English Facts and Fun

Try these six quiz questions. You can use a dictionary, or anything else which you think may be helpful.

1. Insert punctuation and capital letters in the correct places in the following sentence.

not wanting to listen to henry any more margaret left the room slamming the door behind her

4. Which of these words are spelled incorrectly? (Watch out, there may be more than one!)

Gerald suffered an industrious injury when his hand got caught in one of the machines.
Gerald suffered an industrial injury when his hand got caught in one of the machines.

What do these words mean? Find out (using a dictionary, or anything else which you think may be helpful) and then try to think of an example of each one.

To get the answer to this question, bookmark this page and visit us again next month!

I wish he’d stop ringing me. He’s rang me every day since I came back from holiday.
I wish he’d stop ringing me. He’s ringing me every day since I came back from holiday.
I wish he’d stop ringing me. He’s rung me every day since I came back from holiday.

The third option is correct. To get a clearer idea of how to use the verb 'to ring' (on the telephone), look at these examples:

I rang her every day last week, and she was out of the office every time.
I've been ringing her every day this week, but she's out of the office every time.
I'm ringing her later today, because she's out of the office this morning.
I've rung her every day for a week, and she's been out of the office every time.

Do you have any queries or comments about these questions? If so, why not e-mail us?

ENGLISH IS A CRAZY LANGUAGE

Let's face it -- English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in 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.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth beeth? One goose, two geese. So one moose, two meese? And why one index but two indices?

Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend, that you comb through annals of history but not a single annal? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? If you wrote a letter, perhaps you bote your tongue?

Sometimes I think all English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what kind of language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? Park on driveways and drive on parkways?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and wise guy are opposites? How can overlook and oversee be opposites, while quite a lot and quite a few are alike? How can the weather be hot as hell one day and cold as hell another?

Have you noticed that we talk about certain things only when they are absent? Have you ever seen a horseful carriage or a strapful gown? Met a sung hero or experienced requited love? Have you ever run into someone who was combobulated, gruntled, ruly or peccable? And where are all those people who ARE spring chickens or who would ACTUALLY hurt a fly?

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 clock goes off by going on.

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race (which, of course, isn't a race at all). That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible. And why, when I wind up my watch, I start it, but when I wind up this essay, I end it.

By Richard Lederer

Can you think of any other strange things about the English language? E-mail them to us and we may display them on this page.

'Haven't you heard? Mary got the sack from the bakery. She kept eating all the cakes!'

If you get the sack, it means you have been dismissed from your job. In the old days, craftsmen used to bring their own tools to work. If the employer decided to dismiss a person, he would put that person's tools into a sack for him to take when he left. So when you 'got the sack', you knew you were being ordered to leave your job.

(NB: 'To get the sack' is generally something you'll hear British people say. Americans normally use the term to get fired instead.)

Other websites to visit. These sites all contain interesting information and fun ideas for improving your English.

Dave's ESL Café - http://www.pacificnet.net/~sperling/eslcafe.html. Lively site containing lots of useful information for teachers and students. Features include chat and discussion areas, a 'graffiti wall', help with English queries (including 'Hint of the Day') and an Idiom Page.

English Grammar Links for ESL Students - http://www.gl.umbc.edu/~kpokoy1/grammar1.htm. Includes an online grammar reference, grammar quizzes and exercises, and links to further grammar resources. A teacher's section is included.

ELFS - http://www.elfs.com/ELFsX.html. Pages include 'Movie Talk', 'Mouth Workout' and 'Say What?' (pronunciation exercises), 'Toon In to Idioms' (idioms explained using sound and animation) as well as an E-pals resource.

EFL - http://www.globalnet.co.uk/~efl/. Lively, informal (and often irreverent!) website for students and teachers. Includes a guide to 'real' English idioms, downloadable exercises and a 'Staff Room Gossip' Section for Teachers.

John and Sarah's TEFL Pitstop - http://www.lingolex.com/jstefl.htm. Resources for teachers. Includes ideas for games and quizzes, grammar work, and a Virtual Staffroom.

Kathy's ESL World (http://www.eslworld.com/). A variety of useful information, much of it dealing with American English.

If you have any jokes, funny stories or poems, facts, or interesting experiences relating to English language learning, why not e-mail us? We may feature your material on this page in the future!
(Include your name and the country you live in when you send your e-mail.)