In Europe the words are said backwards.Why is that?

Question

It's adjective-noun reversement.But I don't know the grammatical reason why Europeans reverse their words.In English we'll say "big dog",but in Spanish or French they reverse it saying the noun "dog" first ,then the adjective "big".I haven't been able to figure out why,even though I've read several language instruction guides,but they don't ever mention that grammatical aspect of European languages or explain how that law of their grammer is to be applied. If you can tell me this you will have cleared up a long standing mystery for me.Thanks in Advance!

Answer 1

In the first term, you should think whether is YOU who talks backwards. Both these languages have a common origin, from Latin, and the way they have evolved made the order of the words place first the noun and then the adjective.
Now, can you tell me why you do it backwards ?

Answer 2

A challeging question.
It makes all sense in European languages to use that order, it would be English instead to use it backwards.

First: you mention the noun; Second: you qualify it with the adjective

What sense would it make to start qualifying something that you have not referred yet?

But German takes a different approach: ein schönes Auto (a beautiful car - indefinite pronoun+adjective+noun)

Nonetheless, note the adjective will have a different ending depending on the gender of the noun to which refers to. Latin is the same way.

So, saying European languages apply that reversed rule you meantioned is highly innacurate. There are way too many languages with different structures in Europe to make such a claim.
And they have much more complex forms than English, so taking English as a reference will only lead you into confusion. You will have to learn the structure of the language from scratch, or grasp to what they have in common.

And "European" languages can do the same that English does, by using no empirical formula for its use, observe:
Spanish: Bonito trabajo has echo (adjective+noun+verb - what a nice work you did - same as in English)
Portuguese: Vulgar jogador (adjective+noun: a vulgar player)
Jogador vulgar (noun+ adjective: a player that is vulgar)

^^ Domo arigato gozaimashita

Answer 3

Actually, placing the adjective after the noun is a feature of all Latin Languages, and placing it before is a feature of Germanic languages (like English). It is inherited, there is no logic for it.
The problem with English is the fact that it is not a flexionary language (it has very few inflections, no gender, no major difference in noun cases), therefore it is less flexible than other languages. So, we have greater freedom to play with words and word order without changing the meaning too much, whereas in English or German, a sentence with twisted word order does not mean anything.
There is actually a literary procedure called inversion in Latin languages, when you switch the "classic" word order, for example, place the adjective in front of the noun, so that you can emphasise its meaning and stress that particular quality which you are describing. Hope this clears things up for you a little.

Answer 4

The languages you speak of have been around far longer than English. English is a hodge-podge of many different languages that existed for many centuries, and is one of the most difficult languages to learn. If you have any sort of grasp of English, which it appears you do, learning a romance language such as French, Spanish, Italian, Romainian, or Porteguese should be a piece of cake. The rules are the same for every adjective, every adverb, noun, etc., regardless of the subject matter or the tense of the verb, unlike English, where syntax can change based on the intended inflection of the statement.

Answer 5

Actually, in German specifically the verb is @ the end of a very long sentence. I found this interesting, since I had to learn english when I was 10. The Instructor knew right away (in college) from my sentence structure, that I was foreign born & my native tongue wasn't english. This doesn't answer your question but I thought I would give you some more insight. Since Europe existed before the states maybe, you should look @ the english sentence structure. This might help clear your mystery.

Answer 6

I never thought much about WHY it is. I just figured that is the way Spanish is, and tried to learn it.

Now that I have thought about it, it really does make sense. If we say "red" that is not complete, and we have to wait for the next word to see what they are talking about.

Their way, we hear the word dog, and know what they are talking about. So, when we hear red, we know what is red.

Interesting question. I hope you find the answer. All these languages come from the Latin of ancient Rome, I wonder if it is that way in the original language as well. If so, that would probably explain it, but then we would still wonder why it was that way in Latin, right?

Answer 7

I am not a language expert but do know that French and Spanish are based on Latin which I believe to be older then English, so what makes you think that English is the one that is not backwards?

Answer 8

Not for sure..but think It likely has something to do with the roots of the languages.... English is a Germanic language with roots in Latin and Greek (think of English like a less complicated form of German...plus we use less consonants and more vowels).....
French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian are just basic alterations and evolutions of their mother language.....which is only just. Latin....
When you mesh two languages together like English is...you'll likely end up with something much different then how you started...

big dog in German is "grosser Hund" hund is similiar to the english word "hound".. so "big dog" in german isn't "dog big"...its big dog too

Answer 9

Chinese also puts the adjetive before the thing it is modifying. So Germanic languages like German and English are not the only ones to do things "backwards".

There are very few adjetives in Arabic as they turn them into verbs (for example: "being red" is a verb) but the few adjetives they have follow the thing they modify.

Answer 10

English is a Germanic language. Everyone's language is now a mixture of other people's languages. We are the only ones to speak backward to everyone else.