Why houses don’t have mouses

The plural of mouse is mice - so why isn’t “hice” the plural of house?

This and other linguistic mysteries are highlighted and explored by a Shropshire author who lives now in the Far East and is hoping to tap into the same market as the highly successful book “Eats, shoots and leaves” with his own book looking at the weird and wonderful aspects of the English language.

Much Ado About English by Richard Watson Todd, pictured, is a journey through the peculiarities, illogicalities and sheer charm of the English language.

He considers everything from the origins of words, to their erratic spellings and unexpected uses, where words have come from and how they’ve changed, and the myriad ways the language is used.

Mr Watson Todd flew over from Thailand, where he now lives, to launch the book in St Alkmund’s Church, Shrewsbury, in a link-up with the town’s Pengwern Bookshop.

Mr Watson Todd said: “The book is aiming at the same market as ‘Eats, shoots and leaves’. Most books in this area concern origins of words and idioms (e.g. the books by Albert Jack and the more reliable Michael Quinion).

“While ‘Much Ado’ also has a section on the most interesting origins, the coverage is much wider including as it does, say, metaphors, alliteration, puns and strange plurals. This range, I hope, will mean that any reader will find something of interest.

“Also, some parts of it are funny, other parts are intriguing and yet other parts just illustrate the sheer bloodymindedness of the language.

“The things I personally find most interesting are those aspects of English that we use every day without realising how strange or illogical they are, such as oxymorons and pleonasms; and those points where English doesn’t actually work.

“For example, suppose that Canada is the third country to legalise gay marriage, but you couldn’t remember which ordinal number Canada is (i.e. you want to know ‘third’), there’s no question in English that you can ask, whereas Dutch and Indonesians have no problems.”

Explaining his move abroad, he said: “I was born in Shrewsbury in 1966 but am really from Newport, where my mother has lived since before I was born and where I grew up and went to school at Adams’ Grammar School.

“After finishing university with a degree in accounting and believing everything that Monty Python had to say about how boring accountancy is, I decided to try out teaching English abroad.

“After stints in Turkey, Colombia (where I was mugged regularly) and Indonesia, I ended up in Thailand where I’ve been for the last 16 years. I guess Newport is still my home in the UK.

“As a trainer of English teachers and teaching English occasionally myself, obviously I’ve been interested in the language. The actual stimulus for the book is that one day for no apparent reason a large whiteboard was attached to the wall outside my office.

“After a couple of weeks of blankness, I decided to start putting a weekly activity concerning English on the board for the amusement and edification of my colleagues.

“Starting out as a bit of fun, the concept snowballed quickly with some secondary school teachers coming to the university just to read and attempt to answer the activities. Clearly, I had hit a nerve and was providing something that people wanted.

“So, when some friends started their own publishing company and approached me as a possible author, I decided to write a book based around the activities and ‘Much Ado about English’ is the end result.”

Much Ado about English is published by Nicholas Brealey Publishing. It is hardback, 140 pages, and costs £9.99.