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For those who know foreign languages, what are some weird things about English?
Posted on 7/1/20 at 2:12 pm
Posted on 7/1/20 at 2:12 pm
That a native English speaker doesn’t realize?
Does English have any attributes (grammar, sentence structure, vocabulary, etc) that are just plain odd compared to other languages?
Does English have any attributes (grammar, sentence structure, vocabulary, etc) that are just plain odd compared to other languages?
24
Posted on 7/1/20 at 2:13 pm to HailHailtoMichigan!
Homophones
Posted on 7/1/20 at 2:13 pm to HailHailtoMichigan!
Tacocat spelled backwards is also Tacocat
This post was edited on 7/1/20 at 2:16 pm
Posted on 7/1/20 at 2:14 pm to HailHailtoMichigan!
Why do we drive on parkways but park on driveways?
Posted on 7/1/20 at 2:15 pm to HailHailtoMichigan!
you/your/you're
their/there/they're
to/too
Most English speakers don't realize the difference between those vocabulary words.
their/there/they're
to/too
Most English speakers don't realize the difference between those vocabulary words.
Posted on 7/1/20 at 2:16 pm to HailHailtoMichigan!
With the exception of pronouns, not having cases.
Posted on 7/1/20 at 2:18 pm to HailHailtoMichigan!
quote:
Does English have any attributes (grammar, sentence structure, vocabulary, etc) that are just plain odd compared to other languages?
I find the fact that most people can't speak it or compose it properly to be very odd.
This post was edited on 7/1/20 at 2:19 pm
Posted on 7/1/20 at 2:22 pm to HailHailtoMichigan!
One of the biggest issues with the English language, as far as reading acquisition and spelling, is we have an incomplete alphabet. We have 26 letters representing 44 sounds. There should be a 1-1 letter to sound correspondence. Increasing the alphabet will be a little more of a learning curve early, but it will make much easier to read and write with phonetic accuracy.
Posted on 7/1/20 at 2:24 pm to HailHailtoMichigan!
quote:It was pointed out to me by a few Russians that English has many words which are pronounced the same way but have totally different meanings, i.e., might (maybe & strong) & mite, "desert" (a dry barren land) and "desert" to abandon someone.
what are some weird things about English?
And sometimes English words are spelled the same but are pronounced differently depending on how they are used in a sentence, such as "read" (present tense) and "read" (past tense), "bat" as in baseball and "bat" as in the flying mammal. Other examples, "fair," "lie," "lead," "minute," "refuse," "project" and "fine."
They told me how difficult it is for them to learn English when words are so hard to use correctly.
And don't even get me started about how the word "ball" can have different meanings...
Posted on 7/1/20 at 2:29 pm to HailHailtoMichigan!
One of the curious thing about English is turning nouns into verbs
This verbing is impacting as well as probleming
This verbing is impacting as well as probleming
Posted on 7/1/20 at 2:29 pm to HailHailtoMichigan!
58008 spells out BOOBS on a calculator when you turn it upside down.
Posted on 7/1/20 at 2:30 pm to HailHailtoMichigan!
It’s racist.
Posted on 7/1/20 at 2:31 pm to HailHailtoMichigan!
No other language incorporates aspects of others like English does, so there is a crazy amount of differences in inflection based on country of origin, and spellings of words can mean very different things.
Also since the entertainment industry is essentially English-based, there is a large amount of slang, sayings, etc that needs to be learned to be truly “fluent”.
Also since the entertainment industry is essentially English-based, there is a large amount of slang, sayings, etc that needs to be learned to be truly “fluent”.
Posted on 7/1/20 at 2:45 pm to HailHailtoMichigan!
The word shite... this comedian breaks it down...
YouTube
YouTube
Posted on 7/1/20 at 2:48 pm to HailHailtoMichigan!
The concept of "have" as a main verb trips up a lot of non-native English speakers. For instance, a French chick might say, "You are having a boner" instead of "You have a boner".
Posted on 7/1/20 at 2:51 pm to HailHailtoMichigan!
One of the weird things about English is how many people in the U.S. cannot speak or write it properly.
Posted on 7/1/20 at 3:10 pm to HailHailtoMichigan!
My wife's first language is Spanish and she learned English when her family immigrated here when she was 5 or 6. She said the toughest thing was learning words that sounded the same but had different meanings.
Posted on 7/1/20 at 3:15 pm to HailHailtoMichigan!
It's weird that English has no official 2nd person plural pronoun. I vote that "y'all" be made official.
Posted on 7/1/20 at 3:15 pm to HailHailtoMichigan!
how much french is in our language
Posted on 7/1/20 at 3:18 pm to HailHailtoMichigan!
English is my mother tongue but I am also fluent in Afrikaans and can speak decent Spanish.
One of the weirdest aspects of English is our word order of Subject - Verb - Object (SVO), which is the opposite of other germanic languages (German, Dutch, Afrikaans, etc.) of Subject - Object - Verb.
Sometimes when I speak Afrikaans for a while and I switch back to English, my mind subconciously waits for the verb at the end of the sentence. This is really tough to explain but anyone who knows a germanic language can relate.
Another really tough aspect of English is the incredibly long list of verb/preposition combinations.
Do you walk down an alley, through an alley, up the alley, etc.
One of the weirdest aspects of English is our word order of Subject - Verb - Object (SVO), which is the opposite of other germanic languages (German, Dutch, Afrikaans, etc.) of Subject - Object - Verb.
Sometimes when I speak Afrikaans for a while and I switch back to English, my mind subconciously waits for the verb at the end of the sentence. This is really tough to explain but anyone who knows a germanic language can relate.
Another really tough aspect of English is the incredibly long list of verb/preposition combinations.
Do you walk down an alley, through an alley, up the alley, etc.
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