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[05omegav6]

That he does Certainly a long way better than my Ottoman

[Sir Tigger KC]

Try a 'tonal' language like Vietnamese or Cantonese! 

Say the right thing in the wrong tone and you can be in the proverbial!!   

[Andy B]

That he does Certainly a long way better than my Ottoman

My limit in Turkish is 'Thank you very much' .......... but no idea how to spell it 

[Andy B]

.....

Say the right thing in the wrong tone and you can be in the proverbial!!   

I've been in some Scottish pubs and had the same problem! 

[Vamps]

.....

Say the right thing in the wrong tone and you can be in the proverbial!!   

I've been in some Scottish pubs and had the same problem! 

 

[Sir Tigger KC]

.....

Say the right thing in the wrong tone and you can be in the proverbial!!   

I've been in some Scottish pubs and had the same problem! 

Ah yes! Did you get a Glasgow kiss? 

[Nick W]

My wife is currently struggling to take her English to the next level, particularly her written English as part of a degree course and will often create several sentences and when the correction is illogical compared to the others in the series and she asks, "why is this one different?", all I can answer is because it is. This is the problem with having a mongrel language, we have far more words that means similar things and likewise many more different ways of expressing things compared to most languages. 

Where we gain on simplicity compared with most languages is English does not assigned genders to objects like French and we have much simpler verb structures, many languages have possessive and non-possessive verb variations, not to mention further variations which conjoined words. In Russian and Ukrainian 'run' and 'toRun' are different verbs.

In many instances, these words are all different things, even if they are similar. For example, a spool, bobbin and a reel are all different objects and are not interchangeable. much the same applies to the large selection of words for a group of trees; copse, spinney, wood, forest, hurst etc are not the same thing.

As for the unassigned genders and cases, they make English word order critical, something even native speakers regularly get wrong. I'm sure you've heard people say "That needs doing badly", which is a grammatically correct sentence with a totally different meaning to "That badly needs doing" which is what is usually intended. A language where each verb(and adverb in this case) need to agree with its subject makes such howlers unlikely.

English spelling is probably harder to master than the grammar, as all languages have their own grammar peculiarities but many have straightforward spelling.

And let's not get involved with tenses, like your 'assigned!'

As interesting as this thread is, I wonder what prompted Al to start it?

[Andy B]

....
As interesting as this thread is, I wonder what prompted Al to start it?

I wonder?  Not even spell check can tell which spelling of the similar sounding word you want 

[Nick W]

....
As interesting as this thread is, I wonder what prompted Al to start it?

I wonder?  Not even spell check can tell which spelling of the similar sounding word you want 

I don't want to fall out, but I chose wonder carefully.


From the dictionary: wonder(verb) - desire to know something; feel curious

In that vein, I am now wondering what word you were thinking of?

[Andy B]

....


I don't want to fall out, but I chose wonder carefully.


From the dictionary: wonder(verb) - desire to know something; feel curious

In that vein, I am now wondering what word you were thinking of?

Sorry ..... didn't notice anything in your choice of word. 

I was thinking aloud/allowed ..... 

[05omegav6]

As said at the beginning it wasn't my intention to single any individuals out.

The trigger, if you like, was a highlight and 'correction' of a phrase in another thread, (as hinted in my choice of examples).

The native language of the poster was irrelevant, but summat in the exchange grated, and rather than add a totally irrelevant item to that thread I felt it better to start fresh as the sentiment is as relevant to other threads/sections as it was that one.

This thread seems to have taken an interesting, and positive, turn serving to highlight the peculiarities often associated with this funny little island

[Rods2]

Thats the beauty of English, you learn all of the subtleties and nuances as a child, so you can immediately spot somebody who didn't learn English as their first Language.  .....

Cem does very very well though     

I agree with that and so does Johnny English, who doesn't seem to have been on here for a bit. I think it is also very interesting that they have both asked about words and meanings in the past where they are also keen to improve and understand more. 

I wish I spoke Turkish and Hungarian a 10th as good as they do English. 

I've found studying French and now Ukrainian / Russian has helped and improved my English and where it fits contextually compared to other languages.  Unfortunately, being dyslexic and reading by patterns rather than letters, I find it virtually impossible to pronounce any new word English or otherwise I have to get somebody else to do that and then add the pattern and sound to my memory bank. Spelling is by putting the right letters in place to get the right pattern, if it is wrong, I know it is wrong, but I normally don't know how to correct it, spell checkers make my life much easier. The advantage of reading by patterns is that I'm a very fast reader. 

It is interesting on how the analysis of English has expanded and improved since I left school, specifically in the late 1980's and 90's where we learnt past present and future tenses, these have been further split so you have terms like past perfect etc. When my wife quizzes me on these I have to explain they were not something I learn as they did not exist.    I have done preliminary reading on this and it is something I will read up on more and gain a further understanding on when I have more time. 

[Nick W]

It is interesting on how the analysis of English has expanded and improved since I left school, specifically in the late 1980's and 90's where we learnt past present and future tenses, these have been further split so you have terms like past perfect etc. When my wife quizzes me on these I have to explain they were not something I learn as they did not exist.    I have done preliminary reading on this and it is something I will read up on more and gain a further understanding on when I have more time. 

Perhaps they just weren't taught very much? We learnt about them, and I started at a grammar school in 1981. We learnt German(well, had lessons anyway!) and that was where we learnt about cases, which English has, but only in a technical way; they don't make changes like in German.

If you're interested, then www.grammar-monster.com is worth  a look. Nice clear explanations, and memorable examples.

[GastronomicKleptomaniac]

MrsGK and I were having dinner with a couple of Brazilians the other day, one of whom's English was better than mine. Until Woman said the word "squished", but that's another story.

 It at once inspires and shames me that my grasp of German, my strongest language, is tenuous at best, when other countries seem to really push foreign languages at a young age. How much more charming and civilised they seem when they can converse with someone entirely in another language, while we rarely get past "bread" "cheese" and "town hall"...

[cem_devecioglu]

That he does Certainly a long way better than my Ottoman

My limit in Turkish is 'Thank you very much' .......... but no idea how to spell it 

Çok Teşekkür ederim


something like this (I tried but ş and ü doesnt exist in your language [size=78%])[/size]


Chok Tashaekkuer aederim