Sunday, August 29, 2010

Down in the Sewer

What do you call a person who sews? Thanks to Linda, I realized that I called on sewers - HA! - in my last post. I've changed the wording. If you knit, you are a knitter. What gives?
Erin

I love this poem. It's called, Why English is so Hard

We’ll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox should be oxen, not oxes.
Then 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 whole nest of mice,
But the plural of house is houses, not hice.

If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn’t the plural of pan be called pen?
The cow in the plural may be cows or kine,
But a bow if repeated is never called bine,
And the plural of vow is vows, never vine.

If I speak of a foot and you show me your feet,
And I give you a boot would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth, and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn’t the plural of booth be called beeth?

If the singular’s this and the plural is these,
Should the plural of kiss ever be nicknamed keese?
Then one may be that and three would be those,
Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,
And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.

We speak of a brother, and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren,
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine she, shis and shim,

So the English, I think, you all will agree,
Is the queerest language you ever did see.

2 comments:

  1. Erin I sure hope you didn't take offense, because you are RIGHT, it is sewers(noun)! The English language is the hardest to figure out for sure. It cracked me up to say 'sewers' which kinda describes my sewing by the other pronunciation and definition of that word!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh, no offense taken. I'm happy you caught that. My sewing may very well be in the sewer, but I'll try to remain positive. Ha ha!
    Thanks,
    Erin

    ReplyDelete

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I'm a slightly off-beat Toronto-area teacher who enjoys writing and photography. I come from a family of collectors and now I'm dragging my own family around to yard sales. It's just a bit of fun. Enjoy the scenes.