English is a funny language


	English is a funny language

arifsali

11-26-2006 9:44 PM

1221 views

tags:

language, english

1 Comment |

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9-12-2009 3:56 AM

murieleileen

Pete Seger has a song with some of this, called "English is Crazy".

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/9d4100bb-0dc9-4c42-976b-99d83ffc9ec7/0A7BB379-CC4C-48D9-A5B9-74B2FB6416B3/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1127/p18s02-hfes.html" href="http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1127/p18s02-hfes.html" style="font-size: 11px;">www.csmonitor.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1127/p18s02-hfes.html"><H1 class="headline">So many words - and possibilities</H1></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1127/p18s02-hfes.html"><SPAN class="text">English is a funny language. "Invaluable" means valuable and "inflammable" means flammable, but "invisible" is the opposite of "visible." When we send a package by car, it is called a "shipment," but if we send it by ship, it is called "cargo." We drive on a parkway, but park in a driveway. Apartments are the buildings closest together, and rush-hour traffic actually is slow. 
</SPAN></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1127/p18s02-hfes.html"><SPAN class="text">English sometimes allows a reverse of meaning by a simple change of tense: "He has left" means he is not here, but "he is left" means he is still present.</SPAN></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1127/p18s02-hfes.html"><SPAN class="text">Also, capitalization can sometimes change the pronunciation, such as the word "polish."</SPAN></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1127/p18s02-hfes.html"><P class="text">We heard the spelling rule in elementary school: " 'i' before 'e,' except after 'c,' or when sounded as 'a,' as in 'neighbor' and 'weigh' " - except, of course, for the words "weird,' "height," "foreign," "leisure," "neither," "seize," "forfeit," and "either" (and not counting such names as "Keith").</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1127/p18s02-hfes.html"><div align="center"><img src="http://content8.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.csmonitor.com/img/2063F5D8-8579-499A-9611-A15C77002171" alt="(Illustration)" /></div></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/0A7BB379-CC4C-48D9-A5B9-74B2FB6416B3/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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