English is the stupidest language ever, bar none

[Doomkid]

Just now, roadworx said:

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

 

most inconsistent shit ever

I swear that "rule" is wrong more often than it's right!

[Nine Inch Heels]

6 minutes ago, Doomkid said:

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?

I think to begin with, the big "selling point" for me personally is readability and audibility. "His" is very easy to distinguish from "he's", however, "hes" and "he's" may be more difficult to tell apart - be it written words or spoken language (if we assume "he's" and "hes" could sound similar when somebody Bencil Sharpiros around)...

[1Destro3456]

46 minutes ago, Lol 6 said:

Don't worry, spanish is waaay harder

Too many fucking rules

[snapshot]

Goose and Geese

Moose and Moose

 

please stop

[SuperPIter_DoomWorldthe2nd]

1 minute ago, sluggard said:

Goose and Geese

Moose and Moose

 

please stop

What the fuck even is going on here?

[Omniarch]

What DK just described used to enrage me as a child. I got into a complete frothing fury over every little inconsistency, and detested the concept of case. All this probably had something to do with the fact that I'd I held off on learning how to read until I was eleven-ish, and then tried to learn all at once.

 

Amusingly, after getting past my initial frustration, I quickly skipped through the learning process, going from being semi-literate to an avid Tolkien fan in under a year. Concurrently, I transitioned from a grouchy linguistic anarchist to a full-blown, finger-wagging, tut-tutting grammar nazi.

 

The target of my (apparently) boundless ire switched from the language itself to the misuse thereof. Stylized spelling, common in brand names for example, drove me up the wall. In particular, replacing words like 'to' and 'for' with their respective numbers was a sure-fire way of setting me off on a furious rant. Good thing I was never made aware of 1337 5P34K, else I might have popped a vein xD

 

Over time, though, my mindless child-rage began to fade, gradually replaced by a deep appreciation for the language. Sure, it can be monumentally frustrating if you approach it like an exact science, rather than seeing it for the overwhelmingly complex social phenomenon that it is, but the boundless potential for expression it provides is nothing short of remarkable.

 

Of course, if and when I decide to rid myself of the shameful attribute of 'monolingual', the cycle will likely repeat in full. Whatever the specifics, mindless raging is pretty much a certainty.

[Tristan]

24 minutes ago, Doomkid said:

I swear that "rule" is wrong more often than it's right!

 

[out_of_service]

colour/color/favourite/favorite 

[Terraformer9x]

Every time someone brings up the subject of how screwed the English language is, I always think of this saying.

 

"English can be weird. It can be understood through tough thorough thought, though."

[Bridgeburner56]

English is 3 dogs in a trenchcoat pretending to be a language

[Omniarch]

3 minutes ago, PSXDoomer said:

colour/color/favourite/favorite 

Evil yanks, butchering our fair tongue. Same goes for the Aussies. Shame on the lot of you.

 

...

 

Spoiler

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;)

 

 

 

 

 

[unerxai]

The usage of "in" or "on" is confusing to me in certain situations (or should it be "on certain situations"?).

 

Native spanish speaker, and that language also fucks me up sometimes.

[leodoom85]

As a non-speaking native english, it's obviously confusing sometimes and yet, it's easy to understand.

 

There are examples like "at" or "in" and "on", which can confuse me most of the times.

At least it's NOT as bad as spanish.....

[BaileyTW]

My mom's currently taking an english class (she can already understand the language well enough to function, but not fluently), and by god english sounds like a nightmare language to learn as a nonnative speaker. Messed up grammatical rules aside, pronunciation is a nightmare, especially when english uses sounds spanish doesn't really use (works the other way around too but to a lesser extent).

[Dark Pulse]

31 minutes ago, Terraformer9x said:

"English can be weird. It can be understood through tough thorough thought, though."

Something I'm actually using in a game right now is "I thought a thought, or so I thought I thought..."

[Kurogachii]

ENGLISH? WEIRD?! THAT'S UNPOSSIBLE!

