Quirks of the English language (part 4)

English can be a strange and confusing language, with lots of weird and wonderful quirks. This week the Charles Fudgemuffin blog highlights a few more of those quirks.

A baseball player strikes the ball to avoid a strike.

1) Cucumber as a cool

The sentence, "Are you as cool as I am?", can be said backwards and still makes sense.

2) Contradictory language (part 1)

strike

Verb
1. To hit.
2. To miss in an attempt to hit (esp. baseball).

3) C for confusing

Every C in 'Pacific Ocean' is pronounced differently.

4) Rebellious language

Cool as a pineapple.

Here's how to say pineappple in a few miscellaneous languages:

Danish = Ananas
Dutch = Ananas
Finnish = Ananas
French = Ananas
German = Ananas
Icelandic = Ananas
Italian = Ananas
Norwegian = Ananas
Polish = Ananas
Swedish = Ananas
English = Pineapple!

5) Weird logic

When something is transported by ship, it's called a cargo.
When something is transported by car, it's called a shipment.

No fishing.

6) Bigger ghoti to fry

In the word 'tough', the 'f' sound is spelt 'gh'.
In the word 'women', the 'i' sound is spelt 'o'.
In the word 'nation', the 'sh' sound is spelt 'ti'.

So using the above logic, the correct way to spell fish would be ghoti!

7) Inconsistent language

It's normal to say 'kitty cat' or 'puppy dog', but completely weird to say 'calf cow' or 'duckling duck'.

8) Numerous Nationalities

Icelandic, Icelish or Ice?

Horace: "A person from England is English."
Sidney: "So a person from Switzerland is Switzerlish?"
Horace: "No, a person from Switzerland is Swiss."
Sidney: "So a person from Iceland is Ice?"
Horace: "No, a person from Iceland is Icelandic."
Sidney: "So a person from Thailand is Thailandic?"
Horace: "No, a person from Thailand is Thai."
Sidney: "Aargh! Eng is a confusing language!"

9) Contradictory language (part 2)

hold up

Verb
1. To support.
2. To impede.

10) Versatile emphasis

The Internal Revenue Service, pictured yesterday.

Editor's note: "Charles, why have you included
a picture of the IRS next to a post about stealing?"
Charles: "Oops! How did that happen!?
It must have been a mistake." **shifty eyes**

Finally, as well as being weird and wonderful, English can also be a very versatile language. For example, the following sentence can have seven different meanings depending on which word is stressed.

I never said she stole my money.  (Someone said it, but it wasn't me.)

I never said she stole my money.  (At no time did I say she stole my money.)

I never said she stole my money.  (I didn't say it, but I implied it.)
 
I never said she stole my money.  (I just said someone stole my money.)
 
I never said she stole my money.  (I said she did something else with my money).
 
I never said she stole my money.  (I said she stole someone else's money.)
 
I never said she stole my money.  (I said she stole something else belonging to me.)

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If any readers know of any more quirks found in the English language, then feel free to leave a quirky comment. (Or even a regular unquirky comment, if you prefer.)

You can find more quirks of the English language below:
Quirks of the English language (part 2)
Quirks of the English language (part 3)