Why English is so difficult to learn...

[Traianvs]

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.
2) The farm was used to produce produce.
3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
4) We must polish the Polish furniture.
5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.
6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.
8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
10) I did not object to the object.
11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
13) They were too close to the door to close it.
14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.
15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
18) After a number of injections my jaw got number.
19) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.
20) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
21) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?


i didn't made those up myself though.. i'm too stupid for that!

[Zkribbler]

A couple of problems with English:

1) It was written down early and then went through a major vowel shift. The pronounciation changed but the spelling didn't.

2) About the time it was reaching its final form, Britain was undergoing a series of invations. So the language is an amalgum of German, Danish, Norwegian, Norman French and a dab of Latin.

[Provost Harrison]

Yes, it is a bit of a bugger of a language for spelling. But you have to admit, the grammar is pretty straightforward compared to a lot of languages?

[The Emperor Fabulous]

about 40% latin actually, from the french

that list forgets read and read, as well as their there they're and your and you're

but hey...its a lot easier than conjegating nouns and verbs, and figuring out what's male and female...

[Gangerolf]

english has basically no grammar compared to languages like german and russian though

[Edan]

The most confusing bit of english I've found is that Featherstonehaugh is supposed to be pronounced "fanshaw".

[chequita guevara]

English is a wonderful language. It is the best language for poetry and humor, because of it's huge vocabulary. It's the largest language in the world, with almost half a million words, not including technical and scientific jargon.

[Edan]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
not including technical and scientific jargon.

Or Star Trek technobable.

[Provost Harrison]

Originally posted by Edan
The most confusing bit of english I've found is that Featherstonehaugh is supposed to be pronounced "fanshaw".

Or Cholmondeley is 'Chomley' or St. John-Smythes is 'Sinjun-Smythes'...just pronounce their names phonetically, on principle of them having such stupid f**king names!

[Gangerolf]

I think most languages have words that have the same spelling or pronounciation but different meanings

[Gangerolf]

worcester [sauce] is pronounsed wooster, right?

[JohnT]

Yeah, but we can't read those posts.

[Traianvs]

English is a wonderful language. It is the best language for poetry and humor, because of it's huge vocabulary. It's the largest language in the world, with almost half a million words, not including technical and scientific jargon.

How the hell do you know it's the largest language.. there's about 5000 languages...

And besides, you think we haven't got our dutch word for Keyboard, semi-conductors, and so on??


I'd say the funniest language must be Latin (but with greek as well) I know numerous jokes on people where their (damnit what a type i made, EDIT) names get twisted only a bit so they become a funny word (usually in a funny context) but at the same time, the word means something else in greek... very amusing actually!

Btw Dutch is very good as a literary language.. not for music though, english rlz for music

[JohnT]

"not for music though, english rlz for music "

A lot of Italians will be pissed if they read that.

[Provost Harrison]

If you can write a poem about semiconductors and keyboards I would be impressed

But seriously, most of the technical language originates in English and obviously works it's way over to other languages. And yes, apparently we have a ridiculously huge vocabulary in the English Language, and we will only dip into a tiny proportion of them in our lifetime.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Trajanus
How the hell do you know it's the largest language.. there's about 5000 languages...

Go read, The Story of English. Our language freely borrows words from every language, it's always growing, unlike certain European languages that legislate out "contaminating" foreign words. We are also constantly evolving our language. No other language comes close to the number of words the English.

Granted, most of us will never know all the words in English, and many words are words with multiple meanings, I'm sure. Heck, most of are limited to a vocabulary of a mere 500 words, an only use about 200 regularly.

German is the best language for philosophy.

[Saint Marcus]

in kentucky, "jeet" is apparantly an english sentence.

[Nubclear]

I actually found English to be a very easy language to learn.

[Comrade Chris]

go learn finnish, we rule at strange grammar

[Nubclear]

Originally posted by Comrade Chris
we rule

True.

[Provost Harrison]

Well I remember someone telling me an interesting one that there is a town in the south called 'Brough' and it is pronounced 'Broom' or something. Us northerners are more sensible. We have a town near here called 'Brough' and it is pronounced 'Bruff' which is somewhat more obvious...

And a question? How do you pronounce the Cambridgeshire village of Godmanchester?

[Paul Hanson]

Actually, I think Spanish has more words than English.

[FrustratedPoet]

Originally posted by Provost Harrison

And a question? How do you pronounce the Cambridgeshire village of Godmanchester?

hmmmmm ...... Gomster?

And on behalf of all the people who do their shopping in Oxford during the summer I would like to appeal to all foreign tourists to please turn their maps the right way up and find their own way to Magdalen Bridge.
It's very easy to find and very hard to pronounce so asking for directions there makes you look doubly silly.

[Provost Harrison]

Bear in mind that Magdalen Bridge isn't far from Bicester

[FrustratedPoet]

was Gomster right?

[Ari Rahikkala]

English doesn't have a tenth of the amount of words that Finnish has... if you count all the conjugations, that is .

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Paul Hanson
Actually, I think Spanish has more words than English.

Spanish only has 200,000 words, 40% of English.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Ari Rahikkala
English doesn't have a tenth of the amount of words that Finnish has... if you count all the conjugations, that is .

Conjugations don't count.

[Provost Harrison]

Originally posted by FrustratedPoet
was Gomster right?

I am not sure, it is either that or godmanster...but whatever it is, it is silly.

[Immortal Wombat]

Why does the Oxford college Magdalene possess an extra e to it's Cambridge equivalent, Magdalen?