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Doomkid

English is the stupidest language ever, bar none

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Dang, that's some serious bullshit right there. I'm not even native and my brain just went "What the fuck is this?!" when i saw this article, being from Brazil, that's basically not even an issue here, but i can see that shouldn't be a damn language ""rule"" at all.

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All the words that sound exactly the same but have different spellings / meanings drives me crazy.

 

At least there's no grammatical genders in English.

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11 minutes ago, Doomkid said:

Whatever dumbfuck decided that rule is a real asshole, you know that??

I disagree... I think the rule makes a lot of sense, because if we changed "its" for "it's", we'd also need to change "his" for "he's" and "hers" for "she's" - and at that point it starts to make a lot of sense phonetically, because not only is it easier to distinguish what's been said in spoken language, it's also easier to read...

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5 minutes ago, Doomkid said:

Any other examples of English being a messy pot of shit you can think of off the top of your head?

 

The English Tenses.

 

For me, as non-english speaker with only 3 Tense (presence, preterit, futurum) with minor exceptions it's freaking hard to keep in mind all 12 variations of time being in the English language.

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4 minutes ago, Nine Inch Heels said:

and "hers" for "she's"

hehehe it's "she's"

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There are rules in a language but it's only derived from actual use. There are many examples how a language changed throughout the years. So just keep using it's and tell your friends too and some day maybe you'll be the majority, then the rulebooks have to adjust. That's it.

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15 minutes ago, Nine Inch Heels said:

I disagree... I think the rule makes a lot of sense, because if we changed "its" for "it's", we'd also need to change "his" for "he's" and "hers" for "she's" - and at that point it starts to make a lot of sense phonetically, because not only is it easier to distinguish what's been said in spoken language, but it's also easier to read.

This does make sense to me, but couldn't we just have an exception for "it"? I see people using "it's" as a possessive all the time anyway even though it's wrong - similarly to how English usually ends up adapting slang as actual words if they're in use for long enough, couldn't we adapt this exception for "it" into the fold?

 

Even going from "he" to "his", the E was arbitrarily changed into an I somewhere along the way, plus there's already so many arbitrary exceptions to rules anyway - it just feels like having to re-word "I like this big house and it's clean pool" to something like "I like this big house and the clean pool that it has" is such a pointless diversion. (edit: uh, we don't have to do that, just remove the apostrophe, idiot!)

 

We already have a million inconsistent rules as-is, it just feels so weird that when I'm using the word "it" to represent "house", I can't add an apostrophe + S to "it", even when it's representing a word where an apostrophe + S could be added.

 

I guess it just opens the floodgates to a new batch of problems, but.. god damn, it's so frustrating having to reword every 4th sentence to avoid using "it's" as a possessive, usually making them like 5 words longer pointlessly in the process.

Edited by Doomkid

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It's  =   "it is"

Its  =   possessive form of "it"

It's just a punctuation difference, which loses its relevance in speech.

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1 minute ago, NoXion said:

His

Hers

Its

 

He's

She's
It's

Seems pretty consistent to me.

Consistent with one another - just not the other ~170,000 words in the language :p

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21 minutes ago, Doomkid said:

Why in the name of fuck can't "it's" be used as a possessive? Throughout all of English, adding an apostrophe and an S either shows possession, or is a contraction of "<word> is".

It can. It's called its. "A baby is born in its mother's womb."

 

Also, be careful, "it's" can mean not only "it is" but also "it has." "It's been three hours and I'm still waiting."

 

As for nonsensical English? Well, as a Buffalo native, I have to plug Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

 

 

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1 minute ago, Dark Pulse said:

It can. It's called its. "A baby is born in its mother's womb."

Oh. Right. Fucking DUH.

 

I guess the point about having to re-word sentences is completely moot then, my mistake. Still though, it just feels weird to me on a baseline level that all words can have the apostrophe + S combo be either possessive or a contraction, but then suddenly pronouns have to be assholes and change up the rules :'(

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2 minutes ago, Doomkid said:

This does make sense to me, but couldn't we just have an exception for "it"? I see people using "it's" as a possessive all the time anyway even though it's wrong

Well, perhaps the possessive would work a lot better if it didn't come up all the time thanks to features like "autocorrect", so there may be a case to be made that "its" didn't stand the test of time without a few bruises... But who's at fault here? People who know better but employ "it's" as a catch-all solution anyway, or the people writing algorithms for autocorrect and the likes...? :P

 

As for people using it all the time despite it being wrong... Who cares? Since when is "somebody does it too" a good argument?

 

6 minutes ago, Doomkid said:

Even going from "he" to "his", the E was arbitrarily changed into an I somewhere along the way

I mean... Was it actually arbitrary, though..? That's where I think we have a very different take...

 

 

9 minutes ago, Doomkid said:

I guess it just opens the floodgates to a new batch of problems, but.. god damn, it's so frustrating having to reword every 4th sentence to avoid using "it's" as a possessive, usually making them like 5 words longer pointlessly in the process.

Wait.... You mean you're full-on avoiding "it's" and "its" altogether now out of spite...? :P

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Let's not forget that pronunciation is god awful if you're not a native speaker. You pretty much have to memorize all the sounds.

 

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1 minute ago, Doomkid said:

Oh. Right. Fucking DUH.

 

I guess the point about having to re-word sentences is completely moot then, my mistake. Still though, it just feels weird to me on a baseline level that all words can have the apostrophe + S combo be either possessive or a contraction, but then suddenly pronouns have to be assholes and change up the rules :'(

Welcome to English, or as I like to call it, "the frothy mess left over after a wholesale all-nighter language gangbang and bukkake."

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It's the kind of language you get when Norman soldiers try to pick up Saxon girls.

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english is fucky as all shit but i do have to agree with the people saying that it's/its isn't all that bad

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I guess the following could qualify as a stupidity of the English language to a degree:

 

If a Man-Bat dressed up as Bat-Man dressed up as Bat-Man dressed up as Man-Bat, would it be Man-Bat-Bat-Man-Bat-Man-Man-Bat or Bat-Man-Man-Bat-Man-Bat-Bat-Man?

 

Copyright: Yours Truly, © 2020. Unauthorized reuse forbidden.

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2 minutes ago, Nine Inch Heels said:

As for people using it all the time despite it being wrong... Who cares? Since when is "somebody does it too" a good argument?

You're right. It's not a good argument at all. Still though, there's a bit of a precedent that "wrong becomes right" in English if the thing that's wrong gets used often enough. I agree that doesn't make it a good argument by any means, though.

 

I mean... Was it actually arbitrary, though..? That's where I think we have a very different take...

Isn't "hes" (as opposed to his) only silly sounding because we're not used to it? Or is there a different rationale you're using?

 

Wait.... You mean you're full-on avoiding "it's" and "its" altogether now out of spite...? :P

ROFL, no, that was me being a complete moron and forgetting that "its" as a possessive is still perfectly valid for a couple minutes..

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hey how bout we talk about how stupid the i before e except after c "rule" is

 

most inconsistent shit ever

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the apostrophe is used to indicate possession or a missing word of any kind, not just a missing part of 'is'.

 

For example, the apostrophe is used for 'should've' where it indicates the missing 'ha' in 'have'.

 

English isn't complex compared to other languages, but it is very irregular, when it comes to spelling, pronunciation, and more.

 

 

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