Re: So..you think English is easy??

Ah ha! That is one to remember!

Barb C.
"Kathycarp" <kathycarp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:qLSdnY-BmPGdRvPbnZ2dneKdnZydnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Trouble is they speak too fast. I can often get the
"gist" of a conversation, but I could get myself in trouble!
-----------

This is one sentence of Spanish that I learned to say...
"mas despacio por favor!" <g>

--
Kathy
www.ambergriscaye.com/villadelsol
"Barbara Carlson" <bbcarlson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:3uSdnU2_U8ZXRfPbnZ2dnUVZ_jOdnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
My Arabic teacher told me my handwriting was better than his--so did a
visitor to our farm from Egypt.

The reason I studied Arabic was that I wanted to be able to name my
horses authentic Arabic names, and be able to write them in Arabic script
on their stall nameplates, and I did learn enough to be able to do that.
It is also a language with a very rich vocabulary. I did progress to the
point of being able to read Arabic script, but not really understand what
I was reading. I have a terrible memory for vocabulary--had the same
problem with Spanish when I studied it (3 years) in school. I haven't
done anything with the Arabic for 20 years, but my Spanish is better,
living where I do, because I hear it all the time, and there are several
Spanish TV stations and radio stations. Trouble is they speak too fast.
I can often get the "gist" of a conversation, but I could get myself in
trouble!

Barb C.
"Kathycarp" <kathycarp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:XKmdnWNVEJGRUPPbnZ2dnUVZ_q2pnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Last Sunday I was at Starbucks, and man at the next table was typing on
his laptop. Of course, being the nosy person that I am I looked at his
screen... He was typing in Arabic and the "words" were going right to
left. It looked so cool (I think Arabic is a very "pretty" written
language) that I wanted to just stare at his screen, but social
correctness came over me and I looked away. <g>

I have a necklace that I bought in Egypt that is my name in Arabic. I
think it's pretty.

--
Kathy
www.ambergriscaye.com/villadelsol
"Barbara Carlson" <bbcarlson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:HN6dnf0kQIpyOPPbnZ2dnUVZ_revnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I enjoyed that, but the overuse of "up" is one of my pet grammatical
peeves. In so many of those examples, it just should be admitted, and
when I am transcribing I do just that. I don't fix up things, I fix
them, and the same for many of those things. It is a grossly overused
word and often superfluous.

I really enjoyed the whole piece! But we aren't necessarily the most
difficult language. In Arabic, which I have studied, there are so many
adjectives that can be used to describe things, each with perhaps a
slightly different nuance! It is a very colorful, and difficult
language, not to mention a totally different alphabet, and most vowels
indicated by diacritical marks over the consonants, which are often
just omitted and expected to be understood, and it is read right to
left! Wonder why we do not have enough translators in Iraq?

Barb C.
"Jeannie" <jwilson421@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:Xns994D5FC86EF7Ajwilson421comcastnet@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
1) The bandage was wound around the wound.


2) The farm was used to produce produce.


3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.


4) We must polish the Polish furniture.


5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.


6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.


7) Since there is no time like the present , he thought it was time to
present the present


8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.


9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.


10) I did not object to the object.


11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.


12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row


13) They were too close to the door to close it.


14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.


15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.


16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.


17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail


18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.


19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.


20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?



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 or French fries in France.
Sweetmeats
are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat. 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? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why
isn't
the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese?
One index, 2 indices? 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
English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally
insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a
recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and
feet that smell?


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.


English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the
creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all
That
is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights
are
out, they are invisible.


PS. - Why doesn't "Buick" rhyme with "quick"



You lovers of the English language might enjoy this


There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any
other
two-letter word, and that is "UP."


It's easy to understand UP , meaning toward the sky or at the top of
the
list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP ? At a
meeting, why does a topic come UP ? Why do we speak UP and why are
the
officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP
a
report ?


We call UP our friends. And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish
UP
the silver, we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We
lock
UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car. At other times the
little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP
for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses. To be dressed
is
one thing, but to be dressed UP is special .


And this UP is confusing: A drain must be opened UP because it is
stopped UP . We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at
night.


We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP ! To be knowledgeable about the
proper uses of UP , look the word UP in the dictionary. In a
desk-sized
dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to
about
thirty definitions. If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a
list
of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but
if
you don't give UP , you may wind UP with a hundred or more. When it
threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP . When the sun comes out
we
say it is clearing UP


When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP .


When it doesn't rain for awhile, things dry UP .


One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP , for now my time is UP ,
so.......... it is time to shut UP ...!











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