May 23, 2005

Why English is Hard to Learn
It reminds me somewhat of Common Errors in English which was previously posted here.
posted by peacay 19 years ago
  • It's not our fault the rest of the world is stoopid. Only kiddin, international chums
  • For more examples, see the classic Dearest creature in creation poem.
  • Kitfisto, theirs know reason too be a arse about you're English skills.
  • Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo.
  • (or my favorite) Here is an example with five "had"'s in a row, each with a different meaning. This is the longest known case of this phenomenon. As an aid to understanding, we'll build it up a step at a time. The parents were unable to conceive, so they hired someone else to be a surrogate. The parents had had a surrogate have their child. The parents had had their child had. The child had had no breakfast. The child the parents had had had had had no breakfast. (cite)
  • *head assplodes*
  • That's ridicurous.
  • Doesn't strike me as being particularly unique to English - Chinese is full of homophones (yes, dirty shameless homophones!)
  • This article caused my daughter to erupt with laughter. And "ghoti" says "fish". (Anyone else know that one? It's fun. I'll let someone else post the explanation.)
  • I think in this case the words are spelled like homophones but are not pronounced like homophones. So really it's a spelling problem. English is worse than many many languages for spelling, but arguably easier than Chinese and Japanese.
  • I've never pronounced the first vowel in "women" with an "i as in fish" sound. Maybe that's one reason people say I have an accent that they can't place.
  • Good lord, then how do you say it? WOE-men? (Etymological note: the pronunciation /wimin/ is actually the historically correct one, since it comes from Old English wífman, plural wífmen; the /wu-/ version that wound up being used for the singular is originally a western dialect form.)
  • Woe-MAN!!!! Like Terry Scott in Carry On Up the Jungle? Yea, puts the ladies off, does that.
  • My guess is that Mr K pronounces the word "women" normally - it's actually "fish" he pronounces strangely.
  • or goat.
  • or like Tom Jones Wooooooee Wooooo-ooman have you got cheating on your my--aya-ind