Friday, March 16, 2012

Ode to English Plurals

my mom sent this to me and i thought it was GRAND! 
especially for ELA and English teachers. so fun. 
i am not sure where it is from {if someone knows PLEASE inform me as to where i may give credit!} 
i even shared it with my kids when we were doing plural spelling words, and though parts of it were a little over their heads, they understood the gist of it and laughed at all the right places :) 
{Ode to English Plurals}
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 be called pen?
If I speak of my foot and show you my 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?

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!

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 .
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?
Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend..
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?
Sometimes I think all the folks who grew up speaking English
should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.


In what other language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?
We ship by truck but send cargo by ship.
We have noses that run and feet that smell.
We park in a driveway and drive in a parkway.
And how can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same,
while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?

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 goes off by going on.


And in closing, if our Fathers are Pops, how come we don't call our Mother's MOPS?

Hope everyone has a FANTABULOUS weekend! Get out and ENJOY the weather! 


 Living GREEN FAIRY style for St. Paddy's Day 
{. .. .. and yes, the green garland is for St. Patrick's Day .. it isn't still up from Christmas, though that would be how I roll so I don't blame your questioning thoughts! *haha*}

5 comments:

  1. Hey Brit,
    email me at tara.eiken1@gmail.com and I would love to chat with you about Daily 5....you left me a comment on my blog:)

    4th Grade Frolics

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Brit!

    Thanks so much for your sweet comment! I LOVE this poem! I have heard parts of it before, but the other parts were new to me! I would love to share this with my kiddos! Like you said, I know some of it will be over their heads, but there are other parts that I know they will love, like the pops and mops part! :) Thanks for sharing!

    Molly
    Lessons with Laughter

    ReplyDelete
  3. p.s. I love the green fairy outfit!! Super cute! :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hey girl!! I just realized I am a terrible blog friend and never responded to your word work/daily 5 comment questions!! Then I was going to email a reply but don't have your email/don't see it on here...email me at juiceboxesandcrayolas@gmail.com and I will fill you in about how I manage my daily 3!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Tara - I will be emailing you :) Thanks for your response

    Molly - glad you could use it, I thought it was cute!

    Amy - thanks! Sorry it isn't showing up. Thanks for your time. I haven't even been on blogger due to {LIFE}! So no worries :)

    ReplyDelete

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