Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Bibbitybop]

Here's something fun to use with advanced students.

Crazy English
by Richard Lederer

Lets face it: English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant or ham in hamburger, neither apple nor pine in pineapple.
English muffins were not invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies, while sweetbreads, which aren�t sweet, or 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? Is cheese the plural of choose?
If teachers taught, why didn�t preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
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? Park on driveways and drive on parkways?
How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? How can the weather be hot as hell one day as cold as hell another?
When a house burns up, it burns down. You fill in a form by filling it out and an alarm clock goes off by going on.
When the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible. And why, when I wind up my watch, I start it, but when I wind up this essay, I end it?
Now I know why I flunked my English. It�s not my fault; the silly language doesn�t quite know whether it�s coming or going.

[poet13]

Thats absolutely wonderful!

[postfundie]

How advanced are we talking here?? Has anybody ever used the list of Phrasal verbs here on Dave's for an advanced class? Made it through all of 'em and told the students which are commonly used and which are not??

anyway the list is a good way to point out irregulars though.....

[Natalia]

[coolsage]

'Flammable' and 'inflammable' mean exactly the same thing. I discovered this the hard way. Nonetheless, it was a valuable (or invaluable) learning experience.

[poet13]

Woudlnt' 'invaluable' be sort of a superlative to 'valuable'?
One has value, the other having value beyond calculation....

Or measureable and immeasurable?
His hard study made a measureable/immeasureable difference ...

I'm not grand linguist for sure, but to me flammable/inflammable have two different meanings....in reading some online definitions, they seem to differentiate between the two slightly. Flammable being easily set on fire, and inflammable as just being capable of being set on fire.
When I was much younger, my mother explained it to me in a very simple way, and damn it, I can't remember anymore, but after that, i never considered them the same.