We MUST protect the French language!

[Galen 0]

I took 4 years of french in highschool and I've never even been to frenchland.

[Steel 0]

I agree with ya there. English sucks to learn. I actually completed all the coursework for my 2nd year of German in 3 weeks. Once you get the different tenses down, its much much easier than English.
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Are you for real? Do you really think German is easier than English? If you do then I guess its because you haven't learned enough German yet?
Allow me to give you some examples not just German but spanish and Italian too.
Lets start by the house, das haus, la casa, la casa
the boy, der jung, el nino, il ragazzo
the girl, das maechen, la nina, la ragazza
the woman, die frau, la mujer, la donna
lets go plaural
the men, die maenner, los hombres, i uomini
the women, die frauen, las mujeres, le donne
the girls, die maechen, las ninas, le ragazze
so far in English we have "the", in German we have 3 different ways to say "the". But dont for one second think its that simple I have not put in the genitiv, accusativ, or dativ forms. I have only shown the nominativ. In Spanish there are 4 different ways to say "the" and in Italian the same. I would conjugate a regular verb in each one of those languages but the post is already getting too long so I will just explain. If you take a regular verb like want (I,you, you (pl), we and they) all use "want" only third person singular adds an s. German just like Spanish and Italian has a different forms and a much more complicated system for which is to be used. Lets not forget the German numbers between 21-100. ein und swansich (one and twenty) drie und funfsich ( 3 and 50) Do you really think that is easier? But this would never be complete if we didn't talk about German sentence structure. Ich werde spaeter um die ecke mit ihm kaempfen. I will later around the block with him fight. After you have done this enough times you get used to putting the verb at the end or sometimes having to split certain verbs up but its anything other than logical. The fact is that there isn't an easier spoken language than English. People who whine about how hard it is to learn English just do so because they are too lazy it. And just as English is the easiest German is among the hardest. But as far as I know slavic languages are the most complicated. I have been around enough Russian to know that.

If I could make a wish, I think I'd pass.
Can't think of anything I need
No cigarettes, no sleep, no light, no sound.
Nothing to eat, no books to read.

[JDBoston 0]

Yep, and don't forget Japanese. Russian and Japanese are probably the two most difficult major languages for English speakers to learn.

Japanese is a real outlier as far as syntax (subject-verb-object order, etc.) and overall language structure go - it's a pretty unusual system.

Joe

[BlueEyedMonster 0]

Wow.. I said German was easier once you got the tenses down. That was not difficult for me. I guess for some reason it clicked. Maybe because my big problem with the English language is the spelling. German is phonetic. I LOVE IT! I wish English was as easily. And pretty much, anything is easy compared to English, or so I am told.

I was watching that forklift video on the other thread... And the what little I did understand of it, I still "thought" in German.. And once you understand the rules, German is very logical. Unlike English that breaks all its own rules. The difference is, you are comparing apples to oranges... English to German. Splitting the word order is only backwards if you base it on what you are used to (I assume English is your first language) If you think in German and don't translate in your head, is not an issue. I cannot speak for Spanish or Italian, but once you understand the rules of German, you are good to go. Once you understand the rules of English, you still have to learn the other half of the language that does not follow the rules.

[happythoughts 0]

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Binary ?

There are 10 types of people in this world. Those that understand binary and those that don't.

[happythoughts 0]

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If E mail is an English term, maybe the Frenchies could call theirs F-Mail....or F-MALE....or something.

Nope, E-mail is used to communicate. No one understands F-male.

[QuickDraw 0]

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There are 10 types of people in this world. Those that understand binary and those that don't.

Yeah lucky for you i don't have my hexidecimal head on.

-- Hope you don't die. --

I'm fucking winning

[txblondie 0]

anything is easy compared to English, or so I am told.
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If you're talking about slang terms and humor, that's true. It's also true with spelling, but the actual basic language isn't that hard by comparison (in other words, verb conjugation and forming a sentence type stuff--you can quickly learn to communicate, I think).
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If you think in German and don't translate in your head, is not an issue. I cannot speak for Spanish or Italian, but once you understand the rules of German, you are good to go.

