English, as she is spoke...

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Greynomad
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English, as she is spoke...

Post by Greynomad »

Hmmm...
:? Anyone here think that learning English is easy???
8-) :mrgreen:


English As She Is Spoke

We'll begin with box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox should be oxen, not oxes.
Then one fowl is goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a whole lot of mice,
But 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 pen?
The cow in the plural may be cows or kine,
But the plural of vow is vows, not vine.
And I speak of a foot, and you show me your feet,
But I give a boot... would a pair be beet?
If one is a tooth, and a whole set is teeth,
Why shouldn't the plural of booth be beeth?

If the singular is this, and the plural is these,
Why shouldn't the plural of kiss be kese?
Then one may be that, and three be those,
Yet the plural of hat would never be hose.
We speak of a brother, and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.

The masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine she, shis, and shim.
So our English, I think you will agree,
Is the trickiest language you ever did see.

I take it you already know
of tough, and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble, but not you
on hiccough, through, slough and though.
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps
To learn of less familiar traps?
Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird.
And dead; it's said like bed, not bead!
For goodness sake, don't call it deed!

Watch out for meat and great and threat,
(They rhyme with suite and straight and debt)
A moth is not a moth in mother,
Nor both in bother, broth in brother.
And here is not a match for there,
Nor dear and fear for bear and pear,
And then there's dose and rose and lose –
Just look them up – and goose and choose,
And cork and work and card and ward
And font and front and word and sword.

And do and go, then thwart and cart.
Come, come, I've hardly made a start.
A dreadful language: Why, man alive,
I'd learned to talk when I was five.
And yet to write it, the more I tried,
I hadn't learned it at fifty-five.

:shock:
Regards & God bless,
Ray
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"Insufficient data for a meaningful answer."
Isaac Asimov, "The Last Question"

"I refuse to drink water, because of the disgusting things fish do in it"
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Re: English, as she is spoke...

Post by T1 Terry »

The loose and losses gets me every time, thankfully spell checker knows the difference. The problem arises when you don't actually know the words that spell checker has selected as possible solutions to your atrocious spelling and the selection of the wrong word from the list can be even worse that the word incorrectly spelt, at least it was phonetically correct then :lol: These days you can blame those wrong words on predictive text apps. even if your computer doesn't have such an app. :D
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Re: English, as she is spoke...

Post by Dot »

for me it is lose and loose that gets me every time :)
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Re: English, as she is spoke...

Post by Greynomad »

Dottie,
When you lose your grip on the doggie lead, the hound is loose. :D
Does that make things easier?
Regards & God bless,
Ray
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"Insufficient data for a meaningful answer."
Isaac Asimov, "The Last Question"

"I refuse to drink water, because of the disgusting things fish do in it"
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Re: English, as she is spoke...

Post by Newcastle George »

The choice between advice and advise seems be be the main concern on forums.

I would like to advise that the advice given was incorrect.

George
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Re: English, as she is spoke...

Post by SteveW »

Dot wrote:for me it is lose and loose that gets me every time :)
Loose is what you are when you lose your morals. :lol: :lol: :lol:
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Re: English, as she is spoke...

Post by BruceS »

I always get worried when people put new tires on instead of tyres .......... Grrrr!
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Re: English, as she is spoke...

Post by SteveW »

Mind you, Bruce. Some of the tyres I have purchased recently tire quickly.
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Re: English, as she is spoke...

Post by Greynomad »

I have noticed recently several ABC journalists(?), both radio & TV, saying 'sy-multaneously' rather than 'simultaneously'.
AAAaaaarrrrgghh!
That's not a spell-checker error! That's a failure to distinguish spoken English from American!

Forget who said it... probably Oscar Wilde:
"England and America are two nations separated by a common language."
Regards & God bless,
Ray
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Isaac Asimov, "The Last Question"

"I refuse to drink water, because of the disgusting things fish do in it"
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Re: English, as she is spoke...

Post by T1 Terry »

How about affective and effective.... which do you use where?
A person may fail many times, they only become a failure when they blame someone else John Burrows
Those who struggle to become a leader, rarely know a clear direction forward for anyone but themselves

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