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English....it's easy......not
10

English....it's easy......not

English....it's easy......not

2
(OP)
If you thought the English language was easy please read on.....
1, The bandage was wound around the wound.

2, The farm was used to produce produce.

3, The dump was so full it had to refuse more refuse.

4, There is no time like the present, so he thought he would present
the present.

5, When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

6, He did not object to the object.

7, The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

8,The oarsmen had a row about how to row.

9, he was too close to the door to close it.

10, A stag does strange things when the does are present.

11, After a number of injections my jaw became number.

12, The artist saw a tear in his painting and shed a tear.

13,She had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

14, An army chef decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

There are no eggs in an eggplant, no apple or pine in pineapple.

Quicksand works slowly.
Boxing rings are square.
Guinea pigs are neither from Guinea or are pigs.
Writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers
don't ham.
If a vegetarian eats veg, what does an humanitarian eat?
A slim chance and a fat chance are similar.
So are quite a lot and quite a few.
But overlook and oversee are very different.
You fill in a form to fill it out.
An alarm goes off by going on.
when the stars are out, you see their light but when the lights are
out you see nothing.

RE: English....it's easy......not

2
Or, consider why:

Though sounds like go
Tough sounds like stuff
Cough sounds like off
Through sounds like you
Bough sounds like cow

Man, what a confusing language...

Oh yeah, and one of my favorites:

Why do inflammable and flammable mean the same thing?

RE: English....it's easy......not

Addendum to my previous post:

Though sounds like go
Tough sounds like stuff
Cough sounds like off
Through sounds like you
Bough sounds like cow

So, how is pronounced the name of Gough St. in San Francisco? (or San Francischough

RE: English....it's easy......not

and ghoti for you

TTFN

RE: English....it's easy......not

Laughable phrases as those brought by Roca can be easily built by using the innumerable amount of words that serve both as nouns and as verbs at the same time. Right ?

RE: English....it's easy......not

<and ghoti for you>

I guess that's:
'gh' pronounced as 'f' ( as in 'enough')
'o' pronounced as 'i' ( as in 'women')
'ti' pronounced as 'sh' ( as in 'nation')

Good Luck
johnwm

RE: English....it's easy......not

Also the order of words can completely change the meaning.

Thus a house cat is nothing like a cathouse.



Rick Kitson MBA P.Eng

Construction Project Management
From conception to completion
www.kitsonengineering.com

RE: English....it's easy......not

As for Gough, I pronounce it so that it rhymes with "cough"

TTFN

RE: English....it's easy......not

A funny personal story about a cathouse.

My college buddy, after getting married and buying a cat, decided to build house for his cat.  Thinking that he was building a cathouse for a cat, similar to a doghouse for a dog, he constantly referred to his little project as the cathouse.

My friend has a degree in Architectual Engineering with a double major in a Construction Management.  When he states that he is building a cathouse, out of context, this is very perplexing to the informed listener.  He never quite understood why he got so many snickers of laughter or sincere questions as to "WHERE ARE YOU BUILDING THIS?" until we told him what a "cathouse" was.

--Scott

For some pleasure reading, try FAQ731-376

RE: English....it's easy......not

The word 'route' also presents problems for non-english/americans. Americans strangely say it as rout (r-ow-t), as 'the enemey was routed' whereas the british will say it as root (r-oo-t), probably coming from the french word for street - 'rue'.

"Two countries separated by a common language" as someone once said.

corus

RE: English....it's easy......not

Depends on the usage, at least for me.  

Route as in a street or road, I pronouce (r-oo-t) as in Route 66.  

The other (r-ow-t) as in we routed them B*** so we could talk our own way!!

TTFN

RE: English....it's easy......not

And for those who cheer for the underdog, do you root for the team being routed?

RE: English....it's easy......not

Let's not forget words like cache and niche, or is that pronounced "catch and nitch".

Ray Reynolds
"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."
Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977
Have you read FAQ731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

RE: English....it's easy......not

It does not seem that anyone else noticed but ...

in the original post

"11, After a number of injections my jaw became number."

cannot be included.  Gramatically correct version of this line would be "more numb" as "number" is not a word in this sense.  However, if your jaw is already numb it is impossible to make it more numb so even this case would not work.

