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40 Times People Were Confused By The English Language
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Blessed be those who didn't have to go through the trouble of learning the English language. Some might say that learning Japanese or Icelandic might be the most difficult task out there, but even the most complicated aspects of those languages have some kind of logic behind them. English grammar and the language itself, on the other hand, has some truly nonsensical characteristics to it and a plethora of arbitrary rules.
Those with English as their native language never have to consciously work through the kinks of spelling out Wednesday or why writers write, but fingers don't fing and grocers don't groce. Learning English as a secondary language is a real minefield once you figure out the basic grammar rules and step into more specific areas. And these people decided to point some of the most confusing things out there to prove their point. English is a weird language and at times makes no sense whatsoever, especially for a language that is so widespread.
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To be fair, many linguists would easily find a logical answer to most of the problems presented in these messages, as English language has a lot of nuances (like words being borrowed from Latin and Greek, or the fact that some words had their origins lost or they ceased to be used in spoken language). However, that doesn't mean that they still don't fail to confuse people trying to learn the language, as even the most sound explanation might seem nonsensical when the original problem could be solved by, well... changing the language? Ah, let's leave this for the linguists to figure out and non-native speakers to be confused about, right?
It took me a while to remember which one is positive and which one is negative between horriffic and terrfic...
Brits also use 'Quite' in a sarcastic manner if agreeing with someone (who they don't agree with).
one is used by the people of sarcasm and one is used by regular people
this confused the helll out of me when I first came across it. i had to read it several times :-D Now, I think it's brilliant!!
I always wondered why there aren't double contractions; unless I've just never heard of them. "Shouldn't've" should be acceptable any time you want to say "should not have".
"I'd one drink but no more" in Maiden's Dance of Death ahs always sound odd to me.
This is interesting to me as a native English speaker who knows some Farsi (where just about every word is a contraction) and Dari (where no word is ever a contraction) - two languages a lot of scholars will tell you are actually the same language, but they definitely are not.
It's because English is stress-based. The flow (or melody) of the sentences is the important thing in English, it's less about the strict grammatic rules.
Yes. And what is that when two contracted words count as one???!!!
It actually follows grammar rules, it’s just a bit complicated and native speakers know it by ear.
This one is silly. Because "have" is a word with two uses/meanings, not to do with where it's used in the sentence. The last "have" means "possess". When used as a conjunction, it is the "have" that is used with a past participle to form certain tenses. So, you could say, "We have already eaten all that we have." You could change this to "We've already eaten all that we possess." But you wouldn't change it to, "We possess already eaten all that we've." Why would you want to be able to?
Also there is a town in England called Reading . It is spelt Reading but pronounced Redding".
There's a broadcasted spelling competition for the Dutch language as well ^^ Dutch is easier though, makes more sense :)
Fridge is a slang shortening of one of the original refrigerators - Fridgidaire...
Note: this post originally had 48 images. It’s been shortened to the top 40 images based on user votes.
I had a non English guest who wanted to see a dentist but all the ones he found were at Dental Practices - he didn't want to be practiced on, he wanted one who knew what they were doing
tell your guest practice makes perfect
I used to think that the practice nurse was practising on me Lol!
If the building is already built, why we still call building?
What? You don't work in a built?
Something about root words blah blah blah. IDK.
I'm not drunk, I'm still drinking
Why are we like this... I'm English and I still don't understand why we are like this ._.
From what I understand, it has to do with all the conquering that happened way back in the day. The people who eventually became English were very good about incorporating the conquerors' language in with their own, which is why there are so many words (double that of German) and so many nuances. **steps down from podium**
The Romans, the Vikings, and the Normands. And then the English became conquerors themselves and brought back words such as Avatar, Bandanna, Cot, Dungaree, Guru, Jungle, Karma, Loot, Mogul, Nirvana, Pyjamas, Shampoo, Thug, Veranda, and Yoga. From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_words_of_Hindi_or_Urdu_origin
Speaking for myself, I love the chaos of my language. But then I tend to gravitate toward chaos in all things.
