One for Hitcher...

[onearmedbandit]

And yet we take the piss out of people who are trying to learn the language, meanwhile most of us can't use it properly either.

[Motu]

The English language is like some of my bikes - built up out of so many different parts that it can be hard to see what it originaly started out as.But someone who knows their bike parts can figure it out....pity I don't know much about language.

But punctuation is the key - and so many people have lost all clues about punctuation that it can be really difficult to read their posts.

[Mr Merde]

The English language is like some of my bikes - built up out of so many different parts that it can be hard to see what it originaly started out as.But someone who knows their bike parts can figure it out....pity I don't know much about language.

But punctuation is the key - and so many people have lost all clues about punctuation that it can be really difficult to read their posts.

Motu, I agree with you wholeheartedly. I try to punctuate corectly but dont always get it right. The nuns, who initially taught me, would be disgusted with my written English as it stands now.

[Bren]

................

You lovers of the English language might enjoy this

There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is 'UP.'

It's easy to understand UP,meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP? At a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is itUPto the secretary to write UP a report?

We call UP our friends. And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver, we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car. At other times the little word has real special meaning. People stir UPtrouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses. To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special.

And this UP is confusing: A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP. We openUPa store in the morning but we close it UP at night.

We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP!To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP,look the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions. If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP,you may wind UP with a hundred or more. When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP. When the sun comes out we say it is clearingUP

When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP.

When it doesn't rain for awhile, things dry UP.

One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP,for now my time is UP, so............ it is time to shut UP......!

[MisterD]

Indeed it would seem that English is one of the more bastardised languages out there.

Bastardised? Only by the Americans and txt-speakers...I think the term you're actually looking for is "mongrel vigour".

Example: "craft" and "skill", one of saxon heritage the other norse have now come to have slightly different meanings. You don't get that richness anywhere else.

At least with English, you don't have all those ridiculous verb tenses and genders...