English is a crazy language. For example, there is no egg in eggplant, ham in hamburger, nor apple or pine in pineapple. English muffins weren’t invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies and sweetbreads, which aren’t sweet, are meat. Quicksand works slowly, boxing rings are square, and a guinea pig isn’t a pig nor from Guinea.
Here are other examples that someone (maybe an English teacher) put together.
- The bandage was wound around the wound.
- The farm produced produce.
- The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
- We must polish the Polish furniture.
- He was reading as the train sped through Reading.
- The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
- Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.
- A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
- When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
- I did not object to the object.
- The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
- There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
- They were too close to the door to close it.
- The buck does funny things when the does are present.
- A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
- To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
- The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
- Upon seeing the tear in the painting, I shed a tear.
- I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
- How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?
- If the lead weight was removed, the lead would be lighter.