I've stopped trying to curse in English because once I said "how should we fuck this" instead of "how should we fucking do this" and I was laughed at, thinking I did it in jest. I didn't. I really thought that was how you curse in English.
No, non-native speakers should cuss frequently:-) It’s funny and it’s interesting because errors lay bare the underlying structure of the language, stuff one doesn’t normally notice if one’s a native speaker
As a worker from a central European country once said to us " You think I know fuck nothing, but I tell you I know fuck all".
English is not a language, it’s a perpetrator that takes other languages down dark allies, beats them to a pulp and robs them. 😂
i live in switzerland and it's quite frustrating that for words like "du", "dir", "dich", "Ihr", "Sie", "Ihnen", "euch", which are pronouns, in english you simply translate ALL OF THEM into the word "you"
What gets me is that "I'm gonna see if I can't catch that ball" and "I'm gonna see if I can catch that ball" mean the same thing.
I like how some people actually answered the questions.
The big problem is that English is a mishmash of other different languages that all have their own rules! You have Greek, Latin, French, Norse & Spanish roots, just to name a few, and they all have their own grammar, etc, as displayed above.
It's mostly german and french
Gallagher and english language! YouTube it and laugh with me....
क्या चूतिया भाषा है !
There, their, they're...
The worst aspect of the English language for writers is the lack of a gender neutral first person singular. Ex: A good employee knows that they have to be on time. NO! employee is singular they is plural Ex. A good employee knows he has to be on time. NO! This assumes the employee is male (unfounded sexism). Ex. A good employee knows that s/he has to bee on time. NO? Acceptable in some circles but still not perfect. Pity the poor writer who has to use English.
Singular 'they' does have a long history and should simply be accepted. There's also 'it' which is the true neutral first person singular. Some people prefer it. I don't, but it is an option.
It started out as a perfectly good Tuesday, then you people had to grammar all over it
The thing about English is it's a mess but at the same time it's kind of super flexible. So I can generally understand what people mean to say when they make technical errors. That's why people get called out with "You know what I meant." when they correct people. It takes a lot of errors to make a sentence that's completely incomprehensible and it's easy for two people to say the same thing and mean completely opposite things. That's just English.
I know 4 languages & all of them are like this!
Here's a funny little story: my fist language as a toddler was english second one german. "Lost" a lot of the english as I am barely using it. BUT: I speak german with english melody
Don't get me started on Croatian
I'm Persian & as a foreigner the word "The" is the most stupid thing I see in English. The second one is gender base changes. Why having different words for different genders?!! It's just a characteristic of a person.
Soba, calm down. C wasn’t calling YOU French. S/he was using French as an example of languages that use masculine/feminine articles. Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese all use feminine and masculine articles. English does not. These linguistic quirks have worked for centuries in their individual countries. No need to get your knickers in a wad over something you cannot change.
Your opinion is noted and will be kept in File 13. Have a nice day.
Being an Englishman I really enjoyed this post, learned something too.
I'll just leave this here: https://www.englishclub.com/esl-articles/199909.htm
I recommend attempting The Chaos by Gerard Nolst Trenite, it really gets you thinking about the English language.
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I'm always searching for an English ambivalent to the German word "Doch!", like: Kid: "I'm not gonna do my homework!" Parents in Germany: "Doch!" Parents in english: "You will do!" 🤷🏼♀️
Some languages borrow words from other languages. English hits other languages over the head in a dark alley and steals all their vocabulary. No wonder English has words spelled according to Greek, Latin, German, French, Spanish, Arabic, Hebrew, and Hindi rules - to name jut a few. "Stephan (greek) and (German) Peter (Latin) saw (german) Satan (Hebrew) flaunting (french) his pyjamas (Himdu) like a maniac (greek) samurai (japanese) jihadi (arabic)." Suspicous, in more ways than one.
Why can I wear a windbreaker -- but I can't say that it breaks wind? (Also, I'm surprised that the contributor found *ONLY* 40 examples...)
There was a photo on Facebook a while ago of a ship shipping shipping ship shipping shipping ships! Say that a few times while drunk 😀
Phonetics is spelt with a "ph." The English language makes no sense!
