this post was submitted on 07 Aug 2023
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English verbiage can also a source of frustration for English learners.
For instance, you can chop a tree down. Once you're done, you can chop a tree up.
Imagine the confusion this causes lol.
I do agree though that the general lack of gender for most uses are really useful. It makes learning other languages more difficult though (basically all other languages).
It's just you.
In Germany we need to think about the position of the peer and if professional or casual.
Yeah, the word "you" is a good example as well.
The only issue with "you" is that it lacks a plural version so we have to use the Southern "y'all" instead. Some people go even further with a mass plural "all y'all".
the all y'all sounds fun
Yinz is my preferred term, if we're going for regional words.
"All of you." more unwieldy, but doesn't sound rustic.
You'uns
Virtually all known languages do this, only some do it through the use of grammar.
This thread is full of bad linguistics.
This also happens in English, by selection of the words you use. Using Du und Sie is fairly simple in comparison. Strangers, last name basis, or professional? Sie. Kids, friends, talking to people out drinking on a friendly basis? Du.
The whole 'position of peer' thing has a lot more nuances in Japanese, and even that's not too hard once you get the hang of it.
This is an absolutely minor thing, and it is also a phenomenon which occurs in basically all other languages.
Minor, yes, but there are quite a few of them.
Break a leg
It's raining cats and dogs
Bite the bullet
Piece of cake
Hold your horses
Spill the beans
Hit the nail on the head
Let the cat out of the bag
It costs an arm and a leg
Can't have your cake and eat it too
These are just idioms, all languages have their own.
Learning English has it's snags, but it's not a hard language. That's a good thing btw.
There are no objectively “hard” or “easy” languages. What makes certain languages “hard” is their difference from one’s native language.
Ah, we disagree my friend. I think languages can be easier or harder based on other criteria too, and not only familiarity.
Suppose an alien, the kind from outer space, crashes on earth and now needs to learn a language to communicate with humans.
It's not a stretch to consider that all human languages are so far removed from his own as to be considered equally hard to learn if looking only at familiarity. In this scenario, surely there are features of individual languages that make them harder to learn - stuff like gendered articles as mentioned before, as there's no logic to them and have to memorized.
I understand your point and opinion, but I think that, for us humans, it has more to do with similarity to our native language.
Idioms. Present in all languages.
Example from Japanese, transliterated:
Rain falls, the ground hardens.
So, is the meaning instantly obvious to you?