Customer Reviews

Crazy English

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Ever pick up a book to look up a fact or check your knowledge on something, and wind up losing track of time? I do that with this book far too often . . . and I never regret it. You can use "Crazy English" as a reference if you like, but what author Richard Lederer does best is make you chuckle at all the oddities of the English language.

This book is literally (ha!) packed with word origins, semantics, "confused" phrases, funny figures of speech, and even categories of words I didn't even know had a name (the "nyms"). The chapter about the doctor who speaks only in palindromes is a classic. Lederer's wit plays right into the theme of the book, and I would bet he had as much fun writing it as I have reading it. No need to start at the beginning; just open to any page and bounce around. It's all great fun, and easy reading.

Recently I read the book Crazy English by Richard Lederer for a school project. I thought it was a very interesting book and it really did explain why our English language is so crazy. My favorite part of the book was the Tense Times with Verbs secetion. There were very good poems written in this chapter to help explain and give examples of how our language doesn't make sense sometimes. Another good portion of the book is The Sounds of English, it talks about the many different letters that have different sounds and the words that have mute letters, or silent letters. It has a very indepth perspective of many different sounds and why they are spelled and said the way they are. Overall, I thought this was a very educational book and interesting to read.

An interesting passage from the book -

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"

It's not a text book style book on the dusty history of the English language. Mr. Lederer writes an easy to read (pardon the expression) light hearted look at some of the eccentricities of the English language. Overall, a very enteratining read.

I teach English in Japan and not only is this book interesting but it gave me good ideas for teaching. I laughed out loud several times. English is indeed crazy!

This book is an easy and fun read. Great for those who are interested in the oddities of the English language. Recommended for fans of George Carlin, the comedian. Also recommended for teachers and professors who are looking for interesting and entertaining examples to use in class.

Having read Lederer's "Anguished English" first, I was expecting "Crazy English" to be as great and funny as the former book is. Instead, I found myself skipping several chapters because they were not even interesting to read, such as the one about rhymes. It seems that Lederer was more interested in having fun making sentences rhyme, but was not really thinking whether the readers would find such sentences amusing or even worth reading. However, some chapters, such as the one about the farmer that makes up his own words, are highly entertaining, and very educative. Chapters like this make the book worth buying, but I wouldn't have minded at all just checking it out from the library.

Very well written and funny book. Love how he makes light of and calls out all the silly things in the English language.

I bought this book for a friend because I remembered how awesome it was. She loved it, I loved it, her cat ate the cover off but that's ok because it was used. It arrived quickly and safely.

This is a great resource for educators, providing examples for language arts lessons. There are long lists of oxymorons, phobias, palindromes, etc.