ShadesOfBlue3836
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Oct 31, 2017 2:26 AM
ShadesOfBlue3836
84723
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61
magic8balls
Yeah, i do, because I'm ingerlish.
CaptainSmartass
English is the “just fuck my shit up fam” of languages.
Jrwoodchuck
This... wasn't hard
Icanneverfigureoutanicenickname
Ställ stället i stället istället
Aingelproject667
James, while John had had had, had had had had. Had had had had a better effect on the teacher.
thewiggins
this is why it is important to preserve spelling, it describes the history and relationships of a word
wisdafu
As I was taught in 2nd grade, it all boils down to context clues.
pergh
Tell us more
SpecialAgentCharlesCarmichael
If it was easy everyone would do it.
Imanyone
Kuusi
kukbert
God damn I'm tired of these posts. Every language is dumb in its own way. English is no more special than any other. Stop being ignorant.
rouverius
How can I upvote an upvote?
MAup
Eh got a Swedish phrase here, "I åa ä e ö" it's an accent of Swedish but it's legit Swedish.
ProZocK
Ok, so please give us an example of a language easier then English.
DUDEWHOA
Quit reading 4 lines in
AIComments
I stared at a bus that said "I don't practice" "I perfect" for a for 60 seconds wondering why their grammer was so shitty until it hit me.
gyrodreamsofsushi
Moose plural isn’t meese becuase instead of the other examples (mouse/mice, goose/geese) it isn’t Germanic in origin. It’s Native American.
kusuriya
totally missed Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo
CorneliusCornwall
We get it words are weird.
Cebrail
I love english and I enjoy these funny parts. Also a ton of languages has this, Danish does too :
Imsickofdisshit
The only reason its particularly difficult is because English hasn't undergone comprehensive spelling reform since the printing press.
Voidkom
It's not particularly difficult, tho
Imsickofdisshit
I agree, but it can be a pain to learn reading and writing concepts.
Redsabrewolf
Eggplant and hamburger etc are American invented words, that's why they dont make sense.
lDanielHolm
Hamburg is a city in Germany, which is where the food gets its name.
pterodactylptime
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.
delpharseven
Fun fact: English used to have gendered nouns. Only a few vestiges of that remain, eg. -er/-ress.
delpharseven
Related fun fact: until the mid 1700s 'they' was the universal pronoun. Singular, plural, masculine, feminine - 'they' covered them all.
monty7r7
Because English is the language that hangs out in the alley and beats up other languages and steals their pocket change for itself.
Rikimarudevil
You wish.
noahdmacdonald9
Other languages steal from English. English is king.
Jernau
Rip Pratchett
applemagpie
GNU Pratchett
FeersumEndjinn
Ive lost track of the amount of clients websites where I’m added the GNU Pritchett clacks header...
skolyr
Apparently that's not Pratchett, but a guy named James Nicoll
Jernau
You are correct. Pratchett paraphrased him in one of his books, but i never knew the original quote.
candiduscorvus
Many of the idiosyncrasies in English have history behind them to explain it. It’s an opportunity to learn things.
ScrewUTube
A wise man and a wise guy are theoretically the same, but in the colloquial sense this is correct
pigeonkitty
Eggplants were originally small, white, and egg-shaped before selective breeding. And hamburgers were invented in the city of Hamburg. FYI
DrunkRightNow
Not so sure about invented. Whoever brought hamburgers to the english speaking world just could not pronounce/remember Frikadellenbrötchen
ChloeRed
Also, it depends where you are as to what they are called. I'm in England, so I'd say aubergine instead of eggplant anyway.
evolution4407
Also why do we drive down a parkway but park on a driveway?
Hurro
So we can slide on to Electric Avenue
vidmagnuson
And then we take it higher.
YouAndTheHorseYouRodeInOn
Because a parkway is supposed to be surrounded by trees. As if you driving through a park. A driveway is the way you drive up to your home.
lDanielHolm
"Parkway" originally refers to a way through a park -- not sure why a stationary car is "parked", but parkways came before cars.
Retsam19
Shh... people aren't looking for answers, they're trying to look clever.
pterodactylptime
Did you hear that @evolution4407 ? You're a dum-dum!
mithiwithi
It can still be understood through tough thorough thought, though.
TruckloadsOfBroccoli
Uhh, very berry...idk.
DontAskMeAboutMyUsernameOkay
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.
mithiwithi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo
imsam77
Eh. ? Hmm...
deliberatemistake
Buffalo bison Buffalo bison bully, bully Buffalo bison
imsam77
*thoroughly confused
Jburli24
Yeah, I don't think so..
DontAskMeAboutMyUsernameOkay
Think what you want. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo
Jburli24
Fair enough. It doesn't work in British English, which is why I didn't believe it. You guys use buffalo as a verb?
DontAskMeAboutMyUsernameOkay
As the wiki states, its uncommon. So it's not like you're going to hear it in everyday language, but it exists.
DavidDireZebra
"Easy" is relative and subjective. No language is easy, but English is one of the easiest largely spoken languages today.
EACustomerService
*to speak. Writing in english is comparable in difficulty to languages without letters
Varenyth
Thank you !
Fluffycorn
try learning German !! English is really easy to learn. can be hard to master though in some cases. But its still far easier than french&co.
DailyShepherdPicture
french is ridiculous i had it for 6 years and i still cant produce a sentence that makes sense
Dayrest
Lol no it isn't...
LeadByBadExample
Lol, yes it is...
lonelylinguist
It’s grammatically average (minus quirks like do-support), phonetically fairly complex; spelling’s insane b/c it’s made for Middle English.
lonelylinguist
E.g. “…understood through tough thorough thought though”—Old English þurh, toh, þuruh, þoht, þeah; all have H pronounced, like German “ch”.
lonelylinguist
That H was spelled “gh” in Middle English; many sound changes over the years made these words pronounced differently, but spelling stuck.
SevenLeagueBoots
Easiest to learn, most difficult to master. At least, that's how I've heard it.
infernopg
As someone who speaks Hungarian, German, English and a bit Japanese. It was by far the easiest to master of those languages.
ThirstyPikachu
It depends on how similar your original language is to English. It is much easier for an Italian to learn English than a Chinese person.
ThirstyPikachu
But that same Italian will learn Spanish wayyy faster than English.
delpharseven
It used to be worse. The somewhat laissez faire attitude towards changes built in to it at present is a result of British mercantilism. 1/
delpharseven
As they grew their empire they cared more about trade than cultural domination so had no problem if the locals didn't bother with some of 2/
delpharseven
the more fiddly bits. Anything to get the money flowing quicker. Eventually some of those changes made their way back upstream. 3/3
weeewoooweeewoooweeeewooooooooo
Compared to germanic languages like Norwegian or, well, German, the vocabulary of english is monstrously large. example: /1
weeewoooweeewoooweeeewooooooooo
The huge goose at the bread=den store gåsen spiste brødet=the large goose ate the bread. The puny dog tried to bite the ancient cat = /2
weeewoooweeewoooweeeewooooooooo
Den lille hunden prøvde å bite den gamle katten. = the small dog tried to bite the old cat. English may be relatively simple, but it's not/3
weeewoooweeewoooweeeewooooooooo
simple simply because of the size of its vocabulary with no hints as to what a word could mean without knowledge of latin/german/greek /4
weeewoooweeewoooweeeewooooooooo
vehicle=kjøretøy=drive service.Crepuscular=Skumring=twilight. Germanic words are made of small words that are part of the lang. you speak /5