Get ready to
read the sentences. Comment upon the passages in blue.
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.
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.
Yes I agree that English is a rather difficult language. The abundance of phrasal verbs and homonyms makes it difficult to understand texts we read, to communicate with native speakers. It is a very treacherous language that can easily mislead us. But at the same time English is a very beautiful and interesting language. It is the language that almost everyone longs to master. And I think that if someone decides to take up the language, there could be nothing that can prevent him from learning it.
ОтветитьУдалитьI agree with Ann that English is very interesting and quite difficult language. Despite the fact that English has many Germanic words, Latin words, and French words, in my opinion it is much easier than Chinese or Russian. Of course, there are many difficulties in this language: irregular verbs, many words are spelled the same but sound different depending on the meaning and etc. This makes the English language hard to understand even for people whose native tongue is a related language, but unique and extremely interesting at the same time.
ОтветитьУдалитьMost russian people think that English is an easy language. Maybe if we compare it to the Russian language we can say so. But in my opinion every language is difficult. Talking about English I would like to say that there are a lot of difficulties in it and here I agree with the girls. While learning English I always find new areas where I have some problems. In this example we see that there are a lot of words that seem equal in writing but that have different meaning. Also the phonetic of the English language is extremely complicated. I really like English and it's my dream to speak English as my native language. So despite its difficulties I try very hard to achive my goal.
ОтветитьУдалитьThe author of this text is right, English is a crazy language. But I think such difficulties and many variants of pronunciation of the words which have the same spelling make the language more mysterious and fascinating. I agree with the previous girls' comments that every language isn't easy. So we can call this phenomenon as a distinguishing feature of the great English language.
ОтветитьУдалитьEvery language is difficult. English is easier than Russian, Chinese, Japanese, French or German, in my opinion. But one my teacher said: "You will learn English throughout your life and you will never know it".
ОтветитьУдалитьValeriya Gabuniya
I agree with the fact that English is difficult for understanding and learning. It is rich in phrasal verbs, words that were borrowed from other languages and have various meanings. It is really hard to remember them all, and to feel the difference in their meanings. We face problems every day, every minute, but if we want to get them over, we'll do all possible and impossible to reach goals and be successful. Life is difficult, we're like fighters, if we want to learn English and to be teachers in future, we will study it all days and even nights to be a little closer to our dream of achieving a C2 level. We'll fight with these problems and try to become the best teachers, like Frank McCourt.
ОтветитьУдалитьI agree with the authror of this text and with girls.Every language has its difficulties.Engluish isn't exception.There are a lot of words which have the same spelling but different pronunciation.But still,as Tanya said,they make the language more mysterious
ОтветитьУдалитьI understood how much bizarre the English language is when i read this article. There are so many things that I am not able to explain logically. For example, we say "You're welcome" after someone says "Thank you". But we are not welcoming someone. And we have a lot of difficalties with irregular verbs. That's what I had the most trouble in. So I agree that English isn`t easy language.
ОтветитьУдалитьI honestly can say that English is a very difficult language. There are a lot of rules and exceptions to learn. A lot of the words may be or may be not spelled the same and they can have different meanings too. But, they sound the same. For instance, watch. Something you wear on your wrist to tell time and something you look at. Like to watch a TV show.
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