• Gork@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    English verbiage can also a source of frustration for English learners.

    For instance, you can chop a tree down. Once you’re done, you can chop a tree up.

    Imagine the confusion this causes lol.

    I do agree though that the general lack of gender for most uses are really useful. It makes learning other languages more difficult though (basically all other languages).

    • Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 year ago

      It’s just you.
      In Germany we need to think about the position of the peer and if professional or casual.

      • BigNote@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Virtually all known languages do this, only some do it through the use of grammar.

        This thread is full of bad linguistics.

      • Gork@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Yeah, the word “you” is a good example as well.

        The only issue with “you” is that it lacks a plural version so we have to use the Southern “y’all” instead. Some people go even further with a mass plural “all y’all”.

      • uberrice@feddit.de
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        1 year ago

        This also happens in English, by selection of the words you use. Using Du und Sie is fairly simple in comparison. Strangers, last name basis, or professional? Sie. Kids, friends, talking to people out drinking on a friendly basis? Du.

        The whole ‘position of peer’ thing has a lot more nuances in Japanese, and even that’s not too hard once you get the hang of it.

    • yata
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      1 year ago

      For instance, you can chop a tree down. Once you’re done, you can chop a tree up.

      Imagine the confusion this causes lol.

      This is an absolutely minor thing, and it is also a phenomenon which occurs in basically all other languages.

      • Gork@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Minor, yes, but there are quite a few of them.

        • Break a leg

        • It’s raining cats and dogs

        • Bite the bullet

        • Piece of cake

        • Hold your horses

        • Spill the beans

        • Hit the nail on the head

        • Let the cat out of the bag

        • It costs an arm and a leg

        • Can’t have your cake and eat it too

        • ByteJunk@lemmy.pt
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          1 year ago

          These are just idioms, all languages have their own.

          Learning English has it’s snags, but it’s not a hard language. That’s a good thing btw.

          • margaritox@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            There are no objectively “hard” or “easy” languages. What makes certain languages “hard” is their difference from one’s native language.

            • ByteJunk@lemmy.pt
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              1 year ago

              Ah, we disagree my friend. I think languages can be easier or harder based on other criteria too, and not only familiarity.

              Suppose an alien, the kind from outer space, crashes on earth and now needs to learn a language to communicate with humans.

              It’s not a stretch to consider that all human languages are so far removed from his own as to be considered equally hard to learn if looking only at familiarity. In this scenario, surely there are features of individual languages that make them harder to learn - stuff like gendered articles as mentioned before, as there’s no logic to them and have to memorized.

              • margaritox@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                I understand your point and opinion, but I think that, for us humans, it has more to do with similarity to our native language.

        • uberrice@feddit.de
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          1 year ago

          Idioms. Present in all languages.

          Example from Japanese, transliterated:

          Rain falls, the ground hardens.

          So, is the meaning instantly obvious to you?