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English is weird

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Akima:

--- Quote from: snalin on 29 Dec 2013, 20:04 ---Also, even if you don't know Chinese, this is pretty cool.

--- End quote ---
The joys of tonal language. ;)

Is it cold in here?:

--- Quote from: Method of Madness on 29 Dec 2013, 19:32 ---Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

--- End quote ---

Even better, you can leave the city out and still make a grammatical sentence of any length >=2 using only the word "buffalo". The trick is that anywhere you have "buffalo" the noun you can substitute "buffalo buffalo buffalo", meaning "bison who are intimidated by other bison". I don't remember who discovered this.

EDIT: Announcement on a train at a stop: "All doors will not open".

Method of Madness:
Is that no doors will open or at least one door will not?

Is it cold in here?:
The latter.

EDIT: I've been forgetting to mention this for months:

--- Quote from: snalin ---Quote
Steel roasting hood, forged from the melted turret of the Soviet T-50 tank that took Berlin during the second World War.

Not a T-50 that took part in the capture of Berlin, the T-50. As in the single tank that overcame the entirety of nazi Germany's last stand on it's own. And the turret of that tank is in this grill!

--- End quote ---

How any ESL speaker works out the use of definite articles is beyond me. It's normal in English to use it in near-opposite ways:
"The T-50 tank was produced by the thousands from (date) to (date) at the arms factory in (place)"
"The T-50 tank that broke down on that corner had serial number (number)"

Is it cold in here?:
If a dog park is where dogs can run free and play with one another, what is a car park?

If a place that raises cats is a cattery, why isn't a place that raises bats called a battery?

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