Mine is the fact that we drive on a parkway and park on a driveway. Also the fact that what we call football uses hands more than feet.
Why is "abbreviation" such a long word?
When I was doing my PGDE in post-compulsory adult literacy, we would often share stories about our learners. A classmate of mine was teaching at an ESOL, (English for Speakers of Other Languages), centre and one of her learners approached her and asked why "quite a bit" and "quite a lot" meant the same thing. She explained that the English language was ridiculous.
Why do we drive on a parkway and park in a driveway?
AUSTRALIA: 3 different pronunciations of the same vowel.
Try explaining to a foreign friend why, in America, we park on a driveway and drive on parkway.
So many of these people are unnecessarily upset over minor complications and contradictions. How will they face the vagaries of real life?
Sometimes words can help with the meaning by appearing as a symbol, instead of how you pronounce it. There could be a lot of meanings for Q but just 1 meaning for Queue (at least in English) : )
These are some of the many reasons I find joy in being a linguist!
Let's remember Pacific Ocean which has three "c" in it pronounced differently!
English is a lousy language. Whom may we scold for using it?
Gideon and pigeon... just droppin that on in there.
English is definitely not a hard language to learn in comparison to other languages...but damn does it have quirks.
English is an easy language to learn for rudimentary understanding but to speak British English really well is very difficult as there are too many words that we know mean almost the same thing.....but not quite.
The answer to all of these is . . . it’s all for the aesthetic.
All of this is because the English language is comprised of multiple other languages and not just one.
Just to mess them up more introduce these English words borrowed from the French language: garçon, café, façade, coup d'état, coup de théâtre, and coup de grâce. The list does go on.
How do I add a post to the thread ?. I have TEN ways to say the letter O. ___________ one ( wu ) . won. ( u). Woman women ( woo / wi ) _______ Go to top. Form. cow. word.
NONE OF THEM RHYME!!!!!
The people that figured these out are are very smart. They have dissected lots of words.
#34 - English might not have a plural form of you, but Aussie/Kiwi do (yous) and so do southern Americans (y'all)!
Australians try very hard not to use yous, it is a horrible sounding word
It´s almost as bad as "gotten".
In Lincolnshire (UK) Old Boy can mean both a young lad or a very old man :) I love the English language, it keeps everyone on their toes!
Tell someone "Time stands still when I look at you." ... Now tell them "You're face could stop a clock."
This post just broke my brain!!
Anybody wandered what THERAPIST does?
OUR QUEER LANGUAGE I THINK YOU ALREADY KNOW OF TOUGH AND BOUGH AND COUGH AND DOUGH OTHERS MAY STUMBLE BUT NOT YOU WITH THOROUGH AND THROUGH WELL DONE ! AND NOW YOU WISH, PERHAPS TO LEARN OF LESS FAMILIAR TRAPS ? BEWARE OF HEARD, A DREADFUL WORD THAT LOOKS LIKE BEARD AND SOUNDS LIKE BIRD. AND DEAD, ITS SAID LIKE BED, NOT BEAD – FOR GOODNESS SAKE DON’T CALL IT DEED ! WATCH OUT FOR MEAT AND GREAT AND THREAT – THEY RHYME WITH SUITE AND STRAIGHT AND DEBT A MOTH IS NOT A MOTH IN MOTHER NOR BOTH IN BOTHER OR IN BROTHER AND HERE IS NOT A MATCH FOR THERE NOR DEAR AND FEAR FOR BEAR AND PEAR AND THERE’S DOSE AND ROSE AND LOSE – JUST LOOK THEM UP – AND GOOSE AND CHOOSE. AND CORK AND WORK AND CARD AND WARD AND FONT AND FRONT AND WORD AND SWORD AND DO AND GO AND THWART AND CART – COME, COME I’VE HARDLY MADE A START ! A DREADFUL LANGUAGE ? MAN ALIVE I’D MASTERED IT WHEN I WAS FIVE !
Are you ok?
I´m fine, did you read the above and understand it ?
I had a non English guest who wanted to see a dentist but all the ones he found were at Dental Practices - he didn't want to be practiced on, he wanted one who knew what they were doing
tell your guest practice makes perfect
I used to think that the practice nurse was practising on me Lol!
