The Curious Case of the English Language

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See. The thing here is that Får means sheep and "have". But if you place it before a word in a question, It is no longer Have, but "Does or Do".

So correctly translated it is "DOes sheep have sheep, no sheeps have lambs. As in you dont call it a sheep when it is born.


SWEDISH YO!

There is also something called "Särskrivning"

Basicly. When we make words, sometimes we just smash words together.

En brunhårig sjuksköterska = A brownhaired Nurse.

However. If we split up into component words

En brun hårig sjuk sköterska = A brown hairy sick caretaker.
God damn it, Hellis. Get your shit together!

Learning a new language will always be "hard" if you're not motivated enough, if you don't spend enough time with it, and if you bitch over trivial issues like silent letters and differences between your target language and your native language (OOOOOOOOHBIGSCARYCHINESESSIGNSBLAHBLAHBLAH).

EDIT:
I hope for the love of God nobody who ever considers learning a new language reads this thread.
 
God damn it, Hellis. Get your shit together!

Learning a new language will always be "hard" if you're not motivated enough, if you don't spend enough time with it, and if you bitch over trivial issues like silent letters and differences between your target language and your native language (OOOOOOOOHBIGSCARYCHINESESSIGNSBLAHBLAHBLAH).

EDIT:
I hope for the love of God nobody who ever considers learning a new language reads this thread.
Nono. Ask a linguist, Swedish is more gramatically complex then English and generally considered harder to learn. That was really my only point.
 
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I remember getting barely passing scores on my high school English exams 8D But I had high scores in composition and the exercises (and vocab since I was a nerd about learning dat highbrow English lol). But my Grammar teacher was so alsdfhasdgh. So in the end my English grade usually ended up in the 88-94 range :3

My usage of English is actually something I self-learned, for the most part. My writing style, grammar and vocabulary is pretty much stagnant since elementary school 8D I never really listened too much to the grammar lessons (which did bite me in the ass in the long run, but I'm pretty good for the most part with my academic papers and essays!). And my English is better than my native language xD I already think in English.

The Elements of Style is a staple reference for the basic rules of grammar and usage, right? It's what I'm using and good English usage, according to Strunk, is 'no unnecessary parts'... 'Clear, direct and concise'...
 
Darta or dayta?????
Either "Da-Ta" or "Day-Ta" is an acceptable pronunciation, though going strictly by grammar, the latter pronunciation is closer to correct. The reason being that the second "a" forces the first "a" to say its own name. In fact, the second "a" should be silent as a result, so it should be pronounced "Day-t." As in like "Date".

However, English doesn't give a fuck. So it's Da-ta or Day-ta. Deal with it. :ferret:
 
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If y'all really want to learn how english works just look up the etymology of the world 'colonel' (pronounced similar to kernel.)
 
If y'all really want to learn how english works just look up the etymology of the world 'colonel' (pronounced similar to kernel.)
Latin->Italian (old)->Italian (middle) + French (middle) -> French + English -> mid 16th century onwards.
 
For context, the reason why I am writing this post is because I don't think I have stressed my point on my hatred for the English language enough...

Yes, it's my native tongue. Yes, my Chinese (note: I was born in China) is worse than my English. Yes, I use English to communicate with 99% of the people I meet. HOWEVER...I still bloody hate English.

Like seriously, seriously, what was going on in the people who invented English's minds. I swear their one of their conversation went like this:

A: Hey ya know the words like nowledge, nife, nee etc.?
B: Yeah?
A: Ya know I think they don't really look complete. We should add another letter in front of those words.
B: Which letter? What other letter would allow those words to keep the same pronounciation?
A: hmm..OH I KNOW, THE LETTER K!
B: You're a genius.

Now I ask you. What's something you hate about the English language?


I'm sure this has been brought up previously in this thread (I was a terrible person and didn't read through all the responses), but to be fair, in Old English the k wasn't silent, nor was the g that's silent in words such as "gnome" or "gnarl." Looking at cognates in other Germanic languages shows that these letters were probably once pronounced properly, and over time become silent letters. Languages develop and change over time, and there are leftovers that in the present make no sense, but they still stick around.

English has the fun reputation of being a giant mishmash of other languages. Originally Germanic, English has mutated into something that has borrowed heavily from so many other languages that the typical "rules" of the language often don't actually apply to a lot of words. It really doesn't make English any easier to understand, and I doubt there are few people in the world who understand English completely, including myself.

All that nonsense being said, I actually love my native language and I find each one of its idiosyncracies incredibly interesting. However, I really dislike how quickly English changes. All languages develop slang and colloquialisms, but English changes so fast that you can travel to another English-speaking country and still have no idea what the hell anyone is saying. I also find it pretty stupid that there are like fifty different pronunciations of "ough."
 
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