Another piece of fun from IT Guru

[ostaralight]

We'll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox becomes 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,
Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.

If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn't the plural of pan

Comments

[kiwifruitbat]

Snerk

[ostaralight]

*wink*

[salamanderdeath]

I lol'd. One of the many reasons I feel sorry for anyone learning English at any time other than childhood.

[ostaralight]

It is not really that hard as often assumed... From my point of view French is much harder, but minding that nobody believes me, it might be a personal view only;-)

[cat_i_th_adage]

The 'quick' in quicksand probably comes from 'quick' = 'alive', an old usage. As in, the quick of a fingernail (the pink part which bleeds when you cut it), or the old phrase "The quick and the dead." That last has also been used as a pun in Western gunfighter movies.

[ostaralight]

Aha, that's the thing, I see. In Russia they translated the name of the movie directly, so its the fast and the dead, yeah...
You know, same with English translation of "War and Peace". The Russian word for peace has another meaning, and in 19th century that was actually a different word - spelt with another letter. Then after 1917 revolution there were language changes made by Soviet government, and that letter was taken out of use, instead there was another letter used. So it became one word instead of two. The changed word is an ancient one, it's not used in everyday speech now. The meaning for it is "society". So the book is, in fact, called "War and Society", and this name makes much more sense from the content point of view than "War and Peace".

[xandim]

Yes I was going to mention 'quick' as well... and I could go on about Old English (strong and weak verbs, plurals, vowel changes...) but perhaps I will leave that for another time.
Basically, English used to be more obviously structured, but frequent invasions and additions from multiple languages have left many irregularities. Some of these are disappearing but commonly used words tend to resist change and survive in antiquated forms.
:-)

[cat_i_th_adage]

Some of these are disappearing but commonly used words tend to resist change and survive in antiquated forms.

So mote it be!