6 ms·

English grammar is also easier or you can use simple subset of English. However that can not be said for Italian, German, French or Russian. They have gender ru

English grammar is also easier or you can use simple subset of English. However that can not be said for Italian, German, French or Russian. They have gender rules that confuse foreign learners in the beginning. The hardest subject for English is "tenses" and you can also use small subset of them. I also agree with the economic and social capital argument.

wolfgke 10y ago
> They have gender rules that confuse foreign learners in the beginning. I learn Spanish and Portuguese and I'm not the slightest confused by the gender rules - it's rather what I'm used to, since I speak German as native language. TLDR: YMMV, but I don't think this holds if you come from a non-English background.
- aninhumer 10y ago
  The problem isn't the extra grammar rules, the problem is having to learn the gender of every single word in order to use the language correctly.
  - wolfgke 10y ago
    Usually you get a pretty good feeling for the rules that determine the gender for many nouns (at least for me in Spanish, French and Portuguese), so that for many nouns this will only be a problem at the beginning. For example (I will use examples from German, since this is my native language) typical rules (probably you will find exceptions) are that nouns that end in "-chen" or "-lein" (endings for diminutive, though this is not always obvious (for example "das Mädchen" is a diminutive of "die Maid")) are neuter. Or nouns that end in "-e" are feminine. Or nouns that end in "-er" are masculine (at least if they mean "a person/object doing something" (counterexample: "das Wunder" (the wonder) - but this is not a person/object doing something) - the same holds for verbs ending in "-erin" being female. Or if you turn a verb into a noun ("das Wandern" from "wandern" - to wander) it will be neuter. Of course there will be enough nouns for which you simply will have to learn the gender, but I don't believe it is that amount of effort (and most other languages have a much more regular pronounciation than English).
    - douche 10y ago
      Quite obviously, it is a PITA, which is why English dropped using gendered nouns in the first place - originally Old English had gender, but over the course of the middle ages virtually all traces of it disappeared, simplifying the language.
  - _nalply 10y ago
    When memorizing words, memorize the article, too: «die Blume», «le soleil». Never omit the article. Then it's easy.
- rtpg 10y ago
  Something like 80% of the world population uses ungendered language. Gender and tense questions make a lot of things really complicated! There are only two tenses in english, really. Compare to Spanish/French conjugations, or German declination questions. (Because this is HN) in a way, English ends up being very LISP-y (more CL than Scheme though). There are very few base constructs, and some special vocabulary, but most "grammar" is really just vocabulary. Future tense isn't a tense, it's using 'will'. There's hardness because of all the dialects, and particles. Though I don't really know of a language where particle use isn't of a similar difficulty.

wolfgke 10y ago

> They have gender rules that confuse foreign learners in the beginning. I learn Spanish and Portuguese and I'm not the slightest confused by the gender rules - it's rather what I'm used to, since I speak German as native language. TLDR: YMMV, but I don't think this holds if you come from a non-English background.

aninhumer 10y ago
The problem isn't the extra grammar rules, the problem is having to learn the gender of every single word in order to use the language correctly.
- wolfgke 10y ago
  Usually you get a pretty good feeling for the rules that determine the gender for many nouns (at least for me in Spanish, French and Portuguese), so that for many nouns this will only be a problem at the beginning. For example (I will use examples from German, since this is my native language) typical rules (probably you will find exceptions) are that nouns that end in "-chen" or "-lein" (endings for diminutive, though this is not always obvious (for example "das Mädchen" is a diminutive of "die Maid")) are neuter. Or nouns that end in "-e" are feminine. Or nouns that end in "-er" are masculine (at least if they mean "a person/object doing something" (counterexample: "das Wunder" (the wonder) - but this is not a person/object doing something) - the same holds for verbs ending in "-erin" being female. Or if you turn a verb into a noun ("das Wandern" from "wandern" - to wander) it will be neuter. Of course there will be enough nouns for which you simply will have to learn the gender, but I don't believe it is that amount of effort (and most other languages have a much more regular pronounciation than English).
  - douche 10y ago
    Quite obviously, it is a PITA, which is why English dropped using gendered nouns in the first place - originally Old English had gender, but over the course of the middle ages virtually all traces of it disappeared, simplifying the language.
- _nalply 10y ago
  When memorizing words, memorize the article, too: «die Blume», «le soleil». Never omit the article. Then it's easy.
rtpg 10y ago
Something like 80% of the world population uses ungendered language. Gender and tense questions make a lot of things really complicated! There are only two tenses in english, really. Compare to Spanish/French conjugations, or German declination questions. (Because this is HN) in a way, English ends up being very LISP-y (more CL than Scheme though). There are very few base constructs, and some special vocabulary, but most "grammar" is really just vocabulary. Future tense isn't a tense, it's using 'will'. There's hardness because of all the dialects, and particles. Though I don't really know of a language where particle use isn't of a similar difficulty.