4 ms·

I always found it weird how English seems to basically consist of only exceptions and yet it is so much easier to learn and master than French. At least from my

I always found it weird how English seems to basically consist of only exceptions and yet it is so much easier to learn and master than French. At least from my experience as a non-native speaker of either. And I say that as a native speaker of a very very regular language. I always felt like in French you never know how to write something. And seeing it written you sort of leave out the last three or four or maybe none of the letters when speaking but you never really know from just seeing it written. Depends on if you are speaking or singing too. An Edith Piaf will sing French like it's German and pronounce every letter. But you're not supposed to. And don't get me started on Monsieur. I mean come on, it basically is "my sir" i.e. "mon sieur". But you say "miss" (speak this as an English word) "yeux" (speak this as the French word for "eyes") and if you tell this to a French person they look at you like you are trying to kill them. And in the end it does all sort of make sense and they all are intertwined. Like "have" and "habe" and "a". (English, German and French). If you take a French person trying to pronounce either the English or German word you basically are left with just the "a" if you try to write the word down from someone saying it. "h" is mue. And then you leave out the last few letters. French people have a hard time saying "have" or "habe" properly.

hilbert42 3y ago
"And I say that as a native speaker of a very very regular language." And what language is that? "I always felt like in French you never know how to write something." Similarly, I've had friends and colleagues who are native German speakers and they've also had one hell of a difficulty in learning French, seemingly more so than native English speakers despite them being reasonably fluent in English. Maybe understanding English is easier for them because of its Germanic roots which are largely absent in French. Perhaps native English speakers find learning French easier because English is a sort of bastard language that's also part French. I'd be interested to hear from others who've had similar experiences.
- tharkun__ 3y ago
  Wasn't it William the Conqueror who made French the language of the English court? That's how English has quite some French influence too or so I've heard. Of course neither side will want to speak much of it. Nor will the English want to speak much of the quite German blood influence of the Royals and how the English behaved at the start of WWII. It's just all so mixed up through history. It's weird how German and French are actually close in that they have quite extensive and regular grammar and genders, like Latin and if you translate French word for word to German, it sometimes sounds like someone is just speaking weirdly structured middle ages German or something and is actually understandable. Of course only in writing, since the pronunciation is "very French" :) And then there's Dutch which takes lots of English words and pronounces them a bit more German or takes German words and pronounces them quite English and then that's called Dutch (not to take anything away of course, there are completely Dutch words that aren't like that).
  - hilbert42 3y ago
    "Wasn't it William the Conqueror who made French the language of the English court? That's how English has quite some French influence too or so I've heard." Right, from 1066 to about 1485 with the end of the Plantagenet kings: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Plantagenet https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Plantagenet. During much of this time French was the official language of the English Royal Court and government business. Thousands of French words entered the earlier English (Anglo Saxon—based) language during this time. "Nor will the English want to speak much of the quite German blood influence of the Royals and how the English behaved at the start of WWII. It's just all so mixed up through" Don't get me started on that. Those incestuous English/European monarchies caused untold harm to the world. The problems go back before WWII to much earlier than even WWI. Out of embarrassment and under threat of loss of the monarchy the British Royal family changed its name from the German Saxe-Coburg to Windsor in 1917. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/from-the-archive-blog/2017/jul/17/british-royal-family-windsor-name-change-1917 https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/from-the-archive-blog/20...

hilbert42 3y ago

"And I say that as a native speaker of a very very regular language." And what language is that? "I always felt like in French you never know how to write something." Similarly, I've had friends and colleagues who are native German speakers and they've also had one hell of a difficulty in learning French, seemingly more so than native English speakers despite them being reasonably fluent in English. Maybe understanding English is easier for them because of its Germanic roots which are largely absent in French. Perhaps native English speakers find learning French easier because English is a sort of bastard language that's also part French. I'd be interested to hear from others who've had similar experiences.

tharkun__ 3y ago
Wasn't it William the Conqueror who made French the language of the English court? That's how English has quite some French influence too or so I've heard. Of course neither side will want to speak much of it. Nor will the English want to speak much of the quite German blood influence of the Royals and how the English behaved at the start of WWII. It's just all so mixed up through history. It's weird how German and French are actually close in that they have quite extensive and regular grammar and genders, like Latin and if you translate French word for word to German, it sometimes sounds like someone is just speaking weirdly structured middle ages German or something and is actually understandable. Of course only in writing, since the pronunciation is "very French" :) And then there's Dutch which takes lots of English words and pronounces them a bit more German or takes German words and pronounces them quite English and then that's called Dutch (not to take anything away of course, there are completely Dutch words that aren't like that).
- hilbert42 3y ago
  "Wasn't it William the Conqueror who made French the language of the English court? That's how English has quite some French influence too or so I've heard." Right, from 1066 to about 1485 with the end of the Plantagenet kings: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Plantagenet https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Plantagenet. During much of this time French was the official language of the English Royal Court and government business. Thousands of French words entered the earlier English (Anglo Saxon—based) language during this time. "Nor will the English want to speak much of the quite German blood influence of the Royals and how the English behaved at the start of WWII. It's just all so mixed up through" Don't get me started on that. Those incestuous English/European monarchies caused untold harm to the world. The problems go back before WWII to much earlier than even WWI. Out of embarrassment and under threat of loss of the monarchy the British Royal family changed its name from the German Saxe-Coburg to Windsor in 1917. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/from-the-archive-blog/2017/jul/17/british-royal-family-windsor-name-change-1917 https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/from-the-archive-blog/20...