English language is difficult!

Adam   Thursday, April 22, 2004, 22:43 GMT
- We polish the Polish furniture.
- He could lead if he would get the lead out.
- A farm can produce produce.
- The dump was so full it had to refuse refuse.
- The soldier decided to desert in the desert.
- The present is a good time to present the present.
- At the Army base, a bass was painted on the head of a bass drum.
- The dove dove into the bushes.
- I did not object to the object.
- The insurance for the invalid was invalid.
- The bandage was wound around the wound.
- There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
- They were too close to the door to close it.
- The buck does funny things when the does are present.
- They sent a sewer down to stitch the tear in the 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.
- I shed a tear when I saw the tear in my clothes.
- I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
- How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

- Unknown
Adam   Thursday, April 22, 2004, 22:57 GMT
If I typed the word "wound" and nothing else, how would you know whether I am saying "wound" or "wound"? If I typed "wind", how do you know whether I am saying "wind" or "wind"? Now you see how difficult English is to learn. It may have no genders, but so what? There are other things in languages that make them difficult to learn other than genders. Just take a look at English.
Gian Alma   Tuesday, April 27, 2004, 07:31 GMT
La police a mis au point une nouvelle police d'écriture.
Il mange un grec en compagine d'un grec
C'est un turc qui chie dans les chiottes turcs.
Cette voiture qui roule comme un escargot a écrasé un escargot.
Avec une boite de chocolat il est entré dans la boite de nuit.
Cet homme est néfaste et cela lui est néfaste.
Cet anticonstitutionnellement impossible, les lois sont faites pour tout le monde, même pour les lecteurs du Monde.

bla bla bla


So what? English is easy, there's no doubt about it. Your writings are stupid like mines.
It does not proove anything.


La senora e la senorina estan en la estacion para prender el treno de 4 y 20. Pero il capo di treno a dito que questo treno e en ritardamento de 20 minute.
Ramon   Tuesday, April 27, 2004, 07:32 GMT
No it's not english, it's spanish, french and german. It's easy, a spanish baby can speak english at 2 years old
Axel   Tuesday, April 27, 2004, 08:40 GMT
Adam,
the subtleties you wrote can be found in any other language...
G Alma   Tuesday, April 27, 2004, 08:52 GMT
That's why i wrote the same kind of stuff. Adam, do you speak something else?
Konrad Valentin   Tuesday, April 27, 2004, 19:15 GMT
Adam,

Why on Earth would anyone want to type just 'wound' or 'wind' anyway? You have to remember that English, like all other languages is heavily context-dependent. English speakers are able to instantly understand the meaning of all the sentences you typed above from the context. For example, "The soldier decided to desert [verb] in the desert [noun]" is possible, but "The soldier decided to desert [noun] in the desert [verb]" is not. English speakers would also know that soldiers desert (leave their posts). The stress (falling on the first syllable for the noun, and the second for the verb) in spoken English disambiguates the sentence further.
Lavoisel   Tuesday, April 27, 2004, 21:25 GMT
More examples for Adam:

> Pourquoi faire tant de boucan pour ce simple boucan ? Il en pousse partout dans l'île !

> Le cabot aboya si longtemps après le cabot que ce dernier, l'air supérieur, finit par reporter à son supérieur ce comportement plutôt cabot qui, disons-le, lui pompait l'air.

> Aprés que j'eu tenté de dériver la roue, à ma grande surprise, mon char se mit à dériver de la voie carrosable et alla échouer dans le fleuve. Dans mon malheur, je pércutais une barque de pêcheur que le choc fît complètement dériver.

> Pourquoi m'épier ainsi ? Est-ce si interessant de me voir épier le blé ?

> Le fait que qu'il participe à la course participe de la fête.

> Le maître avait l'habitude de mesurer au mètre plutôt qu'à la règle.

> Ce sot personnage ne sait pas même différencier un seau d'eau d'un sceau de lettre. Il devrait faire un saut chez le libraire et s'acheter un dictionnaire.

> Effrayé par l'idée de s'expliquer avec ma mère, le maire plongea précipitamment dans la mer.

> Quand bien même j'évite de m'exprimer en vers, vers quelle perplexité amenerai-je l'auditeur si je lui affirme avoir emprisonné un ver sous un verre en verre tout vert et que mon piège est recouvert d'une pantoufle de vair ?



But forget these examples. Try Japanese and you will see what a language full of homonyms really is.
Jacob   Wednesday, April 28, 2004, 02:19 GMT
Konrad said:

>Why on Earth would anyone want to type just 'wound' or 'wind' anyway?
>You have to remember that English, like all other languages is heavily
>context-dependent.

This is true, and the sooner you come to terms with it, the better.

(A child may very well know the verb 'wind' and the noun 'wind' long before he can write them down. And he keeps two entirely seperate contexts for them in his mental model. He may then go about reading and writing for some time without ever noticing the 'ambiguity' and may react with surprise or even denial when someone points out that "They're the same word, see?")
Josh   Sunday, May 02, 2004, 15:38 GMT
I think the reason English is so hard, in my opinion harder than French or Spanish, is because it lacks the subtle formalities. In English, goose and moose are homophones, but when pluralized, moose is moose and goose is geese...any explainations?
David Winters   Sunday, May 02, 2004, 16:20 GMT
I think the reason English is so "hard" to learn is the lack of intelligence on the part of the learners who choose to whine about spelling reforms and grammar quirks instead of actually *studying*.

The English language will not be reformed just to make it easier for you ESL dropouts to learn. Get over it.
Mike   Monday, May 03, 2004, 02:45 GMT
The majority of the people that speaks about English, actually doesn't speak English. It's why David Winters and other nerds don't speak English.
Chilli   Monday, May 03, 2004, 16:16 GMT
I think I'd like the plural of moose to be meese.
/   Monday, May 03, 2004, 16:33 GMT
Josh, are you a native English speaker?
Josh   Tuesday, May 04, 2004, 01:43 GMT
Yes...Why?