English can certainly be difficult! It can understood through tough thorough thought though throughout the learning process.
If y’all ain’t get the gist of it y’ain’t thunk it thru enuff.
This was the easiest sentence to parse out for me…
I’m a fan of the phrase “before was was was, was was is”"
I’d guess this sentence would be just as flashy in any language really, not just in english
No. It’s shit
He said in English.
Do you speak other languages tho?
Yeah lol
English is the most adaptable language in the world. England got colonised something like seven different times up until the mediaeval age. The language that came out of the end of that process is precision designed to accommodate unfamiliar words and grammar. There’s no better language to put a loanword into. And it’s really easy to invent new grammar for English, which is why English has the most neopronouns.
English has sacrificed its logic and structure to grow fluidity.
Reading that gave me a tough hiccough.
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.
A real English sentence.
Yeah I never understood that one myself
Unless I’m missing something it’s supposed to be Buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.
Bison from the city of Buffalo bully other bison from the city of Buffalo.
Buffalonian bison [who] Buffalonian bison bully [also] bully Buffalonian bison. Eight is correct!
Ah got it, thanks!
Dang!
past tense read and toxic lead vs reading and leading if somebody doesn’t underntand
Careful, though: reading (past tense of ‘to read’) doesn’t rhyme with Reading (place name)
And leading (being in front) doesn’t rhyme with leading (the metal on a roof).
Lol I did get it immediately after, but my instant thought was wait, read and lead don’t rhyme?
I feel like I walked on a rake after a perfect catwalk reading you. Love it.
Adultery is not the opposite of infantry; whimsy is not an adjective; you can live together in an apartment; and the Midwest is in the Eastern US.
“flammable” and “inflammable” mean the same thing
What a country!
"Inflammable means flammable, what a country! "
Dr. Nick
Edit added end of quote
Bye, everybody! *dies*
Why can I be overwhelmed or underwhelmed, but not perfectly adequately whelmed?
Nobody’s stopping you using “whelmed”. You can just start using it whenever the opportunity arises.
I use it occasionally, though normally not seriously, along with words where you have an “un” or "dis’, but no positive equivalent, e.g. “gusting” as a positive “disgusting”
English lacks a “gusting” word, but romance languages don’t.
e.g. in Italian “gustoso” is the opposite of “disgustoso”
That’s a brilliant fact, and perfect example if anyone disagrees with me, thank you :)
lol I love “gusting.” Next time I eat someone else’s cooking, I’m throwing that out there.
Whelm and overwhelm are synonyms.
The way I learned it, is that people have a tendency to emphasize, so when became overwhelmed. You see the same thing with ‘good’, ‘great’, and 'epic’meaning the same thing within certain contexts.
If you want to get technical, I believe “whelm” originally came from waves hitting the hull of a ship, overwhelmed was when the waves crashed over the side and onto the deck.
‘Jam’ can mean a fruit preserve, to play music, a stuck door, traffic, to cram something into something else, a tense situation, or to block a radio signal. All spelled and pronounced the same.
Also door jambs
Jim should shim the jamb.
Just wait until you learn about ‘set.’
the Midwest is in the Eastern US.
That actually makes sense because it’s from the point of view of Europe.
Just as middle east and western Asia are the same region
As an Asian, “Midwest” always feels off. Only now I realized this is the same shit as “Middle East” (which I forgot to give second thoughts as an adult). Now both terms really sucks to me!
It is from the POV of the original colonies.
the Midwest is in the Eastern US.
This explains some of my US geography confusion over the years…
Midwest is not a place, it is a People.
Qu’est-ce que c’est ?
That’s the ubiquitous “what’s that” in French. All languages are evil to newcomers.
You’re welcome.
In German, “jemanden umfahren” means drive around someone,
while “jemanden umfahren” means run someone over.That’s an artificial sentence. We never drive around people
In Italian we also have a similar phrase: “Cos’è che è?”
Luckily, it’s only in spoken language because it’s considered a bit “wrong”.
But what the fuck is that, bro?
I would like to recommend Highly Irregular: Why Tough, Through, and Dough Don’t Rhyme—And Other Oddities of the English Language.
It’s a pretty quick read and it explains exactly how the English language became such a mess. For each thing that doesn’t make sense, it provides a reason that explains it. Short version: the timing of the Great Vowel Shift relative to the invention of the printing press really screwed it over. There’s quite a bit more (Norman invasion in particular), but that was what codified all the badness.
Learning the “why” of so many previously preposterous language and spelling rules was gratifying and enlightening. They’re still preposterous but slightly less maddening now.
There’s also an excellent podcast interview with the author on 99% Invisible. Check it out. It made me buy the book and I definitely recommend it every time a post like this comes up.
IMO, the more important reason is that English is crusty af. Lots of languages had massive changes since the printing press was invented, but that didn’t stop them from changing their orthography. Germany even had an official spelling reform in the 1990s.
