Confusion of the English Language

[smilingreen]

I like the one of " I am going to carry you to the store....." Man, am I going to get heavy after about 15 feet!!
Or, a hot water heater.....if your water is hot, why do you need to heat it??
This is another one. Never heard it before I moved to TN. "A hose pipe" It took me a few minutes to try and figure out that the guy wanted the garden hose. I was looking for some kind of rigged hose that had a pipe attached to it!!!

 

[Gomez]

Ha!

Here's one I recall:

A sign reading "Fine for fishing".

 

[Mosey]

I feel sorry for my 5 year old kids. They say something that seems logical to them, but is actually "wrong". I just keep telling them that English is a kooky language. It's interesting to see how it changes from one part of the country to another. I lived in Tennessee for a year and got a real kick out of people saying "Coke" for any type of soft drink including Pepsi, and "carry the Blazer to the store" meaning they are going to drive their Chevy Blazer to the store. I work with several foreigners (Asian, Chinese, Japanese) and they must think we’re all crazy. People are always cracking jokes they don’t understand.

Another thing about “English” is the crazy measuring system. We were supposed to “go metric” 20 years ago, but it didn’t happen. Instead, we have a mix of both. My Chevy trucks have both metric and English sized bolts and nuts. I’ve often wondered how much more we could accomplish if we didn’t have to waste so much time and energy messing around with the English system of units.

It’s too bad we can’t start over and just flush the English language and the measuring system down the toilet and create a new language and use only the metric system.

 

[looch]

Things can still be messed with even if you agree on one system. My dad, who is originally from Italy (been metric for some time), marvels at the idiocy. One example that comes to mind is seen in many recipes: 250 mls of flour. Don't you think it would be more accurate to weigh the flour. Wouldn't this solve the moisture content issue?

 

[PitbullMidwest]

<font color=blue>250 mls </font color=blue>

Paul,
All through school we were told that we had to know the metric system and we had to know it well. One of the things I've noticed is that even in countries that use the metric sytem they rarely use all of the nomenclature (sic?). Like in your example you said 250 milliliters instead of 25 centiliters. Is this pretty much true?

It would have been marked wrong on a test to say 250 ml.

 

[Youare]

You could be correct, I'm no expert on English or it's useage, I only speak it a little bit better than any other langauge. My wife is the teacher. I had her spell the word she used to identify those type of words, she could be wrong too, but I'm not going there./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

I beg your pardon if I used the improper word, and I do not think I really want to know what the other word means. However, she did say the word **** means same. I know what the word phone means, so homophone must be another name for a two party telephone line. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Randy

 

[dmccarty]

Mark,

While English is real tough language to learn there are others that
are just as bad. I shared an office with a guy from Korea for 5 years
and at least a couple of times a week he would come in with a new
question about English. I would listen to his question and start to
wonder about our language. Its just so wacky. I would hate to have
to learn English as a second language.

My friend ain't dumb either. He went to Harvard, Stanford and NC
State. He has four or five BA/BS and MA/MS degrees. If he takes
a couple more classes he can get a few more of the Master degrees.
He likes to go to school. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

But back to language. I have heard that Japanese is wierd as well.
I think its partly tonal, if that is the right word, so depending on
where you emphasis a sylable can cause the word to have different
meanings. Seiko can be used for the watch and something like six
other meanings. Including ***. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

So if you go to Japan and want to buy a Seiko watch, you had better
watch how you pronounce Seiko otherwise you might have a problem.
Or maybe not! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Later...
Dan

 

[looch]

25 cl is 250 ml, as you mentioned so both are correct. Europeans tend to use cl while in Canada ml is more popular. What your saying is that there is no need to express the 3rd digit in 250 so use 25 instead. Do you mean that 12.5 cl would be wrong and 125 ml would be right? I haven't heard this, but I could see why - wanting to make things cleaner by avoiding integers. All I know is that if you mention centilitres (notice the r before the e - another discrepancy /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif) up here people will look at you funny /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif.

 

[patrickg]

Mark, It had been quite a while since I had seen that indictment of the English language. Thanks for trotting it out again, it is quite a hoot.

Along those lines... Another oldie..

Take the GH sound from couGH
Take the O sound from wOmen (plural)
Take the TI sound from naTIon

Put it all together and you have GHOTI which is pronounced like FISH.

In parting, this advice (dificult to give in written format)

Always place the emPHAsis on the correct sylABle. Especially while singing (sluring) Mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy, a kid will eat ivy too.
In the song it becomes, Marzy doats an dozy doats an little lamsy divy, a kiddlee ivy too, wouldn't you?

My apologies to those who can actually remember the lyrics correctly. I tried to get close enough.

Patrick

 

[PitbullMidwest]

Paul,
When I was taught the metric system everything was reduced to its "proper" term. 12.5 cl=wrong 12cl, 5ml=correct. It's not so much the use of milli or centi I wonder about but the other prefixes like hecti, deci, deka and so on.

Honestly, has anyone ever heard a policeman say "You were clocked at 1dekameter/hr in a 85km zone?"

Are the other prefixes commonly used in metric countries?

My 7th grade math teacher was a metric nut. He designed his house in metric but couldn't find a contractor who would work with his drawings. He was totally convinced that the US would be 100% metric by the mid 80's.