2006-07-18 18:52:03 · 11 answers · asked by immonen33 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
ALL languages have exceptions. Exceptions are simply remnants of old grammar and old words. English has no more and no less exceptions than any other language in the world. 90% of the things that people complain about in English have NOTHING to do with grammar, but are spelling problems. English grammar is no more exceptional than any other grammar in the world. Name any exception in English grammar and I will point you to exactly the same exception in German, Dutch, and Icelandic grammar. Since exceptions are the remnants of old grammar, nearly all the exceptions of English grammar are remnants of old Germanic grammar.
And to the idiot who said English "stole" it's grammar..... English grammar is 95% Germanic in all its parts and it inherited that grammar honestly just as did Dutch, German and Swedish.
2006-07-18 19:23:45 · answer #1 · answered by Taivo 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It's like this. Romantic languages ask politely for pieces of other language's lexicon and integrate them neatly into their own. English follows you into an alley and beats you senseless with a bat then steals your wallet.
The language's grammar is so incredibly ****** because it stole the grammar from other languages and then smashed them together before actually bothering with any proper rules, and then when we did make some rules they didn't fit very well (not really, but that the jist of it). But this allows us to take phrases and words from other languages and incorporate them rather easily.
English is a cobbled together language that has influences from almost all languages, and as such has many problems. There are some general rules but, as with most things, those are more guidelines than laws and are about as flexible as the air itself, which makes the language such a morphic masterpiece.
2006-07-19 02:02:08 · answer #2 · answered by Lucifer 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Here are a couple of reasons:
1. The rules that are taught to students are simplified rules. The people who make the rules know that these rules don't truly explain how English works, but they make the rules simpler so students can understand them better. This is a major reason. I know that my ESL students in my high-intermediate grammar class this summer were frustrated when I taught them facts about English that contradicted rules they had learned before. What I taught them was the truth, but they thought it wasn't because it didn't agree with rules. However, it's the rules that were incorrect.
2. In some cases, linguists and language teachers haven't completely figured out how the language works. If we already knew everything about how English works, I wouldn't have a job.
3. People who originally created rules for English used grammatical terms that they knew for describing Latin. These terms worked great for Latin, but they don't work very well for English sometimes. The names of the terms might make us misunderstand. For example, the terms "definite" and "indefinite", which are used to describe articles, are misleading, because we don't use articles to talk about definiteness at all.
2006-07-19 16:57:05 · answer #3 · answered by drshorty 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
English is more of a mix of many languages than any other language out there.
Originally, it began as a germanic/tuetonic language - like German and Gaelic.
Over time, as immigrant communities moved to English speaking countries or English speakers spread throughout the globe, new bits and pieces were absorbed, so now you can have an Apache word in the same sentence as a word originating from Old English
2006-07-19 01:56:43 · answer #4 · answered by Diana D 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
because it has been in use so long everyone has their own version and somehow, someway it all got jumbled together. English is scattered with remnants of other languages such as Greek,Latin, some Hindi, and other stuff.
2006-07-19 01:56:55 · answer #5 · answered by iammisc 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I take exception to that question. Tee Hee.
Because it evolved over time and has parts from many many other languages.
2006-07-19 02:12:49 · answer #6 · answered by lcmcpa 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Actually, I think American English is more messed up than British English. American English is just... random.
2006-07-19 01:58:10 · answer #7 · answered by L 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You think English is bad? A word of advice: don't try French then!
2006-07-19 05:26:31 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I don't know but it almost drives me crazy. I use to be compulsive with it and fear that I was not speaking correctly or understanding things correctly and that was a real problem for me---seriously. But now, I try not to worry about it.
2006-07-19 01:58:49 · answer #9 · answered by just julie 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You are so right. I hate the fact that most words cannot be pronounced like they are spelled. For example, wednesday, business and countless others.
2006-07-19 01:58:05 · answer #10 · answered by Art The Wise 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