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Is French really easier than English? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5056 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes  Speaks: Russian* | Message 65 of 131 22 June 2011 at 3:42pm | IP Logged | |||||
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No, Ari, no. In spoken French many tenses are not used. Actually, only Passé composé,
Présent, Imparfait, Futur Proche, Conditionel are used much. There are no modal verbs. The difference between Passé composé and Imparfait is easy to understand. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5766 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 66 of 131 22 June 2011 at 4:54pm | IP Logged | |||||
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That leads me to some interesting questions.
I've heard that speakers of an analytic language find it comparatively easy to learn the analytic elements of another language's grammar. I've heard that speakers of an agglutinative language find it comparatively easy to learn agglutinative elements of another language's grammar. This is mostly based on anecdotal evidence, so the first question would of course be if it is actually true, and the second if the degree of analytical or agglutinative elements and/or the area in which they are used make any difference. And then, of course, what fusional elements do to one's ability to pick up foreign grammar. Meaning, if the background makes as much of a difference as I suspect it might, you'll never find an answer to the question whether English or French grammar is easier to learn for a foreigner. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5056 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian* | Message 67 of 131 22 June 2011 at 5:12pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I'm not a native speaker of a Germanic or Romance language, so I'm objective (non-
biased). I studied both English and French and I can't decide which is more difficult, they are the same, including grammar. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5766 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 68 of 131 22 June 2011 at 5:46pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Mark, that's exactly what I mean, I was wondering if the grammar of either language might actually be easier/more difficult for, let's say, an Arabic speaker, a Chinese speaker and a Korean speaker, independent from other factors as exposure/necessity; vocabulary, phonology and spelling.
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Haldor Triglot Senior Member France Joined 5615 days ago 103 posts - 122 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Swedish Studies: French, Spanish | Message 69 of 131 22 June 2011 at 6:36pm | IP Logged | |||||
Guess you're right. However, you should count the subjunctive tenses as well, there are at least two of them, I guess three if you count the 'imparfait du subjonctif'. What exactly is an analytical and what is an agglunitive language?
Sorry, Ari. I didn't get that... Edited by Haldor on 22 June 2011 at 6:38pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5056 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian* | Message 70 of 131 22 June 2011 at 6:41pm | IP Logged | |||||
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imparfait du subjonctif is rare even in the written speech. The usage of subjunctive is
limited. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Haldor Triglot Senior Member France Joined 5615 days ago 103 posts - 122 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Swedish Studies: French, Spanish | Message 71 of 131 26 July 2011 at 6:50pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Thanks for a tremendous amount of replies. Seems that we all agree, even Ari, that English grammar is easier than French. That's one conclusion, I'd say English ortograph too, although it has a lot of exceptions, perhaps pronounciation is easier in French, as it is fairly straightforward to speak, accentwise, once you've read the word.. I dunno if anyone else wishes to sum it up....
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Dr. POW Groupie Canada Joined 4965 days ago 48 posts - 58 votes Studies: German, English* Studies: French | Message 72 of 131 17 August 2011 at 4:06am | IP Logged | |||||
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I never did have a problem with French conjugations. In fact, I think I got all of them
in about a month and a half, and I have +-300 cue cards to prove it. Present -er, -ir, -re, the Past Participle, the Future (and Conditional), the Imperfect (and Present Participle), and the Present Subjunctive. I skipped the Imperfect Subjunctive, because it is apparently never used. Maybe if I achieve native fluency in French, I might go back and learn the Passé Simple and the Imperfect Subjunctive. Eventually, you see a lot of patterns, and despite not being a native speaker, I can tell if something doesn't sound right with most conjugations. The pronunciation seems to be a lot easier than English pronunciation. I know that there are exceptions, but they are definitely fewer and further between than they are in English. French has accents to help make it more phonetic, and English suppresses them. There is also a list of common noun gender endings, with about 60 endings listed, taped onto my wall. I've gotten used to it, and I can tell off the gender of most nouns by looking at the ending. -tion, -sion, -age, -ège, -isme, etc.
I think this site says most speakers of Arabic choose to learn French for business reasons. (I think it is this site, but I can't find the page) And I would say that French grammar would be easier to learn than English grammar. There are no modals to learn, there is no emphatic or progressive, and overall, there are just fewer tenses/moods to learn. The only things English has over French are the very rare subjunctive, articles, and I suppose negations. I'm probably missing tons of stuff, but I really cannot imagine how I would learn English, were I a non-native speaker. The emphatic looks insane, and so does the progressive, especially since it isn't always used progressively. Then there's the spelling to accommodate influences from two language families, words with multiple pronunciations, random word stress, etc. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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