If the building is already built, why we still call building?
What? You don't work in a built?
Something about root words blah blah blah. IDK.
I'm not drunk, I'm still drinking
Why are we like this... I'm English and I still don't understand why we are like this ._.
From what I understand, it has to do with all the conquering that happened way back in the day. The people who eventually became English were very good about incorporating the conquerors' language in with their own, which is why there are so many words (double that of German) and so many nuances. **steps down from podium**
The Romans, the Vikings, and the Normands. And then the English became conquerors themselves and brought back words such as Avatar, Bandanna, Cot, Dungaree, Guru, Jungle, Karma, Loot, Mogul, Nirvana, Pyjamas, Shampoo, Thug, Veranda, and Yoga. From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_words_of_Hindi_or_Urdu_origin
Speaking for myself, I love the chaos of my language. But then I tend to gravitate toward chaos in all things.
I've stopped trying to curse in English because once I said "how should we fuck this" instead of "how should we fucking do this" and I was laughed at, thinking I did it in jest. I didn't. I really thought that was how you curse in English.
No, non-native speakers should cuss frequently:-) It’s funny and it’s interesting because errors lay bare the underlying structure of the language, stuff one doesn’t normally notice if one’s a native speaker
As a worker from a central European country once said to us " You think I know fuck nothing, but I tell you I know fuck all".
English is not a language, it’s a perpetrator that takes other languages down dark allies, beats them to a pulp and robs them. 😂
i live in switzerland and it's quite frustrating that for words like "du", "dir", "dich", "Ihr", "Sie", "Ihnen", "euch", which are pronouns, in english you simply translate ALL OF THEM into the word "you"
What gets me is that "I'm gonna see if I can't catch that ball" and "I'm gonna see if I can catch that ball" mean the same thing.
I like how some people actually answered the questions.
The big problem is that English is a mishmash of other different languages that all have their own rules! You have Greek, Latin, French, Norse & Spanish roots, just to name a few, and they all have their own grammar, etc, as displayed above.
It's mostly german and french
Gallagher and english language! YouTube it and laugh with me....
क्या चूतिया भाषा है !
There, their, they're...
The worst aspect of the English language for writers is the lack of a gender neutral first person singular. Ex: A good employee knows that they have to be on time. NO! employee is singular they is plural Ex. A good employee knows he has to be on time. NO! This assumes the employee is male (unfounded sexism). Ex. A good employee knows that s/he has to bee on time. NO? Acceptable in some circles but still not perfect. Pity the poor writer who has to use English.
Singular 'they' does have a long history and should simply be accepted. There's also 'it' which is the true neutral first person singular. Some people prefer it. I don't, but it is an option.
It started out as a perfectly good Tuesday, then you people had to grammar all over it
The thing about English is it's a mess but at the same time it's kind of super flexible. So I can generally understand what people mean to say when they make technical errors. That's why people get called out with "You know what I meant." when they correct people. It takes a lot of errors to make a sentence that's completely incomprehensible and it's easy for two people to say the same thing and mean completely opposite things. That's just English.
I know 4 languages & all of them are like this!
Here's a funny little story: my fist language as a toddler was english second one german. "Lost" a lot of the english as I am barely using it. BUT: I speak german with english melody
Don't get me started on Croatian
I'm Persian & as a foreigner the word "The" is the most stupid thing I see in English. The second one is gender base changes. Why having different words for different genders?!! It's just a characteristic of a person.
Soba, calm down. C wasn’t calling YOU French. S/he was using French as an example of languages that use masculine/feminine articles. Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese all use feminine and masculine articles. English does not. These linguistic quirks have worked for centuries in their individual countries. No need to get your knickers in a wad over something you cannot change.
Your opinion is noted and will be kept in File 13. Have a nice day.
Being an Englishman I really enjoyed this post, learned something too.
I'll just leave this here: https://www.englishclub.com/esl-articles/199909.htm
I recommend attempting The Chaos by Gerard Nolst Trenite, it really gets you thinking about the English language.