what is wrong with the english language??!!!?

Question

ok i just finished typing up an english paper when i relized how freaking screwed up english really is. why do we have words that all sound the same but mean completely different things? to, too, and two!!! right and write!! are we that uncreative?? no wonder it takes other people forever to learn english, spanish people only take spanish untill like 5th grade. why are we so messed up

Answer 1

The English language is a mixture of several older languages, so there are bound to be homonyms (to, too, two) and homographs (box, box) with different meanings, as well as outlandish spellings (how many sounds are there for the "-ough" ending?). Spanish, on the other hand, is an original language with very little outside influence (until recently); it is almost 100% phonetic, which makes for easy spelling.

Answer 2

... Why do people shrink everything down to ok and relize and not using capitals and punctuating wrong and using too many exclamation and question marks! Gaaaaaaaahhhhhh!

Same reason, different generation.


OR

The same words are because different language became the english language and these all were the meanings of different languages coming together. So different languages had similar sounds with different meanings so the sounds and meanings stuck but the spelling was made to be different in each sound so that we could try to seperate them from one another.

Answer 3

The reason for the seemingly chaotic structure of the English language is because when it was put into print in the 15th century there was no consensus as to what the language would officially be.

England's first printer - William Caxton, wrote words the way he spoke them in his part of England, which was around Cambridge. For example, he wrote the word "girl" as "gherle"; that was the way it was pronounced in his region.

English is a massive language, twice as large as French or German - and because it was printed before everyone agreed as to what it would be, we therefore today have a language that is vast and sometimes confusing.

Those qualities however have allowed it to be a very flexible and resiliant language - it can adapt quite easily to new influences. Though keep in mind that at least 85% of the most common words in the English language, words like "this, them, it, I, me, and" - are all native original Germanic Anglo-Saxon words.

Answer 4

You're right. I thought for years that English was a great language, but I realized when I started learning my second language that English has a LOT of inconsistencies. godlesswander has it right, it's because English is such an uncontrolled mixture of so many other languages in Europe, then English came to the New World and American English is even more so with so many more influences with immigrants coming from all over the world to the U.S. It's the same with Australian English, just different from U.S. English. I am amazed that a child can even learn to speak it with all its extra baggage.

TitoBob, your assessment of Spanish as a contrast to English is correct, but the reasons given are not correct. Spanish comes from Latin, but was influenced greatly by the Moroccan language when the Moors from northern Africa crossed the straits of Gibraltar and conquered much of the Iberian Peninsula. The influences continued in South and Central America with influences from the Native American languages. The reason it still has a great deal of consistency is because the official language is controlled by a council of scholars.

English is becoming a dominant world language, not because it is a linguistic wonder (it is one of the hardest languages to learn as an adult because of its inconsistencies) but because of several hundred years of English, then U.S. Trade dominance. People throughout the world want to do business with us, they learn our language. Before us it was the French, after us, who knows, maybe Mandarin.

Answer 5

I know what you mean, I only realised how messed up it is after I started to learn Japanese.

The reasoning behind it is probably something to do with the fact that English is a mix of a few European languages that have all merged together and been changed over time. There's Latin, German, there's quite a bit of French in there too.

Answer 6

Nothing is wrong with English language. Other wise English would not have become an Universal language of communication. Similar same sounding words are there in other languages too. English is one of the few languages which readily accept popular words from other languages readily. That is the strength of English.

Answer 7

Morgan you seem a bit frustrated. English is a great language but it could do with tidying up a bit. It has about 800,000 words probably more than double any other language.

Spoken English is not too difficult to learn as a foreign language

Answer 8

If you think English is a messed up language then you should try to learn Mandarin as the same character can mean different things. Or similar sounds for us foreigner "yin" and "ying", "ting/jing".

And in French too we have the same situation :
- mer : sea
- mère : mother
- maire : mayor

- vert : green
- vers : toward
- ver : lumbric
- verre : glass
- vair : squirrel fur ( for this one I didn't even know this word ).