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> Eh, the vocabulary thing I don't think is unique to English. I suspect it depends upon the type of language; consider the difference between "I fell" and "
by stevekemp 3y ago
> Eh, the vocabulary thing I don't think is unique to English.
I suspect it depends upon the type of language; consider the difference between "I fell" and "I fall". There's a different word there for doing something in the past. (Obvious examples are run/ran, pay/paid).
In other languages you might use a suffix on the same root-word. So in English you need to learn more words. You can't have a simple rule to say "I read" vs "I read in the past". The word you use is .. different, and you have to know it if you want to be correct.
- yurishimo 3y agoAnd then the continuous! “I have fallen/was falling.” Irregular verbs are not unique to English, but I guess there probably are more of them in the common lexicon. This is probably true is lots of language with irregular verbs. The irregular ones are irregular because the sounds have been adapted to flow better in everyday parlance. The nice part of most irregular verbs however is that they are also common. If you read regularly or consume lots of content in the language, they will come up over and over again. Is this something that non native English speakers struggle with early on in the language or does it feel more like a constant battle even past B2? In Dutch, I’ve largely just accepted that I’m going to screw up irregular verbs until I can start reading novels on my own. I assume at that point the exposure will help drill them into my brain like reading as a young child did in English.