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Word Play
#990927
12/01/14 09:40 AM
12/01/14 09:40 AM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 52,968
Upstate NY
Pandora
OP
Sonic Boomer
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OP
Sonic Boomer
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 52,968
Upstate NY
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Homographs are words of like spelling but with more than one meaning. A homograph that is also pronounced differently is a heteronym. Fill in the blanks of each line below with heteronyms.
-1) The bandage was _____ around the _____.
-2) The farm was used to _____ _____.
-3) The dump was so full that it had to _____ more _____.
-4) We must _____ the _____ furniture.
-5) He could _____ if he would get the _____ out.
-6) The soldier decided to _____ his dessert in the _____.
-7) Since there is no time like the _____, he thought it was time to _____ the _____.
-8) A _____ was painted on the head of the _____ drum.
-9) When shot at, the _____ _____ into the bushes.
-10) I did not _____ to the _____.
-11) The insurance was _____ for the _____.
-12) There was a _____ among the oarsmen about how to _____.
-13) They were too _____ to the door to _____ it.
-14) The buck _____ funny things when _____ are present.
-15) A seamstress and a _____ fell down into a _____ line.
-16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his _____ to _____.
-17) The _____ was too strong for me to _____ the sail.
-18) Upon seeing the _____ in the painting I shed a _____.
-19) I had to _____ the _____ to a series of tests.
-20) How can I _____ this to my most _____ friend?
"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 or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat. 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? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? 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 English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?
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.
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. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.
PS. - Why doesn't 'Buick' rhyme with 'quick'?"
Netflix needs to stop asking if I'm still watching and start asking if I've switched the laundry over yet
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Re: Word Play
[Re: Pandora]
#990930
12/01/14 09:43 AM
12/01/14 09:43 AM
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Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 11,877
Isle of Man
Lex
Adept Boomer
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Adept Boomer
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 11,877
Isle of Man
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3. Refuse more refuse. 
Last edited by Lex; 12/01/14 09:43 AM.
Life is what happens while you're making other plans.
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acebook
witter
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All correct! 
