And you thought learning Spanish was tough:
Sweetmeats are candies, while sweetbreads, which aren’t sweet, are meat. 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?
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.