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Guest jahamilton

Why is English so hard to learn?

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Guest Shalomar

Donny AKA ShalomarFly 2 ROCKS!!!The squad was too close to the door to close it. At the sound of gunfire, a dove dove into the cactus. The sight of blood almost made a private go into a private place to desert his dessert in the desert. A helicopter was called in, since the injured commander could not truck bouncing in a truck. He could still lead, if only they could get the lead out. His lucky camaflouge suit covered with leaves leaves for the laundry.Compiled from Reader's digest:-wave

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Guest glnflwrs

"I accept your exceptions except for where you accept theirs.""Who is going with me?" "Me and Joe." (proper grammar)"Who is going with me?" "Joe and I will go." (proper grammar)"Who is going with me?" "Me and Joe will go." (improper grammar)"Who is going with me?" "Joe and I." (improper grammar)supremacist -- no such wordsupremist -- one who believes himself supremeirregardless -- no such wordregardless -- having no bearing or relative contentThey're there with theirs.Mine is mined in a mine minded by mine.Whose 'Who's Who' is that? I have. (singular)A friend has. (singular)One company has. (singular)Two companies have. (plural??) I find the worst offenders of the English language are the professional journalists, the "so-called" experts in the field.Glenn

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And ponder this:Pay attention to how you pronounce the ou in:ToughLet's add the letter h:ThoughAnd finish this off with an ending t:ThoughtStrange indeed... ;-)Cheers,

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Guest dsflyer

How many pronounciations for "ough" in English?ThoughtPloughTroughThoughLongest word in english with one syllable = STRENGTHS?Whats the only number in English language that when spelt backwards is in the alphabetic reverse order (i.e from Z to A)?

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Why, if the plural of mouse is "mice"Isn't the plural of house, "hice"?

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Guest Shalomar

Donny AKA ShalomarFly 2 ROCKS!!!Would that be six? edit obviously not. ten nope. eight if I leave out the I that's cheating. FORTY!!!!What word in the English language is open when it's closed but closed when it's open?I was always an avid reader who was considered to have a good vocabulary, but I was almost out of high school before I connected the thing you talk about flipping pancakes with to the word "spatula" I saw occasionally in books. Good thing I never had to write it down or read it out loud, I would have said "spatoola"."Hit the brakes!" she screeched."Class, I hope you studied," she said testily."Those pancakes are half done," he said flippantly.Best Regards, Donny:-wave

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Guest dsflyer

Forty., sorry to put you "THROUGH" that :-) I thought the plural of moose was yaks:-hmmm

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Guest dsflyer

You got in anyways! my late night sight is deserting me.I think thats a jar by the ways :-spacecraft

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Guest glnflwrs

 If 4 out of 5 people SUFFER from diarrhea... does that mean that one enjoys it? If you take an Oriental person and spin him around several times, does he become disoriented?  If people from Poland are called Poles, why aren't people from Holland called Holes?  Why do we say something is out of whack? What's a whack?  Do infants enjoy infancy as much as adults enjoy adultery?  If a pig loses its voice, is it disgruntled?  If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular?  When someone asks you, "A penny for your thoughts" and you put your two cents in what happens to the other penny?  Why is the man who invests all your money called a broker?  Why do croutons come in airtight packages? Aren't they just stale bread to begin with?  When cheese gets its picture taken, what does it say?  Why is a person who plays the piano called a pianist but a person who drives a race car not called a racist?  Why are a wise man and a wise guy opposites?  Why do overlook and oversee mean opposite things?  Why isn't the number 11 pronounced onety-one?  "I am" is reportedly the shortest sentence in the English language. Could it be that "I do" is the longest sentence?  If lawyers are disbarred and clergymen defrocked, doesn't it follow that electricians can be delighted, musicians denoted, cowboys deranged, models deposed, tree surgeons debarked, and dry cleaners depressed?  If Fed Ex and UPS were to merge, would they call it Fed UP?  Do Lipton Tea employees take coffee breaks?  What hair color do they put on the driver's licenses of bald men?  I was thinking about how people seem to read the Bible a whole lot more as they get older; then it dawned on me, they're cramming for their final exam.  Mothers feed their babies with tiny little spoons and forks so I wondered what do Chinese mothers use? Toothpicks?  Why do they put pictures of criminals up in the Post Office? What are we supposed to do, write to them? Why don't they just put their pictures on the postage stamps so the mailmen can look for them while they deliver the mail?  If it's true that we are here to help others, then what exactly are the others here for?  You never really learn to swear until you learn to drive.  No one ever says, "It's only a game" when their team is winning.  Ever wonder what the speed of lightning would be if it didn't zigzag?  Last night I played a blank tape at full blast. The mime next door went nuts.  If a cow laughed, would milk come out her nose?Glenn"When a man learns how much he doesn't know compared to how much there is to learn, he starts getting smarter."

