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Do you agree..Yes or No ?

English was "screwed up" long before the modern generation got its grubby paws on it, and jargon and slang have been injected into it for centuries. And in truth, English (and most other languages) has never been exact enough for truely good technical use. Its conjunctions do not reflect any sort of consistant logic system, such as boolean logic. And its nouns are fuzzy in definition at best. Often times, such as in Law, a special set of rules and deffinitions must be created for a language to be used in a technical manner, and this set of rules and deffinitions doesn't always (or even usually) completely line up with the accepted or common deffinition or use of the word, which creates confusion (and allows politicians to play the public, and allows laws to be redefined without any sort of action by a legislative body).

Star please if you can .

11 Answers

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  • 1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    Yes.

    Unlike most other languages English doesn't have a set phonetic pronunciation for every word. If you have ever seen the musical "My Fair Lady" or read the Book "Pygmalion" then you could easily see this concept.

    Then there are things like phrasal verbs (which, I'll call a kind of slang for argument's sake). Phrasal verbs are those verb phrases that we know so well and use so often that most often consist of some basic verb plus a preposition or adverb that then changes the meaning of the verb. Take for example, the verb to MAKE. Then add some prepositions/adverbs to it:

    to make OUT (= to kiss and smoosh faces with someone passionately) to make UP (=to do at a later time, as with a test; to get back on good terms with someone you might have been fighting with) to make OVER (=to complete redo, as with getting a whole new wardrobe, look, etc.)

    See what I mean? :P These phrasal verbs are some of the hardest things for non-native English speaking to learn, and to be able to use correctly.

    Spellings in english is hard...because so many words have extra letters that you don't need...like through...psycology.The fact that the spelling is far from phonetic - the same combinations of letters can stand for totally different words, like the "ough" in "tough", "though", "drought", etc.

    Its pronunciation, and all the words that sound the same but arent, like see and sea, wander and wonder. it makes it hard to follow ppl sometimes, especially when accents are involved.

    In most words that end in "e", the vowel is

    long (says it's name) bake, take, fate, smite, home, phone.

    The idioms are insanely difficult for others to understand. ("Rains cats and dogs," "see the light," etc.)

    Because these languages are phonetic not English.Phonetic here means that you can predict the pronunciation from the spelling, and predict the spelling from the pronunciation ...

    English is not as simple as it appears to be become it is a complicated admixture of several European languages, such as- Greek, Latin, French, German, English etc. Thus it possesses approximately 1000 000 words.

    There is no doubt about it - English is objectively much harder than Spanish, particularly because of the way it "overworks" its core vocabulary. Look at common verbs like "to take" and "to put" - they can assume a huge number of different meanings. Learning these "phrasal verbs" is a nightmare for all foreign students of English.

    One might also say it's the complex verb system, though - it seems obvious to native speakers, of course, but for non-native speakers it takes a long time to figure out which tense to use when, and many never quite master it.

    Its pronunciation, and all the words that sound the same but arent, like see and sea, wander and wonder. it makes it hard to follow ppl sometimes, especially when accents are involved.

    There is no doubt about it - English is objectively much harder than Spanish, particularly because of the way it "overworks" its core vocabulary. Look at common verbs like "to take" and "to put" - they can assume a huge number of different meanings. Learning these "phrasal verbs" is a nightmare for all foreign students of English.

    quite simply all those irregular verbs - it's like we don't have a standard verb . It's most definitely the biggest stumbling block to learning good English.

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    Yes...agree with you completely.Actually,if you know about Socrates then you must be knowing his concept of "Defining The Terms"...As Socrates used to say(preach).."Define the terms that you ought to speak before you speak"..

    That meant that,you don't have to define the terms before the listeners,but just define them in your minds so that no one is able to create objections ..

    Listeners understand what you speak and whenever you find that a particular word that you're going to speak may take people into confusion as it would have "Double-Meanings"..At this time..it is must to clarify your idea and clearly define your Terms Before The People(In this situation..)

    Another good topic you've discussed is about the usage of language by the politicians...I completely agree with the statements you've made regarding it..It is almost a Big Problem of Every Nation When Politicians "Play With Words" And then trouble you a lot....The Legislation also needs a Perfect And A Complete set of "Defined Terms" so that people are not "Misguided" due to the terms or language used in the constitution....

    Really,a nice topic....

  • 1 decade ago

    I answer 99% of the "Do you agree" questions with "no," but yours is in the other 1%. I think the English language is like a meme that evolves through successive generations; it's not like mathematics, which is a language with a relatively finite scope and a consistent logic system (with some exceptions). Please don't take my agreeing to mean that "internet lingo" or "L337" should be adopted on a large scale. That would suck.

  • Janey
    Lv 6
    1 decade ago

    Very interesting.

    I've studied German and Italian and they don't have a whole lot of different meanings for one word. The languages are much simpler. And I was told that some people who have language problems with English as their native tongue might not actually have a drama learning a foreign language. Bizarre!

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  • ?
    Lv 4
    1 decade ago

    yup...i agree that english is not having a set of rules and all that u have said, but then, if it had, do u think this modern generation would use it? whatever it is...now a days, no one is going to follow the exact rules, if it had..

    but then, being the language of the world-over...it must be 'perfect'...so i stand in between...

  • 1 decade ago

    Yes

  • 1 decade ago

    Well I don't know about English, but I found at least four spelling mistakes in your question!!

    truely?

    deffinitions x 3

  • 1 decade ago

    If you want to be logical , we will have to use Hindi alphabets.

    Because Hindi language is phonetic not English.Phonetic here means that you can predict the pronunciation from the spelling, and predict the spelling from the pronunciation ...

  • 1 decade ago

    no. language is ever-evolving. it doesnt necessarily mean that its screwed up. it caters to the people using it, not the other way around. bottom line is communication.

    btw language is not math. there are no equations/formulas where you come up with a wrong/right answer.

  • Yes!

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