The English language is stupid.
Discussion
chris7676 said:
You only would say so if you don't know other languages
It's actually one of the more regular and simpler language out there...
Yes it is. It's actually one of the more regular and simpler language out there...
I speak French, and English does have its foibles. The cause of most of its irregularities is that it is a hotch-potch of a number of old languages, as a result both of its isolation and its history of invasion. The original (pre Saxon invasions) language is pretty well gone and remnants exist only in Welsh, Irish and Scots Gaelic. We have since adopted bits of Latin, thankfully very little in view of its complex grammar, bits of old German/protgerman, French (but without their complex grammar around adjectives) and so on. This has given us a language that is far from phonetic and which has odd rules re word order (I have a big brown French poodle, but never I have a French brown big poodle) and a good few irregular verbs, but which has no need to reconcile gender for adjectives and for regular verbs a very simple conjugation form. The subjunctive hardly ever appears in English. French has 3 different forms, maybe even 4, even I as a very fluent speaker only use one form, and my French grammar textbook has 11 bloody pages on the subject. I'm pretty good at getting it right and I know how to avoid the constructions that lead you into horrors like the past imperfect subjunctive, but even then, 11 pages? No such horrors in English.
Someone asked about Finnish – no thanks. It has, iirc, 7 cases for each noun. This is similar to Lithuanian, which I have recently had a look at. In this again there are 7 cases for every noun. This means that the word “dog” has 7 different forms, depending on what it is doing and what you are saying. This never happens in English other than in the case of pronouns (eg) “he spoke to her” and “she spoke to him” but never “him spoke to she”. Can you imagine having 7 forms of that to manage? Remember the "Romanus eunt Domus" sketch in Life of Brian? That's exactly what it's like. "Domus? Nominative, boy? This is "motion towards", isn't it? Dative, then..."
"Argh, argh, dative, dative, "Domum""
"Buuuuut "Romans go 'ome is an ORDER so we must use the...?"
"Argh! Imperative...iddis, iddus, idda, ite"
And so on.
We don't know we're born.
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I couldn't (could not) care less where the f
k it came from, it should be spelt YOT...Common sense.And yes, obviously I knew wouldn't is short for would not, I do have English "O" level you know....
If you want to go from Manchester to London you don't go via Newcastle, why make things more difficult than they have to be?
Keep things simple.
Over the past 10 years or so I've worked in around 20 countries and remain amazed at just competent other nations are at grasping our languages given just how stupidly complex it is.
But it's not until you spend time in these countries that you realise that most of our language is completely un-translatable. One of my colleagues in Bulgaria once told me he had found a cheaper venue for a conference we were organising that was "Twice as much less than the other venue".
In Egyptian Arabic there is no direct translation for the phrase "Social Inclusion" (which might explain an awful lot more thinking about it).
And I had great fun explaining to an Azeri chap in Baku the difference between Reading and Reading. As a native English speaker, you will not need me to explain the difference...which itself is quite remarkable and equally so that the town of Witham in Essex is often pronounced With-Ham and not as it should be...Whit-am.
Also, I live in a village called Bicknacre yet many of the longer term residents call it Bica Nacre which is from the original name Biccas Acre - a name that's not be used for at least 200 years!
Highly recommend Bill Bryson's Mother Tongue if you're interested in the subject.
But it's not until you spend time in these countries that you realise that most of our language is completely un-translatable. One of my colleagues in Bulgaria once told me he had found a cheaper venue for a conference we were organising that was "Twice as much less than the other venue".
In Egyptian Arabic there is no direct translation for the phrase "Social Inclusion" (which might explain an awful lot more thinking about it).
And I had great fun explaining to an Azeri chap in Baku the difference between Reading and Reading. As a native English speaker, you will not need me to explain the difference...which itself is quite remarkable and equally so that the town of Witham in Essex is often pronounced With-Ham and not as it should be...Whit-am.
Also, I live in a village called Bicknacre yet many of the longer term residents call it Bica Nacre which is from the original name Biccas Acre - a name that's not be used for at least 200 years!