[Gothic]

I will never EVER add that extra "u", you hear me Europe?!!!!!!!

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

In America, nobody speaks English anyway.

 

Example:

My grandfather thinks "Massachusetts" is pronounced "mass of toosis".

 

I went to college to become a writer so it drives me nuts. Learning any language just requires memorization and understanding rules that might seem arbitrary. The more you do it, the better you'll understand.

[Zenki]

Difficult langage ? Learn french guys, it's a pain in the ass if you're non native speacker. I am, and still a lot of french people make mistakes EVERY F**KING DAYS 

 

Exemple : 

 

Mon verre vert est rempli de vers

 

It means " my green glass is full of worms " and every word is pronunce the exact same. good luck to get it vocally if you're non native speaker

[Tony_Pepporoni]

If you are all not joking, a part of me hopes your local government puts you into grade school and back and then gives you a distinct pinwheel hat that you are legally required to wear in session and when you're completely done.

[Tony_Pepporoni]

1 hour ago, Terraformer9x said:

Every time someone brings up the subject of how screwed the English language is, I always think of this saying.

 

"English can be weird. It can be understood through tough thorough thought, though."

that quote is why english isn't stupid and is in fact memorable and well thought out

[roadworx]

3 minutes ago, Tony_Pepporoni said:

that quote is why english isn't stupid and is in fact memorable and well thought out

uhhhhhh

 

if you say so lmao

[Capellan]

2 hours ago, Doomkid said:

This does make sense to me, but couldn't we just have an exception for "it"?

 

Exceptions are what you were complaining about to begin with, though :)

 

Honestly, while English has all sorts of weirdness, in some ways it is quite simple: it has much fewer verb forms than many other languages, very little gendering of nouns, and relatively few tense changes.

 

[Nevander]

2 hours ago, roadworx said:

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

 

most inconsistent shit ever

 

2 hours ago, Doomkid said:

I swear that "rule" is wrong more often than it's right!

Came here to post the exact same thing. I don't understand why it's taught because it's flat wrong. Sure, there are words where it works but there are also words where it does not. Thus it should not be a rule.

[continuum.mid]

All natural languages, and most constructed languages, are dumb in their own special way.

[NoXion]

10 minutes ago, Nevander said:

 

Came here to post the exact same thing. I don't understand why it's taught because it's flat wrong. Sure, there are words where it works but there are also words where it does not. Thus it should not be a rule.

Well I'm pretty sure it's not taught in British schools any more. I certainly wasn't taught it...

[Capellan]

47 minutes ago, Zenki said:

Learn french guys, it's a pain in the ass if you're non native speacker

 

Oui!  J'apprends le francais et c'est souvent difficile.

 

 

One of my pet bugbears in French is word order.  For instance, "green eyes" is "yeux verts" but "beautiful eyes" is "beaux yeux". 

[1Destro3456]

12 minutes ago, Capellan said:

 

Oui!  J'apprends le francais et c'est souvent difficile.

 

 

One of my pet bugbears in French is word order.  For instance, "green eyes" is "yeux verts" but "beautiful eyes" is "beaux yeux". 

Nah that also happens normally, I’m a native Spanish speaker and there are times that some words said one way work the same way in English but other times it’s the other way around of Spanish so yeah

[Goody]

As an English teacher, YES, English is an absolute mess.

 

That said, it's probably one of the most versatile languages for expression, undoubtedly because it's such a mess.

[Capellan]

22 minutes ago, 1Destro3456 said:

Nah that also happens normally, I’m a native Spanish speaker and there are times that some words said one way work the same way in English but other times it’s the other way around of Spanish so yeah

 

I'm aware that other languages also do this (Italian and Portuguese are similar, I expect).  In English, though, we almost always put additional descriptors in front of the noun.

 

We have our own (often unspoken) rules about how to use such descriptors are ordered (we'd not say "black big dogs" for instance, always "big black dogs"), but we don't have to worry about "is this a before word or an after word"