Monday, October 7, 2013

Why Learning English Is So Crazy



The ancient Egyptians wrote in hieroglyphics, a secret language written by priests using pictures. The Sumerians used a stick to write on wet clay in a writing called cuneiform. Some languages today write from right to left, or up or down. There are languages that have thousands of unique characters to memorize or have an alphabet of over 100 letters. Yet, even though English has just 26 letters, it's not as easy to learn as some might think.

Why's that?

Well, for one thing, English is an international language and borrows from all other languages. So the vocabulary is nuts. Also, since the vocabulary comes from all over, the grammar is affected, too!

Consider this poem:
We'll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes;But the plural of ox should be oxen not oxes.One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a nest full 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?
If I spoke of my foot and showed you my feet,When I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,Why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth?
If the singular is this, and the plural is these,Why shouldn't the plural of kiss be kese?Then one may be that, and three would 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.So plurals in English, I think you'll agree,Are indeed very tricky--singularly.
So the plural of an English word may be +s, +es, or something way out! The good news, of course, is that there are more regular plurals (those that use +s or +es) than irregular plurals. Can you google for more examples?

I found some on google images:



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