Let’s face it - English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren’t invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren’t sweet, are meat. We…
THANK YOU for this beautiful etymological explication. This “English is a crazy language” meme has been blithely making the rounds and annoying the hell out of me for far too long.
Hahaha, loved this. Yay etymology! Besides, native speakers, I love you because you don’t yell at me when I kick your language around on the internets (thankyousorryaboutthemistakesIreallydotry), but please know that these things are not what makes English hard to learn or crazy, they’re completely normal! English is a normal, well-adjusted language! :D
I guess it depends on each student’s mother tongue and background, but if you ask a Spaniard why English is hard or crazy, chances are phrasal verbs will be mentioned. I keep hearing that English has a smaller vocabulary because you can use “look + preposition” for everything. So, phrasal verbs: the true weirdness of the English language. :D
Okay, I love the original “English is a crazy language” thing, and I love the etymological explanation! I don’t think one contradicts the other, though? The former is humorous, and simply states facts, and the latter explains the why of those facts, how it evolved into craziness - as, I must add, does every language in its own way.
I think for most of my aquaintances, it’s not phrasal verbs that provide the most difficulty. It’s the fact that you can’t really know how to pronounce words just from reading them - take the famous FISH/GHOTI example. Of course, this isn’t exclusive to English, and it gets slightly better as you have a firmer grasp of the language; but it doesn’t help to just dive into speech if you’re very uncertain of how to pronounce half the words you wanna say.
