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ESL forum > Message board > Then they say English is easy to learn :)    

Then they say English is easy to learn :)



marie.marron
Spain

Then they say English is easy to learn :)
 

15 Nov 2012      





TriumphTriumph
Russian Federation

Great)))

15 Nov 2012     



mohzayat
Egypt

Nice idea

Thanks a lot

15 Nov 2012     



mohzayat
Egypt

Then Why do they say that it is easy?!

15 Nov 2012     



nvr1
France

so true ... lol

15 Nov 2012     



tikaniki
France


I had that version...Enjoy!

WHY ENGLISH IS SO HARD  



We �ll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.


If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn �t the plural of pan be called pen?
If I speak of my foot and show you my feet,
And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn �t the plural of booth be called beeth?


Then one may be that, and three would be those,
Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,
And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.
We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine: she, shis and shim!


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.
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?


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 folks who grew up speaking English should be
committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.


In what other language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?
We ship by truck but send cargo by ship.
We have noses that run and feet that smell.
We park in a driveway and drive in a parkway.
And 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.


And, in closing, if Father is Pop, how come Mother �s not Mop?


That �s all for now.

15 Nov 2012     



maryse pey�
France

15 Nov 2012     



almaz
United Kingdom

Damn, but English isn �t any crazier than any other language - despite what Richard Lederer and his toad-eaters suggest. If you�re genuinely interested in why the spelling seems to be purposeless but isn �t really, or designed to trap innocent learners etc but doesn �t really, then have a look at David Crystal �s recent book, Spell it out. There �s a fairly decent preview of it from the man himself here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/23/david-crystal-story-english-spelling

15 Nov 2012     



MoodyMoody
United States

English spelling is definitely a mess. You �re right to a certain extent, almaz; understanding the history behind the spelling makes it easier to cope with. However, it �s still crazy! Other languages are difficult/crazy in different ways; it never made sense to me that Fr�ulein and M�dchen are neuter in German, even though the endings always take das.

Another complication in English is the sheer number of words we have. Estimates start at 1,000,000 and go up from there. French, on the other hand, has only about 100,000 words, or 10%. That is quite daunting for many students.

15 Nov 2012     



almaz
United Kingdom

From the OED:
"Comparisons of the vocabulary size of English to that of other languages are generally not taken very seriously by linguists and lexicographers."
You �ll also find that quote here in Wikipedia (I see my old friend Geoff Pullum is up to his usual tricks again Smile ). 

16 Nov 2012