RE: English....it's easy......not

In my home city, we have a major arterial road named Troughton Street. I was listening to the morning traffic report recently. The announcer said that there was a bad accident causing hold-ups on “Troffton” Street. (As in a water “trough”.)

My immediate thought was that the announcer was too inarticulate to be allowed to earn a living on radio – EVERYBODY knows it is pronounced “Trowton” Street. ("Trough" to rhyme with "bough".)

Then it occurred to me – just because I call it “Trowton” Street, how do I know how it should be pronounced? Presumably, the original Mr/ Ms Troughton is the only person who could give a definitive answer! (And maybe it's really pronounced “Trooton” Street as in “through”, or “Truffton” Street as in “rough”?)

RE: English....it's easy......not

In a similar vein, there is a major street in New York City, Houston (howston), pronounced entirely different from the city in Texas, Houston (hueston)

RE: English....it's easy......not

In the same vein as CanEngJohn. (numb and more numb)

1. Virtually spotless.
     a. Its either spotless or its not....
(i always forget how to use its or it's -> it's is the possesive right?)

2. Very Pretty.
     a. Pretty has no level, either pretty or not....

3. pretty many
     a. again many is not increasable....

nick

RE: English....it's easy......not

sorry should have read all the threads here before posting.....


RE: English....it's easy......not

Au contraire w.r.t. to number 2.  Merriam-Webster, etal shows:

Main Entry: 1pret·ty  
Pronunciation: 'pri-tE, 'pur- also 'pru-
Function: adjective
Inflected Form(s): pret·ti·er; -est


Since there is prettier and prettiest, there's at least 3 levels.

That puts "very pretty" somewhere between prettier and prettiest, kind of a split-level.

TTFN

RE: English....it's easy......not

Well then Tom Robbins has it wrong in "Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates".

Nick
I love materials science!

RE: English....it's easy......not

IRstuff said, "Since there is prettier and prettiest, there's at least 3 levels."

NanoMan responds, "Since at least three levels exist, then there're more than one. `There's` is singular..."

Gotcha!

RE: English....it's easy......not

MILAN

In Italy it is pronounced with the accent on the last syllable;

In Michigan, Milan is pronounced with the accent on the first syllable.

Go figger. You can never tell.
It depends on the dictionary used, also.

Buy a dictionary, keep it nearby and USE it. Webster's New World Dictionary of American English is recommended, and Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.

RE: English....it's easy......not

jimbo --

City or towns names are almost always mis-pronounced from the way you'd expect them to be, especially if they appear to have international roots.  Here's a few examples from Missouri....

(all caps is emphasized syllable)
Vichy is 'VITCH-ee'
Versailles is 'vuhr-SALES'
Milan is 'MILE-ann'
Bois D'arc is 'BOW-dark'
Cairo is 'KAY-Row'

That's just a few off the top of my head....

RE: English....it's easy......not

not to mention

Pierre, N. (or S.?) Dakota, which is pronouced peer

TTFN

RE: English....it's easy......not

NickE
(i always forget how to use its or it's -> it's is the possesive right?)

It's is short for it is.
Its is the possessive.

RE: English....it's easy......not

2
Tips with English Grammer


1. Don't abbrev.
2. Check to see if you any words out.
3. Be carefully to use adjectives and adverbs correct.
4. About sentence fragments.
5. When dangling, don't use participles.
6. Don't use no double negatives.
7. Each pronoun agrees with their antecedent.
8. Just between you and I, case is important.
9. Join clauses good, like a conjunction should.
10. Don't use commas, that aren't necessary.
11. Its important to use apostrophe's right.
12. It's better not to unnecessarily split an infinitive.
13. Never leave a transitive verb just lay there without an object.
14. Only Proper Nouns should be capitalized. also a sentence should.
15. begin with a capital and end with a period
16. Use hyphens in compound-words, not just in any two-word phrase.
17. In letters compositions reports and things like that we use commas
18. to keep a string of items apart.
19. Watch out for irregular verbs which have creeped into our language.
20. Verbs has to agree with their subjects.
21. Avoid unnecessary redundancy.
22. A writer mustn't shift your point of view.
23. Don't write a run-on sentence you've got to punctuate it.
24. A preposition isn't a good thing to end a sentence with.
25. Avoid cliches like the plague.

