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12-27-2008, 01:42 AM
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The third person singular present tense conjugation typically ends in 's', right? "He buys the item", "She goes to school", "The teacher likes to play basketball"... pretty regular, right? What happens if we change our simple statements to questions? The 's', for some inexplicable reason, disappears: "Does he buy the item?", "Does she go to school?", "Does the teacher like to play basketball?" The fact that we're asking a question has made our third person singular verb change to a second person singular one, for no real reason! And don't get me started on these silly little auxiliary words at the beginning of questions, like "does", which other languages simply eliminate. This is just the beginning of verb conjugation randomness in English; it's probably the hardest part of the language to learn. Just look at the past tense, it's a complete mess; I'm a native speaker and I couldn't even come up with a verb that uses the "standard" -ed pattern within a few seconds, everything is irregular like "came", "bought", "went", "shot". On the subject of not following patterns, there's a way in most languages to determine if a word is a verb: Spanish verbs all end in -ar -er or -ir, Japanese verbs end in -u, and so on. English verbs don't end in anything in particular. I have to give the English verb system credit for its use of modal verbs to change tense more often than conjugations, but that's about its only positive point. And that's just one aspect of the language; we still have to go through spelling, noun cases, adjective conjugations, and plenty more before we've uncovered all the nasty little surprises English has in store for us. In conclusion: English is a completely illogical language, due to its heavy use my many groups of people throughout history, and I feel sorry for foreign children who have to learn it. 
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12-27-2008, 03:39 AM
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Words by Josh White, Jr. and Pete Seeger. Sung by Pete Seeger English is the most widely spoken language in the history of the planet. One out of every seven human beings can speak or read it. Half the world's books, 3/4 of the international mail are in English. It has the largest vocabulary, perhaps two million words, And a noble body of literature. But face it: English is cuh-ray-zee! Just a few examples: There's no egg in eggplant, no pine or apple in pineapple. Quicksand works slowly; boxing rings are square. A writer writes, but do fingers fing? Hammers don't ham, grocers don't groce. Haberdashers don't haberdash. English is cuh-ray-zee! If the plural of tooth is teeth, shouldn't the plural of booth be beeth? It's one goose, two geese. Why not one moose, two meese? If it's one index, two indices; why not one Kleenex,two Kleenices? English is cuh-ray-zee! You can comb through the annals of history, but not just one annal. You can make amends, but not just one amend. If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one, is it an odd or an end? If the teacher taught, why isn't it true that a preacher praught? If you wrote a letter, did you also bote your tongue? And if a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? English is cuh-ray-zee! Why is it that night falls but never breaks and day breaks but never falls? In what other language do people drive on the parkway and park on the driveway? Ship by truck but send cargo by ship? Recite at a play but play at a recital? Have noses that run and feet that smell? English is cuh-ray-zee! How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same When a wise man and a wise guy are very different? To overlook something and to oversee something are very different, But quite a lot and quite a few are the same. How can the weather be hot as hell one day and cold as hell the next? English is cuh-ray-zee! You have to marvel at the lunacy of a language in which your house can burn down While it is burning up. You fill out a form by filling it in. In which your alarm clock goes off by going on. If pro is the opposite of con, what is the opposite of progress? Well, English was invented by people, not computers And reflects the creativity of the human race. So that's why when the stars are out, they're visible, But when the lights are out, they're invisible. When I wind up my watch I start it, but when I wind up this rap, I end it. English is cuh-ray-zee!
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12-27-2008, 03:52 AM
It`s simply because English has drawn so much from other languages (both words and patterns) that it has few definite rules. There are always exceptions that make the "rules" hard to remember for a learner... Especially as the exceptions are usually quite common and encountered just as much as the patterns that do follow the rules.
Not to mention the pronunciation discrepancies that come about from melding so many different sources. Japanese, on the other hand, is largely independent. It doesn`t draw from every which direction and therefore the rules are generally much more definite.
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12-27-2008, 12:44 PM
I like what you said Nyororin. Just like how the USA is a melting pot, so is it's language. That's not to say it isn't difficult. I will take my Roman letters over kanji anyday.
I do thank you both MMM and CaptainThunder for your responses. I guess for me, I can just tell when a word is correct in past tense or not. It just doesn't sound right. I also never learned how English is "conjugated". I never heard that word until my Spanish class. Then again, the English classes at my school were never that strong. On the "does" thing, I guess English is trying to be more specific?
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12-27-2008, 02:18 PM
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I assume you're a native speaker, anyway. Please correct me if I'm wrong 
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12-28-2008, 07:05 AM
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That, and there's the word "equestrian". How in the world do people reach 1,000+ posts?  Skadoosh.
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12-28-2008, 08:51 AM
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No, the real difference is that in many cases, English keeps the spelling and pronunciation of the words it borrows, or makes only minor changes. This leads to words that sound the same but are spelled differently, and different ways to make the same sound, etc. But Japanese converts the spelling and pronunciation of words it borrows to follow its own rules, changing spelling and sounds in many cases. This keeps it more consistent, even though a great many of its words are borrowed.
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12-28-2008, 10:37 AM
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English was formed from and surrounded by a number of different languages, and this had a huge effect on the development of the language itself. Japanese developed without that sort of influence, so in the end, linguistically it`s a more "pure" language.
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12-28-2008, 11:00 AM
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12-28-2008, 11:04 AM
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