The Silver Screen Oasis

Why I love the Swedes.

Got this in an e-mail today and thought I'd pass it on.

You Think English is Easy??? wound around the wound.

2) The farm was used to produce produce .

3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse .
polish the Polish furniture.
lead if he would get the lead out.

6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
he thought it was time to present the present .

A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

10) I did not object to the object.
invalid for the invalid.
row among the oarsmen about how to row .
close to the door to close it.
does funny things when the does are present.

15) A seamstress and a sewer sewer line.

16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
tear in the painting I shed a tear.

19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

England or French fries in France . Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are 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. </div>


How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

PS. - Why doesn't 'Buick' rhyme with 'quick'

You lovers of the English language might enjoy this. It's easy to understand.

Oh...one more thing: What is the first thing you do in the morning & the last thing you do at night? U-P

CharlieT wrote:
PS. - Why doesn't 'Buick' rhyme with 'quick'

Because quick is a Normanized English adjective, whereas Buick is a brand designation based on a Gaelic surname (commemorating Scottish inventor David Buick, who gave us lawn sprinklers, porcelain bathtubs and the overhead-valve engine).

CharlieT wrote:When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

In English, the dove dived into the bushes. Americans are strange.

: )

Mrs. Klondike & I have carefully nurtured, 15-yr-old disputes over the correct past tense for the verb: "heat", and the plural form for the noun: "roof".

klondike wrote:Mrs. Klondike & I have carefully nurtured, 15-yr-old disputes over the correct past tense for the verb: "heat", and the plural form for the noun: "roof".

What's the nature of the dispute over "heat," Klonny? Is one of you supporting "heat" over "heated" as the past tense? Or is it "het?" I don't think I've ever heard anyone use anything other than "heated."

However, I think you should both give it up over "roof." "Rooves" and "hooves" have fallen out of usage; even among us Brooklyn Bluestockings it's "roofs" and "hoofs." You'll get used to it --- eventually.

Think of it in terms of the remarkable fluidity and expressiveness of the English language. Even the United Federation of Planets uses it as their primary means of communication, after all.

jdb1 wrote:
What's the nature of the dispute over "heat," Klonny? Or is it "het?"

Think of it in terms of the remarkable fluidity and expressiveness of the English language. Even the United Federation of Planets uses it as their primary means of communication, after all.

Bingo! "Het", if not only correct way to say it, is at least the superior form . . . you know, like dreamt, & leapt! And I will not give-in on this one!!
As for UFP preference, yes, Judith, I know, it has indeed universalized English, but I've always believed that the Capellans would have been much more comfortable dealing with Gaelic!

klondike wrote:

jdb1 wrote:
What's the nature of the dispute over "heat," Klonny? Or is it "het?"

Think of it in terms of the remarkable fluidity and expressiveness of the English language. Even the United Federation of Planets uses it as their primary means of communication, after all.

Bingo! "Het", if not only correct way to say it, is at least the superior form . . . you know, like dreamt, & leapt! And I will not give-in on this one!!
As for UFP preference, yes, Judith, I know, it has indeed universalized English, but I've always believed that the Capellans would have been much more comfortable dealing with Gaelic!

Honest, Klonny - I've been an amateur philologist since junior high; I pay attention to the way people speak, and I have never once heard anyone in real life say 'het,' not even in the South. Of course I've seen it in books, as in "He got all het up about the price of moonshine in town." Hmm, I suppose I've heard someone like Walter Brennan say it - but that was when he was in character in a movie. Is the form used in New England?

Well, I am putting out a grammar check call to our British members: do you say "het" as the past tense of "heat," the way "et" is used as the past tense of "eat?"

Oh, by the way, Klonny -- Kaplach!

I'm right in the heart of 'het up' country. I thought I had the answer straight off until I asked my husband who is from a different part of Lancashire and we disagreed. So I googled it.

het spelt et means eaten, et up means eaten up. What I thought not Hubby

charliechaplinfan wrote:I'm right in the heart of 'het up' country. I thought I had the answer straight off until I asked my husband who is from a different part of Lancashire and we disagreed. So I googled it.

het spelt et means eaten, et up means eaten up. What I thought not Hubby

Not surprising, Ms. Fan. The 18th Century speech patterns of Lancashire, Yorkshire, and Scots-inhabited Ireland are still in use (in some places intact) in isolated areas of New England and the American Appalachians and Ozarks. That's how such grammatical uses have survived in this country.

In fact, my North Yorks. friend sent me a little book of Yorkshire folk sayings, written in the local dialect, and with a change of accent it could very well be a Virginian or North Carolinian speaking. One of the many, many reasons I love the English language.

My grandad always used to say 'eeh by gum' so Lancashire. I never knew that about regional accents in America. Sometimes it's a smaller world than we think.

In my neck of the woods (hill country of North Central New England; picture The Trouble with Harry), leftovers that were warmed back up for a meal were often remarked on as "het over".
As a li'l shaver, I often heard my old Gram say that she needed to get the stove lit, so that she could get the coffee het . . and the evening meal was always "supper", never "dinner"; dinners were meals that grown-ups ate in restaurants (mostly on TV shows), or the occasional midday meal that was too large or Holiday-formal to be called "lunch".
As for the fluidity of language, that's a 2-way street - on the rare occasions when I consume something prepared in a microwave (usually only when we're out of propane for the stove, or when I'm in a tear-ass rush to hit the road) I just can't help but think of that snack as being "het over".

A lifetime ago, when I was living in Arkansas, and also when I was living out West in Nevada, I heard some of the old timers saying something like "Now, don't get all het up about it", meaning don't get excited about something, it had nothing to do with heating or temperature.

Anne

mrsl wrote:I heard some of the old timers saying something like "Now, don't get all het up about it", meaning don't get excited about something, it had nothing to do with heating or temperature.

Anne

Don't be too sure, Annie; when the typical adult gets excited (or agitated, or angry, or startled), it's usual for his/her body temp to spike up 3 - 7 degrees, sometimes for up to ten minutes, or more; not to mention brief elevations of 10 -20 points in pulse, respiration & blood pressure, all jump-started by the heart being suddenly drenched in adrenalin.