Highly recommend Bill Bryson's Mother Tongue if you're interested in the subject.
I am not a native English speaker. But IMHO English is one of the most simple languages on the world. Try Hungarian or Polish, they are way harder than English. The Latin languages are quite simple as well (Spanish-Italian-Portugese-French) or maybe just for me 'cause I speak Romanian too.
exelero said:
I am not a native English speaker. But IMHO English is one of the most simple languages on the world. Try Hungarian or Polish, they are way harder than English. The Latin languages are quite simple as well (Spanish-Italian-Portugese-French) or maybe just for me 'cause I speak Romanian too.
There's English and there's English. Part of its complexity is that it permits words and phrases to be made up and if they gain sufficient traction, they become part of the language. Would people have known how to use the word 'meme' ten years ago? I was always taught never to start a sentence with the letter 'A' or 'But' ...but this seems to have fallen by the wayside. So, just keeping up with these changes is a bit of a task.By the way, I happen to think Romanian is a beautiful language. Am I right in thinking it is the closest language to Latin in use today?
StevieBee said:
There's English and there's English. Part of its complexity is that it permits words and phrases to be made up and if they gain sufficient traction, they become part of the language. Would people have known how to use the word 'meme' ten years ago? I was always taught never to start a sentence with the letter 'A' or 'But' ...but this seems to have fallen by the wayside. So, just keeping up with these changes is a bit of a task.
By the way, I happen to think Romanian is a beautiful language. Am I right in thinking it is the closest language to Latin in use today?
Possibly. When I've been watching The young pope, there are loads of parts in Latin and I basically understood it all. It's not my native language but for me it was pretty easy to learn to be honest, it kind of helps me when I'm lurking around Spanish people and acting like I don't understand them By the way, I happen to think Romanian is a beautiful language. Am I right in thinking it is the closest language to Latin in use today?
davhill said:
SKP555 said:
It's mind bogglingly complicated in many ways.
Why do you get in a car but on a train?
Did you know? Strictly, you don't travel 'on' a ship.It's a vessel so you travel 'in' one. Why do you get in a car but on a train?
It works with boats and aircraft too.
This obviously does not work for bikes, though!???
exelero said:
I am not a native English speaker. But IMHO English is one of the most simple languages on the world. Try Hungarian or Polish, they are way harder than English. The Latin languages are quite simple as well (Spanish-Italian-Portugese-French) or maybe just for me 'cause I speak Romanian too.
Yes, English (British or American) is just about the simplest language on Earth. It is relatively logical and extremely flexible. Helped along first by the BBC World Service and today by Hollywood / CNN, it has become the world's lingua franca. Some claim it requires less than 100 words to get through 90% of a lifetime in the English-speaking world.exelero said:
I am not a native English speaker. But IMHO English is one of the most simple languages on the world. Try Hungarian or Polish, they are way harder than English. The Latin languages are quite simple as well (Spanish-Italian-Portugese-French) or maybe just for me 'cause I speak Romanian too.
I'd wager you only know the basics which is why you think it's simple, i'd like to watch you work your way through Vroom101's list up there ^^K12beano said:
All language is designed by committee.
The English language was just designed by a lot of committees that didn't communicate with each other much....
And who made their own changes individually on an ad hoc basis over the course of about 1000 years.The English language was just designed by a lot of committees that didn't communicate with each other much....
To make a valid comparison you need to have studied a foreign language to a fairly high standard or English itself to a very high standard. I don't count a GCSE in French 20 or 20 years ago as a high standard!
An old poem:
Eye halve a spelling chequer
It came with my pea sea
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.
Eye strike a key and type a word
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait a weigh.
As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite
Its rare lea ever wrong.
Eye have run this poem threw it
I am shore your pleased two no
Its letter perfect awl the weigh
My chequer tolled me sew.
Eye halve a spelling chequer
It came with my pea sea
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.
Eye strike a key and type a word
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait a weigh.
As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite
Its rare lea ever wrong.
Eye have run this poem threw it
I am shore your pleased two no
Its letter perfect awl the weigh
My chequer tolled me sew.
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