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English-like grammar? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Slovak_anglo Diglot Groupie United States facebook.com/deliver Joined 5347 days ago 87 posts - 100 votes  Speaks: English*, German Studies: Italian, Slovak | Message 17 of 24 10 June 2010 at 4:37pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I was going to say Norwegian. I've heard it is very similar to English
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| Derian Triglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5310 days ago 227 posts - 464 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, German Studies: Spanish, Russian, Czech, French, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 18 of 24 10 June 2010 at 5:03pm | IP Logged | |||||
http://www.pagef30.com/2008/08/why-norwegian-is-easiest-lang uage-for.html "Why Norwegian is the easiest language for English speakers to learn" 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| MäcØSŸ Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5811 days ago 259 posts - 392 votes Speaks: Italian*, EnglishC2 Studies: German | Message 19 of 24 10 June 2010 at 5:21pm | IP Logged | |||||
If you are referring to forms like “I’m tired of working”, “working” is not a present participle but a gerund, and this is a normal Indo-European usage. It just happens to be the same of the present participle. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Levi Pentaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5569 days ago 2268 posts - 3328 votes Speaks: English*, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese, Italian | Message 20 of 24 11 June 2010 at 2:01am | IP Logged | |||||
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How "English-like" is "English-like"? Chinese grammar is much more English-like than Japanese grammar. Indonesian grammar is much more English-like than Inuit grammar. But none of those languages are related to English.
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| michamotor Tetraglot Newbie Germany Joined 5442 days ago 23 posts - 31 votes Speaks: German*, Czech, French, English Studies: Hungarian | Message 21 of 24 13 June 2010 at 11:32am | IP Logged | |||||
I think it depends on the point of view. As a German, I have never struggeld with the word order in German, so this is not the first problem for me. English has a rather easy and firm word order in its sentences thus I don´t consider it as a problem to me. But I know that the German sentence structure is hard to understand and internalize. But the tenses are difficult in both directions, I suppose. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6705 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 23 of 24 18 June 2010 at 3:21pm | IP Logged | |||||
Sorry, but for once you are wrong. In English the word 'gerund' is primarily used about the -ing forms that are used as nouns, - see for instance Wikipedia: "As applied to English, it refers to the usage of a verb (in its -ing form) as a noun (for example, the verb "learning" in the sentence "Learning is an easy process for some"). This is also the term's use as applied to Latin; see Latin conjugation." However the Italian Wikipedia gives this example: Il gerundio è un modo della lingua Italiana utilizzato per indicare un processo considerato nei sui riferimenti ad un secondo avvenimento: "Preferisco non parlare mangiando nello stesso momento." and later in the same article: "Nella lingua inglese, il gerundio (gerund) si ottiene aggiungendo la terminazione -ing all’infinito. La sua funzione è quella di indicare un sostantivo a partire da un verbo" To complicate matters further the word 'gerund' definitely came from Latin, but Latin had a gerundium, a gerundive and a present participle. I quote Wikipedia again (the article about Latin conjugation): The gerund is formed similarly to the present active participle. However, the –ns becomes an –ndus, and the preceding ā or ē is shortened. Gerunds are neuter nouns of the second declension, but the nominative case is not present The gerundive is the passive equivalent of the gerund, and much more common in Latin. It is a first and second declension adjective, and means, “(the verb) being done”. Often, the gerundive is used with an implicit esse, to show obligation. So I feel justified in calling the thing in the 'progressive' forms in English a present participle. And yes, forms like this abound in the Indoeuropean languages (for instance "sto facendo" in Italian). The special thing about English is that these constructions have developed into a complete system that parallels the usual one based on simple forms and compound forms with a past participle. Edited by Iversen on 18 June 2010 at 3:29pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| renegade5005 Triglot Newbie United States xanga.com/philoaleth Joined 5335 days ago 18 posts - 21 votes Speaks: Persian, English*, Spanish Studies: Latin, Modern Hebrew, Arabic (Levantine), French, Tzeltal, Arabic (classical), Sanskrit, Ancient Greek | Message 24 of 24 30 June 2010 at 2:00am | IP Logged | |||||
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Very basic German Grammar i believe is very close to English. But Advance German grammar is much more complicated than English. Many might be surprised but Persian grammar is actually kind of close to English in many aspects.
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