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Supposedly (I don't know for sure) English inherited mostly Germanic grammar/structure-words, and French verbs & nouns. Seems to be vaguely upheld by Wiki alth
by sliverstorm 9y ago
Supposedly (I don't know for sure) English inherited mostly Germanic grammar/structure-words, and French verbs & nouns.
Seems to be vaguely upheld by Wiki although I can't find my original source
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_language_influences_in_English https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_language_influences_in...
- lottin 9y agoOld English was a Germanic language. Grammar-wise was a lot like modern German or Dutch. However, as English evolved, its grammar was greatly simplified, and nowadays only a few vestigial features of the original declension system remain.
- adrianratnapala 9y agoBut the declension system is not the whole grammar. So while articles don't change much under declension, words like "a" and "the" are familiar to Germans but not to ancient Romans (I don't know about the French). Also the relative order of adjectives and nouns is Germanic. Conjugations, while simplified, still retain much of the old structure, and the set of tenses understood in English is quite Germanic.