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Иногда кажется, что в английском языке больше исключений, чем правил. С учетом большого количества омонимов, омографов и синонимов, можно со всей ответственностью сказать, что хорошее знание английского требует действительно значительных усилий.
В данной подборке собрано несколько десятков фраз, содержащих занимательные парадоксы, каламбуры и иные интересные трудности английского языка.
1) When the stars are out, they are visible,
When the lights are out, they are invisible.
2) If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
3) How can 'A Slim Chance' and 'A Fat Chance' be the same?
4) How can 'You're so cool' and 'You're not so hot' be different?
5) The bandage was wound around the wound.
6) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
7) Boxing rings are square.
8) A guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.
9) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
10) There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple.
11) English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France.
12) If I speak of a foot and you show me your feet,
And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
13) How come Writers write but Fingers don't fing?
And Grocers don't groce and Hammers don't ham?
14) A box in the plural becomes is boxes.
But an Ox in the plural never becomes oxes. (It becomes Oxen).
15) A lone mouse can transform into a whole set of mice,
But it's impossible for a single house to become a whole block of hice. (It becomes houses).
16) Although the masculine pronouns are he, his and him, we must be grateful for small mercies of the language that the feminine pronouns after 'She' don't become 'Shis' and 'Shim'.
17) They were too close to the door to close it.
18) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
19) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
20) 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.
21) It is only in the English language that people recite at a play and play at a recital.
22) No sooner had my eye fallen upon the tear in the painting, then this eye of mine began to shed many a tear.
23) It's not ridiculous, but entirely sensible to ship by truck and send cargo by ship.
24) We are a strange lot to have noses that run and feet that smell.
25) I was proven right that I had the right of way.
26) How come you never hear of a combobulated, gruntled, ruly, or peccable person?
27) Why is it that whether you sit down or sit up, the results are the same?
28) Shouldn't there be a shorter word for "monosyllable"?
29) If you take an Oriental person and spin him around several times, does he become disoriented?
30) If people from Poland are called "Poles," why aren't people from Holland called "Holes?
31) The human race has been running for a great many centuries now - but we're not tired yet.
Источник: http://situationalenglish.blogspot.ru/2011/07/31.html | 
