or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
Express Checkout with PayPhrase
What's this? | Create PayPhrase
More Buying Choices
55 used & new from $2.90
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Crazy English
 
 
Share your own customer images
Search inside this book
Tell the Publisher!
I’d like to read this book on Kindle

Don’t have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here.
 
  

Crazy English (Paperback)

~ (Author) "English is the most widely spoken language in the history of our planet, used in some way by at least one out of every seven..." (more)
Key Phrases: William Shakespeare, Chicken Licken, Farmer Pluribus (more...)
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
List Price: $16.95
Price: $14.49 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
You Save: $2.46 (15%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Want it delivered Tuesday, November 24? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details
22 new from $6.80 31 used from $2.90 2 collectible from $14.00

Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
  Hardcover, July 31, 1989 -- $3.98 $0.01
  Paperback, May 31, 1998 $14.49 $6.80 $2.90

Frequently Bought Together

Crazy English + The Play of Words: Fun & Games for Language Lovers + Anguished English: An Anthology of Accidental Assaults Upon Our Language
Price For All Three: $39.04

Show availability and shipping details

  • This item: Crazy English by Richard Lederer

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

  • The Play of Words: Fun & Games for Language Lovers by Richard Lederer

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

  • Anguished English: An Anthology of Accidental Assaults Upon Our Language by Richard Lederer

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

The Play of Words: Fun & Games for Language Lovers

The Play of Words: Fun & Games for Language Lovers

by Richard Lederer
5.0 out of 5 stars (4)  $17.05
Anguished English: An Anthology of Accidental Assaults Upon Our Language

Anguished English: An Anthology of Accidental Assaults Upon Our Language

by Richard Lederer
4.5 out of 5 stars (32)  $7.50
More Anguished English: an Expose of Embarrassing Excruciating, and Egregious Errors in English

More Anguished English: an Expose of Embarrassing Excruciating, and Egregious Errors in English

by Richard Lederer
4.2 out of 5 stars (5)  $6.99
Fractured English

Fractured English

by Dave Morice
4.8 out of 5 stars (4)  $14.35
Get Thee to a Punnery: An Anthology of Intentional Assaults Upon the English Language

Get Thee to a Punnery: An Anthology of Intentional Assaults Upon the English Language

by Richard Lederer
4.7 out of 5 stars (3)  $9.95
› Explore similar items

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

One of the most unforgettable moments of my youth was learning the word pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. I was in third grade. So what if Richard Lederer has come up with a chemical compound that consists of 1,913 letters? Owning a word like pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis is empowering at any age. If you have ever been completely wowed by the power you can have over language, or its power over you, Richard Lederer is your patron saint. His oft-reprinted introduction to Crazy English, which was originally published in 1989, claims that English is "the most loopy and wiggy of all tongues." And then he demonstrates: "In what other language do people drive in a parkway and park in a driveway? ... Why do they call them apartments when they're all together?" And so on. Lederer's pace is frenetic. He alights on oxymorons ("pretty ugly," "computer jock"), redundancies, confusing words (are you sure you know the meaning of enormity?), phobias, contronyms, heteronyms, retroactive terms (acoustic guitar, rotary phone), and a host of other linguistic delights.

Though English may be one of the crazier languages--Lederer claims that about 80 percent of our words are not spelled phonetically--they are all, he says, a little crazy. "That's because language is invented ... by boys and girls and men and women, not computers. As such, language reflects the creative and fearful asymmetry of the human race, which, of course, isn't really a race at all." --Jane Steinberg



From Publishers Weekly

A journalist, teacher at St. Paul's School in Concord, N.H., and public-radio commentator, Lederer ( Anguished English ; Get Thee to a Punnery ) again adroitly mixes instruction with hilarity by showing that English, though the richest and most widely used of all the world's languages, is "crazy." The text is a dazzling collection of anagrams, alliterations, idioms, illogical spelling rules (bough, ghost, honor, rhyme) and larky oxymora (Chaucer's classic "hateful good," today's "military intelligence," "postal service") . Verses, quizzes and anecdotes accompany Lederer's essays on "the antics of semantics," greatly expanding the pleasure of what he correctly claims is "the ultimate joy ride through our language." Doubleday Book Club and Literary Guild alternates; author tour.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

  • Paperback: 224 pages
  • Publisher: Pocket; Revised edition (June 1, 1998)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0671023233
  • ISBN-13: 978-0671023232
  • Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #343,590 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

More About the Author

Richard Lederer
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

› Visit Amazon's Richard Lederer Page
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Search Inside This Book:
Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
English is the most widely spoken language in the history of our planet, used in some way by at least one out of every seven human beings around the globe. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
William Shakespeare, Chicken Licken, Farmer Pluribus, World War, Alexander Pope, Doctor Rotcod
New!
Concordance | Text Stats
Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Search Inside This Book:
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 33 books:
See all 33 books this book cites
 
55 books cite this book:
See all 55 books citing this book

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 
(3)
(3)
(2)
(2)
(2)
(1)
(1)
Agree with these tags?

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store

If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store. Learn more
 

Customer Reviews

11 Reviews
5 star:
 (5)
4 star:
 (4)
3 star:
 (2)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (11 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Highly interesting and amusing commentary about our language, July 7, 2000
By J. Lizzi (Costa Mesa, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)      
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.

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Crazy English, March 10, 2003
By Jon Huska (Davidsville, PA) - See all my reviews
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.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Crazy and Beautiful !, April 1, 2006
By Aseem Anand (Beaverton, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
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"
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Entertaining and Interesting
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. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Krazy Star

4.0 out of 5 stars Crazy language, crazy book
"Crazy English" was recommended to me by a friend who knows how crazy I am for the English language. I think I enjoyed the introduction and the conclusion the most. Read more
Published on December 29, 2006 by The Nerd

3.0 out of 5 stars Uneven, but still worth reading
Having read Lederer's "Anguished English" first, I was expecting "Crazy English" to be as great and funny as the former book is. Read more
Published on April 1, 2006 by isala

4.0 out of 5 stars If you're interested in language, this is a great book.
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... Read more
Published on July 10, 2001 by C. Pellitteri

3.0 out of 5 stars Quite a disappointment, really
As a non-native English speaker (but a reasonably accomplished journalist and translator) I really looked forward to this book. Read more
Published on April 18, 2001 by Fabio Rossi

5.0 out of 5 stars fantastic
Richard Lederer's books are great. I love reading about the English language and Lederer's books are so much fun, they're worth reading even if you don't share my passion for... Read more
Published on March 31, 2001 by kroehl33

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic!
This book gave wonderful definitions of some of the most odd and frustrating topics in the english language. I loved it!
Published on January 14, 2000 by Cralet Boron

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic!!!
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!
Published on September 26, 1999

Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   

So You'd Like to...

Create a guide

Product Information from the Amapedia Community

Beta (What's this?)

Look for Similar Items by Category

Look for Similar Items by Subject

Search Books by subject:




















i.e., each book must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...
 

Feedback

If you need help or have a question for Customer Service, contact us.
 Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
Is there any other feedback you would like to provide?

Your comments can help make our site better for everyone.


Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.