English as she is spoke!
Recently df, who learnt English as a second/third language pointed out a few weird things about English that I had never thought about.
Weird thing #1: A person who dances is a dancer, a person who speaks is a speaker, a person who sings is a singer but a person who cooks is a cook NOT a cooker! Imagine saying, we had to close the restaurant because the cooker was ill. And what if the rice cooker was the person who only knew how to cook rice or the pressure cooker only cooked when he/she was pressurised to do so!
Weird thing #2: If the cleaning lady is the lady who does the cleaning and the washing machine is the machine that does the washing; then the swimming costume is it the costume that does the swimming and the waiting room is the room that does the waiting.
Weird thing #1: A person who dances is a dancer, a person who speaks is a speaker, a person who sings is a singer but a person who cooks is a cook NOT a cooker! Imagine saying, we had to close the restaurant because the cooker was ill. And what if the rice cooker was the person who only knew how to cook rice or the pressure cooker only cooked when he/she was pressurised to do so!
Weird thing #2: If the cleaning lady is the lady who does the cleaning and the washing machine is the machine that does the washing; then the swimming costume is it the costume that does the swimming and the waiting room is the room that does the waiting.
posted by Omykiss at 4:34 pm
5 Comments:
Surreal stuff. You could do it visually - a cartoon of irrational English with sick cookers and waiting rooms. My Spanish isn't good enough to tell straight off if such things happen in other languages - I like to think that English is particularly eccentric - but who knows. I'll work on it.
Great post, and so very true. Also more than one mouse is mice BUT more than one house is houses. English is indeed a very difficult language with many obscure rules.
Thank you for pausing at my blog and leaving a comment, it gave me the oppourtunity to "discover" you.
You have a wonderful blog.
Welcome back granny ... and don't work to hard on the Spanish ... I too like to think that English is particularly eccentric.
Thanks for stopping by Michele. I really appreciate your kind comments .... you got me thinking. Could more than one louse be lousy?
;)
One thing that's always struck me as weird is
- rough
- cough
- bough
- through
etc.
How do all those poor people who don't have English as a first language ever manage to learn this stuff?
...You're funny...
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