Mekt-Hakkikt
Mpanty's bane
A language isn't necessarily logical and IMO it doesn't has to be. After all it it's something evolving over a lot of time.
The Dawn of the Wing commander revival, or a false start?
- Thread starter Conrad
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Lelapinmechant
Spaceman
Originally posted by Raptor
Just WTF is a smoot, anyway?
Best, Raptor
At Harvard, there's a professor named "Smoot," and there's a bridge in Cambridge that was measured in units of his height-- about six feet two inches.
Lelapinmechant
Spaceman
The fact that english is complicated is what makes it so great. I love french, too, don't get me wrong. But english is just so much more complicated, it almost makes me feel priveledged that it's my first language.
Bandit LOAF
Long Live the Confederation!
The more complicated a language is, the more fun you can have playing with it...
Still, to complain about any one languages idiosyncracies is to open yourself to attack -- *no* language can survive everyday use by millions of people without sacraficing elements of its logic...
Still, to complain about any one languages idiosyncracies is to open yourself to attack -- *no* language can survive everyday use by millions of people without sacraficing elements of its logic...
Mekt-Hakkikt
Mpanty's bane
That's the first time I hear that somebody claims English to be more difficult than French. In fact, I always heard (and experienced myself so) that English is more easily to learn than most other languages language, in the good sense like Kris mentioned. English has a lot of idioma and sayings, I think that's what causes some problems maybe but it also makes the language more fun.
AD
Finder of things, Doer of stuff
Is german your first language? English, interestingly has borrowed a lot from German, Just as it borows heavlity from latin and french. However, in structure it is quite different from French and such, having more in common with german, making it easier for a German to learn english. The problem for most others to learn english is that there are so many exceptions to the rules in english an a whole lot of just plain crazyness (the fun stuff!!!) I would never have thought kitchen and chicken sounded similar until my cousin's south american wife started to learn the language.
English is my first language, but I am also fluent in french. The only thing difficult is that there are so many tenses with which to conjugate verbs.
Mekt-Hakkikt
Mpanty's bane
Yep, German is my first language (though I am rather fluent in French too 
).
Maybe it's indeed easier as a German to learn English. Still, I think English is objectively easier, since there's no big problem with gender and the verbs are not heavily changed when you conjugate them, neither in time nor by person (except the irregulars of course, but they exist in every language). Not to forget, that you don't have any special letters (like "ß" and "ä") or accents like in French.
).Maybe it's indeed easier as a German to learn English. Still, I think English is objectively easier, since there's no big problem with gender and the verbs are not heavily changed when you conjugate them, neither in time nor by person (except the irregulars of course, but they exist in every language). Not to forget, that you don't have any special letters (like "ß" and "ä") or accents like in French.
AD
Finder of things, Doer of stuff
Maybe. But it isn't me. I have a lot of family that know spanish. But my knowledge of it is only through association.
I can say things like "cervesas, por favor. Mui bien. Gracias. "
Well, maybe I know more than that but it's mostly words. I couldn't really put them into complex sentences or anything. Interestingly, because I know french I can almost understand alot of it when I read it. There are a lot of similar words.
Naféasonto
Swabbie
Banned
My statement about the English language sparked another subject. Oh jeez.
Wasn't it just stupidly smart?
Nafé
Wasn't it just stupidly smart?
Nafé
Wedge009
Rogue Leader
PM = post meridiem, which I assume is post midday, hence after noon. Probably one of those odd 'borderline' things similar to why there's no year 0, and why 2000 is the last year of the second millennium.
Wasn't one of the Mars probes a disaster because someone mixed up imperial measurements with metric?
Never heard of that sport before. I just keep hearing stuff about how the US is better than the rest of the world.
You will admit that Australia 25 years ago is slightly smaller than the US today, wouldn't you?
Hooray for 24-hour clocks.
Hey, airports and anything remotely international use them too, don't they?That's a bit harsh. What's your native language?
I'm sure English isn't the only language in that regard.
This one, I'll admit, is just plain stupid. I first heard this one when I moved to Australia. Some oxymorons are quite amusing though (military intelligence), and wasn't the original intent of oxymorons was as some sort of literary device?
BTW, you too, apparently need some anger management classes.
I think they use both in Britain - and my parents have no problem with using both.
BTW, all you multilingual people, I'm envious. My first and only language - English. Pretty sad considering I'm Chinese, with parents born in Mauritius and fluent in English, (French) créole, and a reasonable amount of (Chinese) Hakka, and Dad knowing a fair amount of European languages. :-(
Frosty
a full fledged GF
Yeah well, fella, topic drift occurs, get over it.
If you don't want people discussing topics you bring up here, don't post. Especially not inflammatory and ignorant stuff like ,"English is a stupid language."
If you're so terrifically self-conscious that you feel compelled to say "oh jeez" every time you spark a discussion, you need to learn to loosen up.
