English is very easy language.
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English is very easy language.
Without saying it's very easy, it's easy. People who say it's hard probably say it because it's the only other language they are learning. They're native tongue is probably much harder to learn.
I think English is grammatically quite simple. There are not so many different forms of one word like in some other languages, for example in Finnish.
One verb, "laulaa" (to sing)
laulan, lauloin, olen laulanut, olin laulanut (I sing, I sang, I have sung, I had sung)
laulat, lauloit, olet laulanut, olit laulanut (you sing...)
laulaa, lauloi, on laulanut, oli laulanut (she/he/it sings...)
laulamme, lauloimme, olemme laulaneet, olimme laulaneet (we sing...)
laulatte, lauloitte, olette laulaneet, olitte laulaneet (you sing...)
laulavat, lauloivat, ovat laulaneet, olivat laulaneet (they sing)
lauletaan, laulettiin, on laulettu, oli laulettu (is sung)
laulaisin, olisin laulanut ( I would sing, I would have sung)
laulaisit, olisit laulanut (you would sing...)
laulaisi, olisi laulanut (she/he/it would sing...)
laulaisimme, olisimme laulaneet (we would sing...)
laulaisitte, olisitte laulaneet (you would sing...)
laulaisivat, olisivat laulaneet (they would sing...)
laulettaisiin, olisi laulettu (would be sung...)
laula (sing!)
laulakoon
laulakaamme
laulakaa
laulakoot
laulanen (I may sing)
laulanet (you...)
laulanee
laulanemme
laulanette
laulanevat
laulettaneen
Those were just verbs. You can also turn verbs into nouns and adjectives, like "laulaminen" - "singing" (as in "I like singing"), or "laulava" - "singing" (as in "a singing bird") and so on.
"Laulaen" or "laulamalla" - "by singing", "laulamatta" - "without singing" etc.
the difficulty is the absence of the formal/informal forms of address.
english is very unique in this sense and because of it the language par excellance --in my view.
There used to be one with thou/you I believe (at least in translations I've seen thou being used as the informal when a distinction had to be made)? Although I don't see why it's a difficulty? It doesn't really make the language any easier or harder actually, but actually gives somewhat less depth I believe. Better have the choice.Quote:
Originally Posted by chasestalling
And that's a pretty weak criterion to make it "the language par excellence...", how can you judge? How many languages do you know?
I heard somewhere that Finnish is one of the hardest languages to learn. From what I've seen here, it certainly does look difficult.Quote:
Originally Posted by Annamariah
It boggles my mind that everyone is saying English is easy. You want to know why it's hard? Here are some examples of why (and yes, I took the first part of this from Gallagher)>
Tomb Comb
Comb Home
Home Roam
Roam Dome
Dome Some
Some Dumb
i before e except after c
science
ancient
percieve
conscience
fancied
efficient
Use s to pluralize
child children
ox oxen
deer deer
hoof hooves
crisis crises
The English language is difficult because there are way more rules than any other language and so many exceptions that you could write a book on the excpetions alone. How can a lnguage be easy to learn when a good portion of the time, it doesn't even follow it's own rules? How can a language be easy to learn when there are literally thousands of exceptions to the rules?
english is easy to learn but its very hard to master IMO.
It looks like spanish, if you think about it. I mean, not in the word but how they are used and such.Quote:
Originally Posted by Annamariah
*********************************
I've found english a particularly easy language, you just have to memorize words and then perfect pronunciation.
I do like english in that there's no difference between male and female in the words. For example the word, um, Table. Here in the u.s you only say The table and it's just that, not male or female but back home is LA mesa, in the female tense and we have few words that are ambiguous in gender and can be applied to both. Everything is gender-ized.
when addressing a friend or a person of lesser social rank in spanish the word is tu. there's nothing like this in english although as u point out thou may serve as the english version of usted.Quote:
Originally Posted by Etienne
i maintain that english is the language par excellance because words are generally used to mask or divert our inner most thoughts; english with its absence of the formal/informal mode deprives its user (or abuser as the case may be) of an escape valve, i.e. silence is more often than not one's best option if he values his precious identity.
just one man's opinion.
Well...I don't know or it's because this language isn't mine but it seems to me very hard. Any way, any more explanation?Quote:
Originally Posted by Annamariah
Have you ever studied french, for example or any other language for that matter?Quote:
Originally Posted by metal134
"when addressing a friend or a person of lesser social rank in spanish the word is tu. there's nothing like this in english although as u point out thou may serve as the english version of usted."
I know that french is "tu" and "vous", however "thou" was used as the informal, not as the formal. This was from translations, so maybe it was just the better option since they had to use a different word? The best example I can remember was in Tolstoy's War and Peace (if I remember correctly) it was Signet Classics edition.
"when addressing a friend or a person of lesser social rank in spanish the word is tu. there's nothing like this in english although as u point out thou may serve as the english version of usted."
I believe the more precise a language can get and the more range it has to express oneself the better it is. I'm not saying english isn't a nice language, because it is, however I just don't see why the absence of formal/informal, which after all, stays a rather trivial thing in judging of a language as a whole can make it a "language par excellence" which is an expression which basically means the "archetype of languages", which it's absolutely not, by any stretch of imagination. And to be able to say that one language is "the language par excellence" I would assume you know at least 10 or 20 languages? Which is still a rather small sample, but considering it's taken from different families can give a good outlook? How many languages do you know and can use fluently?
Yes, I have. I have studied Spanish. And I said nothing about the quality of the English language. Just because it's difficult to learn doesn't mean it's "par excellence". It's just hard.
Well spanish is a pretty easy language to learn, pretty straightforward, so yes, english would be harder than spanish. But still that doesn't make english hard in the grand scheme of languages. Already, you can put all the languages with declensions almost automatically as being harder than english. And english is not an exception in exceptions :PQuote:
Originally Posted by metal134
Oh and about that "par excellence" part, that was directed at chasestalling. Only the first sentence was in answer to your post.
etienne, i like to break a lance now and then (at every chance really) and therefore i'm prone to make preposterous statements.
as to how many languages i know 2, only 2, and i wouldn't care to know any more.
eric