:
    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!


    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 giveUP, 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 clearingUP.
    When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes thingsUP.
    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!
    Now it's UP to you what you do with this email.


    Paul A.
    SE Texas

    And if you look REAL close at an analog signal,
    You will find that it has discrete steps.

  • #2
    There is a modern day linguist, I can't recall his name, but I could look it up. He said if you locked a bunch of people in a room so they had no contact with the outside world for 100 years, when they came out you would not understand their language. He was on TED talks. OK I did look him up, John McWhorter.

    Comment


    • #3
      There was a big discussion in our barn on Saturday about the gender of my Polaris buggy. Four workers were trying to convince each other whether it was Der, Die or Das. Finally I spoke up and told them that my buggy was Macho and very masculine there for from this day forward it will be Der which is the masculine pronoun. Then I told them to get their asses back to work!
      Location: The Black Forest in Germany

      How to become a millionaire: Start out with 10 million and take up machining as a hobby!

      Comment


      • #4
        Some of those were "cute" BUT when you start mixing the "case" or "subject of discussion" then the whole thing falls apart. For example;

        If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught?
        (You're mixing Past participle and Past tense. NOT FAIR. Teacher teach and preachers preach )
        If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
        (Again you're comparing diet to vocation or avocation)

        And so forth. But I'll agree the Present, Past, and Past participle bit is more than confusing and could be "improved". :-)

        It would be similar to comparing some kind of fruit to the results of a track and field event. :-) not even close to the old "comparing apples to oranges".
        ...lew...

        Oh! Re the "UP" thing, about 80 or more percent of them could just be eliminated with no confusion.
        ..lew..
        Last edited by Lew Hartswick; 08-15-2022, 08:21 AM.

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        • #5
          Originally posted by Black Forest View Post
          There was a big discussion in our barn on Saturday about the gender of my Polaris buggy. Four workers were trying to convince each other whether it was Der, Die or Das. Finally I spoke up and told them that my buggy was Macho and very masculine there for from this day forward it will be Der which is the masculine pronoun. Then I told them to get their asses back to work!
          You could always bolt on a set of truck nuts.

          Comment


          • #6
            Today, guys don't weld it up
            they weld it out.
            They don't finish it up
            they finish it out.

            Drives me freaking nuts.

            People are so impressed by their own speech.
            They try to listen to the words of society and
            try to emulate the latest mis-usage of words.

            It is not the democratic party
            it is the democrat party.
            You don't say republicanic party
            do you ? ? ?

            When did especially become expecially ? ? ?

            When did candidates become candidits ? ? ?

            Why is everyone trying to sound like they
            dropped out of school in 6th grade ?

            And where did this ONES come from?
            Like,
            Let me show you these ones.
            How about just
            Let me show you these.

            Why do people think the past tense of Grind is Grinded?
            It is Ground. You sound like you slept in English class.

            When did Important become Impordant ?

            -D
            Last edited by Doozer; 08-16-2022, 03:33 PM.
            DZER

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            • #7
              If petroleum oil is made from petroleum, vegetable oil is made from vegetables, fish oil is made from fish, what is baby oil made of?
              Last edited by Toolguy; 08-15-2022, 10:27 AM.
              Kansas City area

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              • #8
                English is an easy language to learn, but hard to master. French was always the prefered language of diplomacy as it is much less troubled by ambiguity than English. I strive to use correct spelling, but it is noticable just how badly spelt many words are, particularly on the internet, maybe due to lazyness.
                I always remember an announcment made as my flight decended into Newark Airport, "we will be landing momentarily", I thought, "better get ready to jump, then".
                I do notice that in general, printed books have better spelling and diction, probably due to proof readers doing their job.
                Last edited by old mart; 08-15-2022, 10:09 AM.

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                • #9
                  A preposition without an object is incorrect English. That's why expressions like "Where's it at ?" make you sound like a total redneck. The dangling preposition at the end of a sentence is wrong. As Lew points out, in most cases it can be dropped completely.

                  Where's it at ? - Where is it ?
                  Did you wake up ? - Did you awake ?
                  etc.

