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can we fix english?

brianmanahan

brianmanahan

Lifer
ladies and gentlemen, english is too complicated. is there any way we as the english speaking nations of the world can band together to make this language better?

i can think of a couple things off the top of my head:

1. add new accented letter marks to indicate certain pronunciations (ie long a or short a)
2. decide on s or z once and for all
3. replace the most noticeable frenchification (ie cheque instead of check)

hopefully we can come up with a petition to present to the UN or something

in order to make life (and communication) easier for everyone in the future
 
brianmanahan said:
ladies and gentlemen, english is too complicated. is there any way we as the english speaking nations of the world can band together to make this language better?

i can think of a couple things off the top of my head:

1. add new accented letter marks to indicate certain pronunciations (ie long a or short a)
2. decide on s or z once and for all
3. replace the most noticeable frenchification (ie cheque instead of check)

hopefully we can come up with a petition to present to the UN or something

in order to make life (and communication) easier for everyone in the future
Click to expand...

As a non-native English speaker I can say that English is simple enough. I speak an Uralic language (Finnish) that has very different grammar and vocabulary. Prepositions (in, at, of, from etc.) are difficult for me (Finnish like other Uralic languages uses a case system). I'm not always sure which one to use. Spelling and pronounciation is weird and could be simpler I guess. It's incostintent. Also all the stuff from Latin and Greek. But overall English is pretty simple.

"1. add new accented letter marks to indicate certain pronunciations (ie long a or short a)"

Just write two vowels a or aa, e or ee etc. Also double consonants.

Finnish English
taka behind
takaa (from) behind
takka fireplace
taakka burden
taakkaa (a specific? idk) burden
taakkaan (to a) burden
taakkana
taakkamme
etc etc

Simple. Every word pronounced in a different way.
 
I think replacing some words, adding more accents or deciding on which letters to use is the least common problem in the English language. The point is: Not one language is easy to learn, and adding or removing rules in the language would make it even more complicated for some. Just think about all these textbooks children are given all over the world. Do you really want to look them into their eyes and tell them there is a new rule? Really? Do you?
 
brianmanahan said:
Ladies and gentlemen, English is too complicated. Is there any way we, as the English speaking nations of the world, can band together to make this language better?

I can think of a couple things off the top of my head:

1. Add new accented letter marks to indicate certain pronunciations (i.e., long a or short a)
2. Decide on s or z once and for all
3. Replace the most noticeable frenchification (i.e., cheque instead of check)

Hopefully we can come up with a petition to present to the UN or something.

In order to make life (and communication) easier for everyone in the future.
Click to expand...
I tried, but too lazy to do the rest.
 
Also need to make some of the things that are considered wrong, be actually right. Modernization, if you will.

Like who the hell had the idea that "per say" should be spelled "per se". who actually says "per se" in a conversation? It sounds weird. Same with "should of", that sounds much better than "should have" and is easier to write than "should've" (or however way it's suppose to go). Things like that irritate me about the English language.

Then there's words that are spelled the same way but pronounced different, like read (current tense) and read (past tense). In French it would be Lire and Lu. As usual, the French have it right. *ducks, waving a white flag* Please don't shoot me.
 
Red Squirrel said:
Like who the hell had the idea that "per say" should be spelled "per se".
Click to expand...

It's Latin.

who actually says "per se" in a conversation?
Click to expand...

Not you, so please don't attempt to spell it.

It sounds weird. Same with "should of", that sounds much better than "should have" and is easier to write than "should've" (or however way it's suppose to go). Things like that irritate me about the English language.
Click to expand...

"Should of" sounds like "should've" and that's the only reason you associate those two. Just write the contraction if that's easier to remember.
 
Red Squirrel said:
Also need to make some of the things that are considered wrong, be actually right. Modernization, if you will.

Like who the hell had the idea that "per say" should be spelled "per se". who actually says "per se" in a conversation? It sounds weird. Same with "should of", that sounds much better than "should have" and is easier to write than "should've" (or however way it's suppose to go). Things like that irritate me about the English language.
Click to expand...

"Should of" is wrong.... If you're talking about something in the past tense it's "have" I.e. "I have done this" It's not "I of done this" therefore it's "I should have done this" not "I should of done this" The last one sounds retarded.
 
There is nothing broken about English that needs fixing.

What's broken is the education of individuals that eschew learning proper English and using it correctly. And that's easily seen from Red Squirrel's comments above.

English is actually a very dynamic language and a language capable of great precision and description. The fascinating thing about English is its ability to absorb and incorporate words and ideas from other languages.

But to blame English for individuals' inadequacies in using it properly is just dishonest at best. Being unable to use, for instance, their, there, and they're in their proper context is either laziness or intellectual ignorance. Suggesting should of replace should have shows a complete lack of understanding as to what those words mean; again, intellectual ignorance.

Suggesting confusion between read (reed) and read (red) shows more ignorance about those two words as the context of the sentence establishes their pronunciation. If you see the sentence, "I read a book last night," no one with any understanding of English would ever say the word read in that sentence as (reed).

If you think English is complicated, go study Russian or Japanese.
 
The world should be forced to convert to speak Arabic or Hungarian. That would solve the the English problem.
 
I can understand how non native english speaking people think it's hard based on things like, "where/wear" or "rough/though" ...words spelt differently, that sound the same but have different meanings, or words that are spelt the same, but pronounced different.

However, I have tried learning russian and chinese...Russian I could see being fairly challenging once I atleast learned the alphabet by heart, but mandarin... no way that was nuts.
 
Red Squirrel said:
Also need to make some of the things that are considered wrong, be actually right. Modernization, if you will.

Sorry, I won't.

Like who the hell had the idea that "per say" should be spelled "per se". who actually says "per se" in a conversation? Things like that irritate me about the English language.
Click to expand...

Per se is not from the English language.
 
sure as long as we can remove the K from Knife and other words that have letters that do nothing
 
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