This week: That's Weird Edited by: Robert Waltz More Newsletters By This Editor
1. About this Newsletter 2. A Word from our Sponsor 3. Letter from the Editor 4. Editor's Picks 5. A Word from Writing.Com 6. Ask & Answer 7. Removal instructions
Action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often.
—Mark Twain
Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality.
—Edgar Allan Poe
No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world.
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A noun is a part of speech.
A pronoun is a part of speech.
A verb is a part of speech.
But a proverb is a whole speech.
This occurred to me recently, and it got me thinking more about some of the strangeness of the English language. Also, it got me thinking about the inherent humor therein.
I'm not just talking about puns here, which are certainly amusing... for the punster, not so much for their victims. But a few other examples:
The rule we learn in school for spelling is "I before E, except after C." And this works well for words like "friend" and "fiend," but not for words like "stein" or "weird." So why is it a rule? Well, it seems to be true more often than not. But the nots can trip you up. Or the knots can tie you up. Something like that. And yet, I keep seeing people misspelling "thief" (which follows the rule) as "theif" (which doesn't, though that may be appropriate since a thief doesn't follow rules).
It's certainly possible to loose an arrow, but if you misplace it, that means you lose it. If you do the former, and it hits the intended target, then that person is a loser, not a looser, though they might find themself at loose ends.
And don't get me started on the different pronunciations of words like through, tough, cough, and thorough.
Also, what does a knight do during the day?
Yes, English can be weird, partly because we stole words from many other languages, at different times in history, often inheriting inconsistent spellings and pronunciations.
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Some words, in the manor of comedy:
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