here’s some I’ve noticed:

  1. Why do we have articles? They’re mostly useless.
  2. Why do capital letters exist? (this is mainly an issue with the Greek and Latin alphabet though)
  3. Why is “I” used plural for verbs?
  4. Why are there so many inconsistent prefixes for tenses?
  5. 's is used for possessives. However, “its” is the possessive and “it’s” is not.
  6. Why do we have another set of pronouns for possessive pronouns?
  7. Why do adjectives go before the noun compared to basically every other language?
  • FrostyCaveman@lemm.ee
    3·
    1 year ago

    Do other languages not have these? (Or fewer of them?)

    What’s your native language if you don’t mind me asking?

    Fascinating concept.

    Interestingly I’ve heard from other people that Chinese languages are made difficult to learn for similar reasons. I wonder if this is actually a similarity between those languages and English

    • mekkagodzilla@lemmy.world
      3·
      1 year ago

      I’m French. I’m not aware of any other language that radically modifies the meaning of verbs with propositions in such a way.

      As a foreigner, you might expect that break up and break down have opposite meanings because up and down do, but nope.