RE: English....it's easy......not

TD2K,

Either you're very imaginative or you've got great sources for any material. Either way, something handy for an engineer

tom

PS:(I think there's an word missing in point 2)

RE: English....it's easy......not

nanoman,
How come you got capitals in yer handle i.e. NanoMan.  Are you making an oxymoron statement there or what?

That is why I coined the word nonuninflammable.  Would it have the same meaning as the other two you cited?

There is a town in Illinois named El Dorado and also one in Kansas both pronounced locally as El Doraydo.

There is a street in Atlanta named Ponce' de Leon.  Locals pronounce it Ponts dee Leon to rhyme with  turn the lights on.

In Centralia, IL, I pronounced one street as Cal'umet even though the locals pronouunced it Calumet'.  Their pronunciation sounds harsh.  At first it seemed strange that Central City, IL had Green Street Road until we lived in the area for years and it dawned on me that it goes from the city into the country.  Perfectly logical... street in the city road in the country - no?

Jesus is THE life,
Leonard

RE: English....it's easy......not

I used to pronouonce cache as sash until hearing most others pronounce it cash.  I used to think the pronunciation of debris was deb-riss until I heard a
Scotchmans' emphasis as daaay-bree.  And what about misled pronounced mice-llld?


IRstuff,
Are you more uniquer than I or is it vis versa.  Sorry couldna help myself.  Hope you are not lurking behind a bush somewhere ready to pounce.

The teacher said, "two negatives make a positive but two positives don't make a negative."  A student in the back row piped up, "yeah right."

easy...not?

Jesus is THE life,
Leonard

RE: English....it's easy......not

M,

Only if you're a legend in your own mind .

btw.. it's vice versa

and it's  "more unique", although it might have been "uniquer", if that word exists

TTFN

RE: English....it's easy......not

metman:

Who you callin' an ox? Or are you calling me a moron? Truth is, I've probably exhibited similarities with both at various times of my life.

Why two caps in the handle? I dunno... I like the way it looks? The oxymoron reference is over my head. Can you elaborate?

RE: English....it's easy......not

Is not nano supposed to be small like in the angstroms neighborhood?  Capitals are big wr2 lower case even to the point of almost but not quite "no comparison."  Just a silly thought that jumped into my head and if I have to explain it, apparently it is not very funny.

Instead of goofing off here, I should be researching nanoprepared Z stabilzed PRh wire and tapping your brain because this is my first experience at delving into the minimicro world of nanoism.  Or should that be nanoisms?  Or is that offensive to a small minded guy like you?  Or maybe your handle is not descriptive of anything whatsoever to do with what I am jabbering about.

IRstuff,  Nice shot vis=>vice
Sorry for the sloppy english.  I think I got more uniquer from a dearly departed lady who was bedfast with MS.  She preferred that term over bedridden.  She was the first to tell me about the unique rabbit and would also say more bestest instead of the preferred  more better.

Jesus is THE life,
Leonard

RE: English....it's easy......not

Oops there I go being pleonastic again.  I should have said "...has nothing whatever to do with..." or left of whatever and simply say "...has nothing to do with..."  Am I learning?  Is this forum instructive after all?

Jesus is THE life,
Leonard

RE: English....it's easy......not

M,

Sounds like your friend was into children's books, since both the -est and -er suffixes are common usage there, even on words that normally do not take them.  Apparently, writers think that kids understand the concepts better when using those constructs and, hopefully, they'll forget them or learn the correct usage by the time they go to school.

As for nanothings, the movies and TV have already created "nanites" (?) as the name of robotic nanothings, although "nanobot" seems more descriptive.

