English-Euro Law

[radix]

And to make it even more complicated there is no universal rule for finding wich is the gender of a substantive (der,die,das)

Some substantives that in english/other language are in one gender in german can be in another gender ... grrr....

 

[worluk]

And to make it even more complicated there is no universal rule for finding wich is the gender of a substantive (der,die,das)

Some substantives that in english/other language are in one gender in german can be in another gender ... grrr....

thats a good point for that other discussion about what language is easier to learn russian <=> german.
With russian you can can tell the gender pretty easy by the ending (though there ar exceptions).

 

[DingBat]

English is actually one of the easiest languages on this planet. Grammar is like nonexisting when comparing english to german.

That's exactly what makes english so difficult to master: The complete lack of rules. That, and the propensity of the language to "Borg" words and slang from other languages.

For example: "Visiting relatives can be so boring." is a perfectly legal English sentence. It is also totally ambiguous.

Does it mean that the relatives that visit you are boring? Or, that going to visit relatives is boring? Who knows? A native speaker of the language learns to avoid sentences like this, if they want to be understood, but it's a real trap for newcomers.

There are millions of examples like this. I don't know if German is the same, but I always thought the ambiguity of English was kind of unique.

 

[[-project.rattus-]]

Dingbat, I guess every language has this problem, if you regard single sentences. The actual sense is clear wqhen you regard it in the context of the conversation. An example in german, allthough it just became imminent with the last orthography reform we had 4 years ago:

"Die allein stehende Frau" can either mean: "The single woman" or "the woman who is standing there alone".

 

[[TW]schneidzekk]

That sentence was no problem before the reform.

 

[[-project.rattus-]]

That sentence was no problem before the reform.

Exactly, as "a single woman" was "eine alleinstehende Frau", whereas a "womans standing alone" was "eine allein stehende Frau"...

But I guess there are other examples, but I can't think of anything right now...

But I guess that the most irritating part when you learn german is the capitalization. Usually nouns have a capital letter in the beginning. But then, verbs and adjectives can become a noun. To make matters worse, there are numerous exceptions for these rules.

 

[Conscript]

That's exactly what makes english so difficult to master: The complete lack of rules. That, and the propensity of the language to "Borg" words and slang from other languages.

For example: "Visiting relatives can be so boring." is a perfectly legal English sentence. It is also totally ambiguous.

Does it mean that the relatives that visit you are boring? Or, that going to visit relatives is boring? Who knows? A native speaker of the language learns to avoid sentences like this, if they want to be understood, but it's a real trap for newcomers.

There are millions of examples like this. I don't know if German is the same, but I always thought the ambiguity of English was kind of unique.

Indeed, English is what I like to call a context-sensitive language. Which is why it is considered such a complex thing to master.

 

[2ltben]

I still think Middle Egyptian has one up on English though, there's no spelling. You write what looks good and let the reader figure it out.

 

[THG repo]

Yea drawing pictuers is heaps better i recon.
Who thought of letters?

00000000000
000 0000
0 0
00 00
00 M 00
0| | 0
0| | 0
|____|
|____|
ROFL it started as a head then became a lightbulb.
Ok im off to pick up PF
OMG OMG it killed my lightbulb
Ok the lightbulb got dropped on the ground.

 

[Shadehunter]

Aha... knew that everything I learned in HS I would foget by now...

Shadehunter

 

[[DBDUK]Gus]

Getefuyabasas,,, get a boatle o whisky doon ye an yel awe no whit were sayin own oor server


english..... pppfffttt easy language

 

[[-project.rattus-]]

Getefuyabasas,,, get a boatle o whisky doon ye an yel awe no whit were sayin own oor server


english..... pppfffttt easy language

This sounds like being pronounced with too much haggis influence

 

[Jules]

English is pretty easy to learn. I learnt it in under two years and yet was taught a language of the Latin family as a child. I found it much, much harder to learn Spanish, which yet is much closer to French. German was also a pain to study - although I've nowhere near mastered it.

This said, I never really liked English. It appears to be neither very precise nor elegant - words and verbs such as "enivrer" (a very contextual french word that more or less means "to slowly and deliberately get drunk [with wine]") have no direct translation, and a few words are constantly used.

 

[Julius_Heide]

lol fantastic.

 

[2ltben]

English is pretty easy to learn. I learnt it in under two years and yet was taught a language of the Latin family as a child. I found it much, much harder to learn Spanish, which yet is much closer to French. German was also a pain to study - although I've nowhere near mastered it.

This said, I never really liked English. It appears to be neither very precise nor elegant - words and verbs such as "enivrer" (a very contextual french word that more or less means "to slowly and deliberately get drunk [with wine]") have no direct translation, and a few words are constantly used.

I believe the English translation is "to get sh*tfaced".

 

[kr3ml]

lolz,

first i thought they where serious and then at the end... rofl

funest ting ever

 

[2ltben]