                  With the dumbing down of the schools, many people don't know the past participle of common verbs. Nothing makes you sound more like a dummy than using expressions like "had went", "had came", "had ran", etc.

                  Whether you like it or not, people will evaluate you based on how you speak and write. Content is, of course, important but how the content is delivered can often overwhelm its importance.
                  Last edited by mklotz; 08-18-2022, 01:40 PM.
                  Regards, Marv

                  Home Shop Freeware - Tools for People Who Build Things
                  http://www.myvirtualnetwork.com/mklotz

                  Location: LA, CA, USA

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                  • #10
                    There almost IS no such "language" as "English".

                    It's a mix of grammar from Norse languages, words from French, "old english", latin, and several germanic dialects, plus more words from a couple dozen other languages.

                    it's always fun to make fun of english, but it's a worthless thing to do, since the "language" is so full of the remains of other languages that it is almost a guarantee that there will be some sort of apparent inconsistency.

                    Others have oddities built in. Chinese, for instance, has the fun characteristic that how you say the word changes the meaning. It is as if "HORSE" meant an animal, HOrse meant a type of rock, horSE meant a color, and HOrSE meant a pencil.

                    In some languages the word order is unimportant, so something that would literally translate "man bites dog" means the same thing as "dog bites man", with both meaning that the dog did the biting (the noun apparently changes to show who is biting and who is bitten).

                    If you want some fun, check out the videos under "robwords" on youtube. There is an interesting one on the letters that dropped out of english, including a letter called "thorn". That video explains why things get called "ye olde coffee shop" or the like. Spoiler alert, "ye" is pronounced "the".
                    CNC machines only go through the motions.

                    Ideas expressed may be mine, or from anyone else in the universe.
                    Not responsible for clerical errors. Or those made by lay people either.
                    Number formats and units may be chosen at random depending on what day it is.
                    I reserve the right to use a number system with any integer base without prior notice.
                    Generalizations are understood to be "often" true, but not true in every case.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Advise and advice. On this forum it's fingernails on a chalkboard considering the wrong usage.
                      *sez the guy that hated English classed and barely got through them.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by I make chips View Post
                        Advise and advice. On this forum it's fingernails on a chalkboard considering the wrong usage.
                        *sez the guy that hated English classed and barely got through them.
                        Perhaps the worst one is "loose" instead of "lose"

                        The opposite of 'win' is 'lose', not 'loose'.
                        The opposite of 'find' is 'lose', not 'loose'.
                        The opposite of 'tight' is 'loose'.
                        'Loose' rhymes with 'moose', 'noose', and 'goose'


                        Regards, Marv

                        Home Shop Freeware - Tools for People Who Build Things
                        http://www.myvirtualnetwork.com/mklotz

                        Location: LA, CA, USA

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          You think English is crazy? You should try some Portuguese
                          Helder Ferreira
                          Setubal, Portugal

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Originally posted by mklotz View Post
                            A preposition without an object is incorrect English. That's why expressions like "Where's it at ?" make you sound like a total redneck. The dangling preposition at the end of a sentence is wrong. As Lew points out, in most cases it can be dropped completely.

                            .
                            That was one of Winston Churchill's pet peeves. He said "... ending a sentence with a preposition is something, up with which I will not put!"
                            Lynn (Huntsville, AL)

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                            • #15
                              Originally posted by lynnl View Post

                              That was one of Winston Churchill's pet peeves. He said "... ending a sentence with a preposition is something, up with which I will not put!"
                              Winny loved to toy with language. He tells the story of the little boy, sick in bed upstairs. His mother selects a book and goes upstairs to read to him and help him feel better. When she enters his room, he says,

                              Why did you bring that book I don't like to be read to out of up for ?

                              My favorite Churchill story...

                              Bernard Shaw once sent two tickets for the opening of his new play, with the invitation: Bring a friend - if you have one.
                              Churchill regretted that he was engaged, and asked for tickets for the second performance: If there is one.
                              Regards, Marv

                              Home Shop Freeware - Tools for People Who Build Things
                              http://www.myvirtualnetwork.com/mklotz

                              Location: LA, CA, USA

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