And you think English is easy, think again

Methinks, therefore meam

Where, wear, ware, werewolf -> there wolf

Bear left

English is the child of many languages

That's where, I think, most of the US education system fails is not making a second language mandatory. Depending on where one lives this second language would be English or Spanish.

In our University environment, add Korean, Japanese, Hindi, or Russian

9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes

That isn't English.

When shot at, the dove dived into the bushes.

z3r010 said:

I've found myself a few times reading through a page in German and mostly understanding it without hitting translate on the browser, to speak I know a lot more Spanish than any other second language but if I look at a page of it I need to hit translate to make any sense, German and English are not that far apart.

In UK Schools they mostly seem to teach french as a secondary language, I've always been baffled by this as only a few country's in the world speak french and we mostly go to Spanish countries on holiday/vacation

We go to France every year and you would be amazed how many Brits are there on vacation or permanently. In one little town in the Lot they even make the announcements during the Sunday market in English. They have speakers all over town.

You may want to read this book from Peter Mayle. It is very amusing. I bet you won't put it down before the end. He has written other books about France too.

French is one of the most beautiful and amusing languages. It happens to be my second mother language and the one I prefer to speak. Unfortunately now I don't get to France too often- Just vacation and an occasional trip to Alsace which is not far from my German home.

I took French in High School and I have to wonder the wisdom of that choice here in Southern California, I wish I had a way to practice speaking and listening to it. But speaking of English to the regional surf dialect here that has warped English into now common phases but back in the early days it was a way to communicate without the adults having a clue and I'm sure it drove them batty! Now with the whole rap culture it's funny how difficult just understanding someone can be and we're in theory speaking the same language for the States but a far cry from the Queens English !

I didn't say that I didn't say it. I said that I din't say that I said it.

whs said:

Nah, that's not so. If it was not for the lack of any pronounciation rules, English would be the easiest language of those that I know.

Oh, we have pronunciation rules. It's just that we have more exceptions to the rules than adherence to them.

Slartybart said:

Methinks, therefore meam

Where, wear, ware, werewolf -> there wolf

Bear left

English is the child of many languages

English is the illegitimate child of many languages

Britton30 said:

That's where, I think, most of the US education system fails is not making a second language mandatory. Depending on where one lives this second language would be English or Spanish.

In our University environment, add Korean, Japanese, Hindi, or Russian

Back when I was in school (half a century ago), a second language was mandatory.

SIW2 said:

9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes

That isn't English.

When shot at, the dove dived into the bushes.

Something like the runner slud into second base?