Kenny Lee said:On our club ride today I was commenting on one of my riding partners
bike "gruppo". I asked him how much he had paid for his Campy
"Record" gruppo. He, not being a native speaker of English but
pretty sharp when it involves English grammer, told me I had used
the verb form of the word "Record" and not the noun form. He asked
me what the correct pronunciation was. I couldn't tell him as I
don't know how the Italians say it. So which is it, "Record" as in
world record" or "Record" as in record a video?"
In Italian the accent falls on the second syllable but "record" not
ending in a vowel is obviously a foreign word and is understandable in
either pronunciation by Italians who are accustomed to these
differences from neighbor countries as are most Europeans. I think he
is putting you on.
Meanwhile:
Some reasons to be grateful if you grew up speaking English:
1) The bandage was wound around the wound.
2) The farm was used to produce produce.
3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
4) We must polish the Polish furniture.
5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.
6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time
to present the present.
8) At the Army base, a bass was painted on the head of a bass drum.
9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
10) I did not object to the object.
11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
13) They were too close to the door to close it.
14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.
15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
18) After a number of Novocaine injections, my jaw got number.
19) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.
20) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
21) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?
22) I spent last evening evening out a pile of dirt.
23) There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple
nor pine in pineapple.
24) English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in
France.
25) Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are
meat.
26) Quicksand works slowly; boxing rings are square; and a guinea pig
is not from Guinea nor is it a pig.
27) And why is it that writers write, but fingers don't fing,
grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?
28) If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth
beeth?
29) One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese?
30) Doesn't it seem crazy you can make amends but not one amend.
31) If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one
of them, what do you call it? Is it an odd, or an end?
32) If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught?
33) If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
34) In what language do people recite at a play and play at a
recital?
35) Ship by truck and send cargo by ship?
36) Drive on a parkway and park on a driveway?
37) Have noses that run and feet that smell?
38) How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise
man and a wise guy are opposites?
39) 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.
40) English was invented by people, not computers; and it reflects
the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race
at all.
41) He didn't bother to record when the record was set.
Jobst Brandt
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