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Why is English so mental?: 2016-04-07 15:14:55


GeneralPE
Level 56
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I was just thinking - all these words have the same sound:
Guy
Pie
Eye
Fry
Sigh

Why the f*ck do we need five different endings for the same sound?
Why is English so mental?: 2016-04-07 15:38:17

Andreas
Level 55
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Reading helps. Do research yourself before asking on a random forum...
Why is English so mental?: 2016-04-07 15:43:57


Cata Cauda
Level 59
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Because English is a shitty language.

German is the new master-language.
Why is English so mental?: 2016-04-07 15:51:52

Pulsey
Level 56
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As someone who studies German, Genders and cases are the biggest pain. I rather stick to English.
Why is English so mental?: 2016-04-07 16:01:13

Andreas
Level 55
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I consider various spellings of the same sound a beauty of language... The diversity of spelling corresponding to sounds can be found in natural languages only, unlike constructed languages which often have letters paired up with specific sounds.
Why is English so mental?: 2016-04-07 16:04:37


Major General Smedley Butler
Level 51
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That's why we should all just speak like rappers.

My killer Daytons can keep me crushin the competition
Comin correct when creatin the crazy composition
Cannibal character, Calico carrier, got a crooked copper missin
Cali killers on candid cock emissions
That was constant consonant wordplay
Wordplay rhymes with Thursday and thirsty - if I'm thirst-ay!
I change the pronunciation of words, per se
The English language got to do whatever my verse say
So if you want to learn to rap, this is how
Right now I'm puttin swag in my style
It's a emphasis on the simplest sentences
Then I give 'em charisma with a laugh and a smile
If you want your verses to cost higher
Then your similes got to be hot as a live wire
You need some better metaphors
For example, this song is a war zone and you listeners in the cross fire


If English won't make sense we ought to have at least some fun while using it.

Edited 4/7/2016 16:04:58
Why is English so mental?: 2016-04-07 16:18:34


Luna {TJC}
Level 57
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It was international puy day when this guy euyed a fuy-up the smell make him suy with anticipation.

Hmm..
Why is English so mental?: 2016-04-07 23:50:00


Fleecemaster 
Level 59
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It's because English was made back when people didn't write things down often, and when they did they would just go off the sounds. Don't forget this was before internet, phones and TV, so there was no way for a guy in the North of England to know how a guy in the South of England was spelling a word. They both sound the same, for example "guy" and "high" could easily have been "gigh" and "huy" but when the dictionaries were made, they had to pick and chose the words they thought were better, or most common at the time (also for example the American dictionary guy had different preferences to the English guy.

Modern English is kept very strict, and the focus seems to be on how things are spelt rather than said, most likely because everything we do is so text based. I think it's a shame that our language has lost it's fluidity. But it still retains some of it. Personally though I wish the grammar Nazis would let us change words more often, we could easily simplify a lot of rules and spellings. Which would be nice I think, alas, it is not to be.
Why is English so mental?: 2016-04-07 23:52:41


Fleecemaster 
Level 59
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You can see this a lot when you read things like Chaucer. It wasn't until Shakespeare's time in fact that what we consider to be modern English started to form, and it's one of the reasons it's possible for us to read Shakespeare quite easily.

Edited 4/7/2016 23:52:55
Why is English so mental?: 2016-04-08 06:49:14


Moth
Level 51
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English is the best language on the earth. Im not sure what you're all on about. Just check out this awesome vocabulary---

Knot
not
knight
night
to
too
two
pterodactyl
xilofono
knead
need
meat
meet
kite
cite
city
kitty
new
knew

As you can see. English is the best language to learn. New to english? Great choice! You'll have countless hours learning when and when to use the "C" as an "S" when as a "K". Even more fun learning when to use "There" or "Their".
Why is English so mental?: 2016-04-08 07:07:25


master of desaster 
Level 66
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English is so much easier than any other language i know. Be happy that there is only one gender in english. The beautiful the. Awesome
Why is English so mental?: 2016-04-08 10:12:38


Angry Koala
Level 57
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English is so much easier than any other language i know. Be happy that there is only one gender in english.



By your definition, Chinese would be the easiest language then at least in terms of speaking not writing (if only they could get rid of Hanzi, anyway this is another story).
Chinese has no gender, no conjugation of verbs, pronunciation without irregularity or any weird rules unlike in English or French, very straitforward construction and grammar and a very logical system overally speaking: for example days are just named as "day one" (星期一, Xingqi yi) for monday, "day two" (星期二, Xingqi er) for tuesday, same logic applies for months (一月,二月,三月...), etc. and numbers are easy to learn, just learn the first 10 numbers and you can know the other 99 numbers (99 in Chinese is Jiu Shi Jiu, jiu is 9, shi is 10, hence 99)

The beautiful the. Awesome


Not an expert of English, but does it make sense grammatically speaking? lol.

Edited 4/8/2016 11:15:26
Why is English so mental?: 2016-04-08 12:34:36

(deleted) 
Level 63
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The beautiful the. Awesome
Not an expert of English, but does it make sense grammatically speaking? lol.


What about "The beautiful 'the'."?
Why is English so mental?: 2016-04-08 12:47:46


Angry Koala
Level 57
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"The beautiful 'the'."


Exactly. it makes more sense, but without punctuation his sentence was grammatically speaking incorrect.
Why is English so mental?: 2016-04-08 12:48:56


master of desaster 
Level 66
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I never make any grammer mistakes
Why is English so mental?: 2016-04-08 12:49:39


Angry Koala
Level 57
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;)
Why is English so mental?: 2016-04-08 13:29:54

(deleted) 
Level 63
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I never make any grammer mistakes

*Spells 'grammar' wrong*
*Types name fully in lowercase*

What about the ones I just corrected? :)

Edited 4/8/2016 13:31:51
Why is English so mental?: 2016-04-08 13:42:13


Cata Cauda
Level 59
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I agree with Mod here. English is actually very very easy to learn compared to other languages.
Why is English so mental?: 2016-04-08 15:59:42

Andreas
Level 55
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Chinese has no gender, no conjugation of verbs, pronunciation without irregularity or any weird rules

If your 'pronunciation without irregularity' means consistency between pronunciation and spelling, the comparison is complete nonsense. Chinese has no alphabet and Pinyin is essentially the phonetic transcription of Mandarin. It serves like how IPA is used to phonetically transcribe languages. By this definition, You could turn your English sentences into IPA symbols and jʊ 'hæv ðə kənˈsɪstəntsi 'naʊ.
Why is English so mental?: 2016-04-08 16:06:24

Andreas
Level 55
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Ironically, tone changes are not written in Pinyin by tradition to avoid confusion between different words.
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