Why English is so hard WHY ENGLISH IS SO HARD We'll begin with a 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 called pen? Then one may be that, and three may 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. -author unknown Some reasons to be grateful if you grew up speaking English: The bandage was wound around the wound. The farm was used to produce produce. The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse. We must polish the Polish furniture. He could lead if he would get the lead out. The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert. Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time topresent the present. At the Army base, a bass was painted on the head of a bass drum. When shotat, the dove dove into the bushes. I did not object to the object. The insurance was invalid for the invalid. There was a row among the oarsmen about howto row. They were too close to the door to close it. The buck does funny things when the does are present. A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line. To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow. The wind was too strong to wind the sail. After a number of Novocain injections, my jaw got number. Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear. I had to subject the subject to a series of tests. How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend? I spent last evening evening out a pile of dirt. Let's face it - English is a crazy language If you have a rough cough, climbing can be tough when going through thebough on a tree! 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? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the folks who grew up speaking English 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 wiseguy 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. Back to Walk Back On 'Er