[BlueEyedMonster 0]

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You can learn the structure of it, but you don't learn to THINK it, so you never really learn to speak it well.

I was actually thinking German by my 3rd year... I used to dream in German too. That would tick me off because I remembered everything in my dreams and spoke so well. But, my vocab was not as strong as my grammar. So, in the conscious world, I was always running out of words.

[txblondie 0]

I was actually thinking German by my 3rd

[Steel 0]

German is phonetic. I LOVE IT!
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German is phonetic and so is Spanish, Italian and Russian for that matter. That is why I said spoken language (not read). By the way French is not. And if they get rid of the umlauts as they have spoken about German would no longer be phonetic. And you know what for native German speakers it wouldn't matter. Just like the fact that English is not phonetic doesn't matter for native English speakers.

I said German was easier once you got the tenses down.
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Once you get the tenses, the conjugation and the sentence order? What is left the pronounciation?
Actually I lived in Germany for 8 months and learned to speak German during that time. Don't misunderstand me there I love the German language. But as I recall even native German speakers who learned English were the first ones to step up and confirm that English was a much easier language.

Splitting the word order is only backwards if you base it on what you are used to (I assume English is your first language) If you think in German and don't translate in your head, is not an issue.
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Actually my first language was Spanish. I can think in English, Spanish, Italian or German. But German is unique in its sentence structure its not just a different language, its a language with an odd sentence structure. I have yet to meet a native German who dissagrees with that.

but once you understand the rules of German, you are good to go. Once you understand the rules of English, you still have to learn the other half of the language that does not follow the rules.
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What about the fact that every noun in German has gender that could be masculine feminine or neutral and there is no rule for that, not even a way to predict it.

If I could make a wish, I think I'd pass.
Can't think of anything I need
No cigarettes, no sleep, no light, no sound.
Nothing to eat, no books to read.

[happythoughts 0]

Spanish - advantage, the letters are pronounced one way. Learn the alphabet and you can read a newspaper. 3 basic infinitives to conjugate. disadvantage - nouns have a "sex". La or El something. Why should a table (la mesa) be feminine or a bus be masculine (el autobus).

English - advantage, I know it.

disadvantage, no real rules. All rules are constantly broken. Example - take the silent "k" from "knife", the "gh" from "enough", the "o" from "women", the "ti" from "nation". Combine them into "kghoti". It is pronounced the same as "fish".

Conjugation of verbs is impossible. It is mostly a process of memorization.

Pronunciation can depend on context. "Bow" as bow and arrow. "Bow" as bow of a boat. "Bow" as in Jim Bowie's last name.

[CrazyIvan 0]

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the "o" from "women",

well...that sounds interesting

__________________________________________
Blue Skies and May the Force be with you.

[txblondie 0]

Conjugation of verbs is impossible. It is mostly a process of memorization.
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I disagree.

to do: I do, you do, he/she does, we do, they do

or

to fly: I fly, you fly, he/she flies, we fly, they fly

Most verbs in English are like this, just like most verbs is Spanish are conjugated one way; there are irregular verbs in both. But I don't think English conjugation is that hard.
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Pronunciation can depend on context. "Bow" as bow and arrow. "Bow" as bow of a boat. "Bow" as in Jim Bowie's last name.
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This I agree with. Pronunciation IS typically easier in many other languages because they are more constant, but remember that there are letter combinations in those, too, that sound different. Spanish has the ll, which sounds like a y, for example.

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Blondes do have more fun!

[happythoughts 0]

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to do: I do, you do, he/she does, we do, they do

I'm not sure what you mean, but I like the direction it is taking.

Spanish has verbs that end in IR, AR, ER. The rules of conjugation are clear for each tense, etc.

For English, too many examples to post.

[bill2 0]

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Well for me, and many other people, this disdain for things french have been around longer than the current political spat

Dont worry man... Americains tourists have always been loved ... BAWAAAHAAAAA!!!!!!!

Remster
Muff 914
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Wel of course, that goes without saying!