Note: Changed my mind but preserved initial reaction:
No. Read the book. Other languages had their massive shifts before or after the printing press. English evolved at roughly the same time. That caused chaos. While other languages solidified in advance, and others solidified after, the english language was evolving at the same time that rules were written. It’s a perfect disaster (those who know, know. great song. great album).
Not direct support for my argument, just context:
The standardization of English spelling began in the 15th and 16th centuries; the Great Vowel Shift is the major reason English spellings now often deviate considerably from how they represent pronunciations.
Back to commenter (so it doesn’t look like I’m joining different quotes):
Germany even had an official spelling reform in the 1990s.
I’ve never heard of this, so maybe I’m wrong / uninformed.
I’ll look into it because I truly believe that language shapes thought and this is interesting to me.The German orthography reform of 1996 (Reform der deutschen Rechtschreibung von 1996) was a change to German spelling and punctuation that was intended to simplify German orthography, thereby making it easier to learn,[1] without substantially changing the rules familiar to users of the language.
Wow. That’s so incredible and impossible where I live (USA) that I’m dumbstruck at the pragmatism of it. I was wrong. Fuck England and the USA (as always!).
“German orthography reform of 1996”[1]
Those three are even all from the old vocabulary, they all have German cognates: zäh, durch, Teig
At least English doesn’t have a “she” table, a “he” refrigerator, and a “neutral” lamp gender for everything.
First of all tables are male, and secondly at least we spell things close to how they are pronounced in german
In Italian tables are gender fluid. You can have “la tavola” e “il tavolo”.
Surfing? It’s a female: la tavola da surf.
Eating? Male: il tavolo.
Table as a metonymy for eating: la tavola (WTF?!)
What’s worse is that even in languages with common ancestry, the gendered pronouns are not necessarily the same - the same thing can be male or female across a border.
Hes policemanning
I was going to say it’s different because police officers are people, but they’re not.
English-language spelling reform now.
But let’s only do it in some English speaking countries and not others! I am joking, but this is one of the reasons why American English has diverged from British English.
Relevant xkcd:
Speling Reeforma
What? Speak English.
Say ‘what’ again! I dare you!
Maybe start with the fact that not all words in use in English are English words.
Or that people in different parts of the world say/spell words differently and we inconsistently applied it:
Kernel and Colonel were the same rank but we took the pronunciation of the first and the spelling of the latter.
It’s phunny how fotographs phunction in filosofy.
There is nothing more useless than ph.
until youre being eaten alive by acid
This is also funny.
Phuck ophph
🤣😂
read deed redemption, the farm flipper spinoff.
reed deed redemption: a game about the ownership of a plant
Base and bass (sound the same) and bass (sounds different)
Foundation
Instrument /deep sound
A Fish
How anyone learns English is beyond me
“You said you were a great bass player!”
Me struggling to hold onto a huge wet slippery fish “Grimmie a second, geez!”
i still remember the best joke i told my entire time in college. a professor was talking about turnpikes and asked if anyone knew what a pike was, with a specific answer in mind..
well, i knew what a pike was
worst part was i played DnD, i knew exactly what he was asking. i just saw a low hanging fruit and an opportunity to be a smartass and you really can’t set me up like that.A Fish
That’s actually spelled ‘ghoti’.
Como enemigo número uno del Inglés, this post feels validating to me.
Time de inimigos do inglês
As someone who speaks 3 languages, I can confirm english is a weak ass language.
It’s strong point is that daily and normal speech and formal writing or speech are almost the same. Thats not the case with most languages, specially the older and more complex ones.
I kind of like how it’s ever changing and evolving, I know that sours some people’s pickles but I think it’s neat. I like how it incorporates and is built on so many other languages. I enjoyed reading a short story posted here a while ago that progressively walked backwards in time as a language and it was really neat to me. I’m an idiot though so most other languages probably do this also.
American English has never be bashful about filing the serial numbers off a word and then claiming it as our own. It can lead, (lead/lead/led?) to confusion even among us native speakers. At least until we sort it out.
Personally I blame the French, (for no reason other than I can), for all the ills in the English language.
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That’s the indication of a healthy and alive language.
English has the most speakers and is the scientific and professional language of the world currently. So it is the most up to date and alive one currently.
Do u happen to speak german? I’m studying it rn and it’s making me very grateful we live in an English speaking world :/
While german is hard and weird, but it’s not far harder than english.
I used to know german but never used it and lost the muscle.
I speak Persian(Farsi), Arabic and English. I tried to learn Japanese and Chinese (mandarin) for a while but I just gave up.
I’m glad we’re not speaking Mandarin as our common language. It’s one of the least interesting languages and objectively the hardest languages I’ve seen. At least Japanese has it’s beauties, but I couldn’t find them in Mandarin.
My daughter is filled with laughter
And you can’t spell manslaughter without laughter
In a way I think these things are what make English a beautiful and poetic language
To call any language shit immediately discredits any opinion on it you might have