TTFN

RE: English....it's easy......not

English is indeed a rich language. When speaking of figures of speech try to remember the meaning of:

allegory, alliteration, anacoluthon, anadiplosis, anastrophe, antiphrasis, antithesis, antonomasia, aposiopesis or ellipsis, apostrophe, assonance, asyndeton, catachresis, epistrophe, epithet, erotema, euphemism, hendyadis, hypallage, hyperbole, hysteron proteron, irony, litotes or meiosis, malapropism, metaphor, metonymy, onomatopoeia, oxymoron, pleonasm, polysemy, polysyndeton, prosopopoeia, simile, syllepsis, synecdoche, tautology, tmesis, zeugma...,

and some more that my old listing missed. BTW, if I committed a mistake should I amend or emend ?

RE: English....it's easy......not

Just appoligise.

RE: English....it's easy......not

Words with the 'nano' prefix can also describe the 'quite big'. I seem to recall a science fiction story in which the term nanoparsec was used. According to my calculations, that's about 3 x 10^4 Kms, or almost the circumference of the earth.

Good Luck
johnwm

RE: English....it's easy......not

"appoligise"???

Saw the "s" and thought, oh, the British spelling, but not sure if the British spelling has two "p"s?

TTFN

RE: English....it's easy......not

Two "p" or two "l"s, i'm not yet fully cured.

RE: English....it's easy......not

Sometimes the cure is worse than the disease the English language having many examples of such.

Jesus is THE life,
Leonard

RE: English....it's easy......not

One 'p' and one 'l'

Good Luck
johnwm

RE: English....it's easy......not

One 'p' and one 'l'

No 'i' - it's not apoligize/apoligize, it's apologize/apologise.

RE: English....it's easy......not

OK, I'll take one "p", one "l" and an "s". I hate those zeds, (sorry, zees), the Bill Gates insists we all use. But I'll stay with the "g" even though many will insist that a "j" would be more logical.

 

RE: English....it's easy......not

"j" might be more logical - just not correct...

WRT Mr. Gates, you can set your MS Office dictionary to UK English and it will happily flag spellings like 'color', 'aluminum', and 'apologize' as incorrect.

RE: English....it's easy......not

Thanks NanoMan, i have but i don't like to miss the opportunity to have a go at Mr Gates. Living prove that you don't have to have the product right to make money.

RE: English....it's easy......not

I hear you jmw. Can you imagine if you bought a car that didn't run properly and the response was, "Wait 'til next year and buy the new model."?

RE: English....it's easy......not

Patches are to the software world what a slow warranty repair is to the automotive world.

RE: English....it's easy......not

Many a true word spoken in jest. Disconnect the battery on some late model cars and you have to 'reboot' the system (enter a security code)

With more and more electronic components and computerisation this may well be a reality in the near future. God help us if BG designs an operating system for cars.

RE: English....it's easy......not

Don't use no double negatives.

That's the art of prescribing poison to counter poison!

What is the difference between God and engineer? God doesn't think He is an engineer.

RE: English....it's easy......not

Oh God, if Bill gates were to write the software for cars....
"The all new Jeep Cherokee with Celeron, MS Car XP Pro"..... AAAAAGHHH!
Don't go there Kiwikid. Please, I'm begging you....

RE: English....it's easy......not

One of the most underutilized forms of punctuation is the hyphen. Even in this forum, I often see examples of missing hyphens.

The prompt for this post was the following statement in another eng-tips forum: "And some cash in hand jobs." My first reading caused me to do a double take - it reads like the capital allocation plan of a low-end pimp. Then I realized what they meant: "And some cash-in-hand jobs." Very different meanings, huh?

Other examples (some from this forum) are: "check-out lane," "target-rich environment," "free-fire zone," or "well-known person."

Remember, whenever two or more words function together as an adjective before a noun, they're to be hyphenated.

RE: English....it's easy......not

Off subject somewhat, but thought jmw might like this.
If car manufacturers had developed technology like Microsoft then:-
1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash twice a day.
2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.
3 Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull over to the side of the road, close all the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue.
4 Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to re-install the engine.
5 Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive, but would run on only five percent of roads.
6 The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single "This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation" warning light.
7 The airbag system would ask "Are you sure?" before deploying.
8 You'd have to press the "Start" button to turn the engine off.
Cheers all
DC

RE: English....it's easy......not

Thanks 3dkiwi, i did.

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