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Guest glnflwrs

There is convened in Sweden an organization of scientists, engineers, and other tech types that have been trying for over two years to establish and define an international language. It seems the major article of discussion is whether "international" should be defined as a language that is used globally, subject to local dialects and colloquialisms, and is freely interpreted in a loose and cosmopolitan way, or, a language that is tightly defined, not subject to local dialects, and is defined exactly the same in all parts of the world, thereby being a technically referenceable language. What do you think? A language for all to use and change as needed/desired? Or a dialect of absolute definitions understood by all?There is only one truly universal language, mathematics. /// = ??? sssss = ##### !! + www = ^^^^^. Music, as a mathematically expressed sound in form, can also be a universal language.There are only two pure sciences, chemistry and physics. All others break down to these two in essence.Glenn'Maintain thy airspeed, lest the ground rise up and smite thee.'

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Guest Shalomar

Donny AKA ShalomarFly 2 ROCKS!!!Are you talking about esperanto, or is this another attempt?What about computer code as a language? If Macs and PCs and cellphones and whatnot can comunicate thru the internet, maybe there's hope for us mere humans. To err is human, but to really mess things up takes a human error on a computer... It depends on how much of a dialect, Yankees and brits could comunicate fairly well during WWII, but there were a few surprises like when a brit suggested to his yankee friend they go "knock up" a few girls. When the yankee said that might be going too far, the brit explained he meant knocking on doors. I read in article like that years ago think in "air and space", can't remember much more other than mention of parts of a car like "hood vs bonnet". Even over time languages evolve, and new words are required (like the french "cederom"), for a language to flourish it has to be flexible. A Pennsylvanian still sticks out a bit in Maine. "I'll have eggs and toast" "Hominy grits, sir?" "Oh, three or four."I saw an interesting article on the push for "official languages", the basic conclusion was that it is usually a "last gasp" attempt at cultural or national unity which would be a bad idea for the US. There are many factors other than language that unite the United States, such as love of the automobile and other things. Though when I was on a production line, I was often with nine other people whose ethnic background doesn't matter who could speak English perfectly well, most with no discernable accent, but chose to converse in their native tounge most of the day. It was somewhat jarring, and somewhat of a safety issue. What if a person sees something about to happen, and forgets to "switch back" to english before yelling a warning? At lunch someone mentioned it, and one guy was like, "You want everyone to learn your language, but refuse to learn theirs". That wasn't quite the point. If I knew a different language, and you didn't but a person with us did, and though we could all speak a common language the two of us chose to converse in one we knew you couldn't understand, wouldn't you feel excluded? You would also tend to "tune out" the conversation after a while, which can be a problem in an industrial environment. I'm not against people coming to my country of origin for the same reasons my ancestors did, and I still think an forced "official language" is not a good idea, but there are social issues involved. Best Regards, Donny:-wave

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Guest Philip Olson

I never have understood comments like that "You want everyone to learn your language, but refuse to learn theirs", to me that point is invalid. If I live in the US it is not asking much to have the people that come here learn English, it is the language spoken by the locals and all of the laws, rules, instructions and warning signs are in English. I should not have to learn another language to be able to communicate with someone that comes here and does not want to learn the language. On the flip side when I go to other countries I do not expect anyone to speak English to make things easier for me, I go to Europe all of the time and I have learned German, French, Italian, some Russian and a few other bits and pieces of language. I am sorry but one that goes to another country should not expect that country to bend over backwards for him. People say that Americans are arrogant, and some are, but anyone who expects to have the natives of a country learn another language to make it easier on someone who does not want to learn it's language is truly arrogant. It is simple, I go to Germany so I speak German, if someone comes to the US, they should speak English. I am not talking about people just going on vacation, not speaking the language is understandable for a short vacation but if you are going to live someplace then learn the language and use it. My mom came from Germany and the first thing she did when she got to the US was learn English, no complaints, no problems, she lust learned it because she knew it was the right thing to do. The reason I learned the languages that I did was because I knew that I would be spending a lot of time in countries where I would have to speak the native language, I do not expect them to speak English when I am in their country. Well sorry for that long rant. Yes, at times English can be a bit difficult but really not much more than many other languages. I think that the main thing fueling the declining ability of people to use proper English is pop culture, if you listen to the youth in the US they tend to ignore many of the rules for proper language usage. Sadly in order for something to be popular with the pop culture TV shows, radio, magazines, etc. have to use their dialect which tends to enforce the improper use of the language. Like the old saying goes, if someone tells you a lie enough times you start to believe it, same thing goes here, people see and hear the improper usage of the language enough and they begin to think that it is proper. I do not claim to be a master linguist at all, in fact I make many mistakes, but I can comment on what I see. Philip Olsonhttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/supporter.jpg

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Guest jahamilton

Well stated Philip.I'm fluent in Flemish, French and Portugese and found thatEnglish was not a difficult language to learn.With a base vocabulary of say 500 words, which is not many,you can easily converse with and understand most Englishspeakers.Regards, JAH - Los Angeles.

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