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Is French really easier than English? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Haldor Triglot Senior Member France Joined 5615 days ago 103 posts - 122 votes  Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Swedish Studies: French, Spanish | Message 97 of 131 23 August 2011 at 9:51pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
It's important that you be aware that subjunctive exists in English too.[/QUOTE] I know English has a (slight) conditionnal. Ex: If I were to... But what's the subjunctive? 'Long live the king' etc..? All in all these modes aren't as comprehensive as in English.. Or should I say they are far easier to conjugate and used to a lesser extent.. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| floydak Tetraglot Groupie Slovakia Joined 4854 days ago 60 posts - 85 votes Speaks: Slovak*, English, German, Spanish Studies: French | Message 98 of 131 23 August 2011 at 9:59pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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subjuntive is (my deffiniton:D) a special "tense" which exists in romanic languages like
spanish, portuguese, french, Italian.. and is used when you express your ideas, feelings, uncertainty. it does not exist in slavic languages. it exists (at least theoreticaly) in english or German (so I think in norwegian also) but is very rarely used. 3 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 99 of 131 23 August 2011 at 10:15pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Be that as it may.. :D The question is: could we actually call this a 'tense' in English? Since it's practically out of use.. I know even the conditional is rarely applied in the spoken language.. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| AriD2385 Groupie United States Joined 4850 days ago 44 posts - 60 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 100 of 131 23 August 2011 at 10:22pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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People ignore the subjunctive in English, but tis a shame, for it makes sentences much more elegant. I don't know if that chapter was skipped in high school grammar classes or what.
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| Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5056 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian* | Message 101 of 131 23 August 2011 at 11:01pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Subjunctive is a mood, not tense. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| ScottScheule Diglot Senior Member United States scheule.blogspot.com Joined 5228 days ago 645 posts - 1176 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Latin, Hungarian, Biblical Hebrew, Old English, Russian, Swedish, German, Italian, French | Message 102 of 131 24 August 2011 at 6:05am | IP Logged | ||||||||
I'm not sure what you mean by slight, unless you're discounting it because it's periphrastic. The conditional in English is used all the time--I don't think I can really overstress that. I'm pretty sure we just make it by adding in "would" in front of the bare infinite. I would run You would run He would run We would run Y'all would run They would run Christ, English conjugation is embarrassingly simple. But anyway, I use this tense all the time. Now the subjunctive, on the other hand, is limited in English. I like it, but it really varies from region to region. It's more common in America actually, which I find somewhat surprising. Here's an example. "I insist she go to work immediately." So let's note some things. One, it opens with one of those key phrases that indicate subjunctive in Romance languages, say in Spanish (yo exigo que...). Two, if this was the indicative mood, the verb would be conjugated as "goes." Compare ("She goes to work immediately.") Now, you might here somewhere "I insist she goes to work immediately." And you know what, that doesn't sound wrong to me, but I like the subjunctive better. It carries a bite that somehow the indicative lacks. A more famous example is "God bless you." We've got a past subjunctive too, but it looks just like the past indicative. Edited by ScottScheule on 24 August 2011 at 6:08am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| ScottScheule Diglot Senior Member United States scheule.blogspot.com Joined 5228 days ago 645 posts - 1176 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Latin, Hungarian, Biblical Hebrew, Old English, Russian, Swedish, German, Italian, French | Message 103 of 131 24 August 2011 at 6:12am | IP Logged | ||||||||
I'm not sure about German, but the subjunctive in English is fairly common. It's use, at least, rises far above the mere theoretical. (A theoretical curiosity would be something like "thou.") Also, I don't know about other Slavic languages, but I'm pretty sure you make the subjunctive in Russian by following the past tense with бы. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| ScottScheule Diglot Senior Member United States scheule.blogspot.com Joined 5228 days ago 645 posts - 1176 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Latin, Hungarian, Biblical Hebrew, Old English, Russian, Swedish, German, Italian, French | Message 104 of 131 24 August 2011 at 6:14am | IP Logged | ||||||||
You win the thread. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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