The English Language - the things that you find odd

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Lepton87

Platinum Member
Jul 28, 2009
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As a non-native speaker there are hell of a lot of things that I find strange in the English language. For starters I'll write a few and if the thread gets any attention I'll write more.
Why does fat and slim chance mean the same thing?
The fact that there is not a unique plural form of you it's confusing and it makes some people use you guys as that plural form of you.
 
M

momeNt

Diamond Member
Jan 26, 2011
9,290
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The word - ilk. I find it curious, fascinating, odd, and arousing all at the same time.
 
JimKiler

JimKiler

Diamond Member
Oct 10, 2002
3,561
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If english was a programming language we were all learning for the first time we would all hate it because of all the exceptions to the rules that would cause code to not work.

OP, i agree english is hard.
 
Arcadio

Arcadio

Diamond Member
Jun 5, 2007
5,637
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I find the expression "all but..." really annoying. For example "She is all but generous".
 
02ranger

02ranger

Golden Member
Mar 22, 2006
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Lepton87 said:
As a non-native speaker there are hell of a lot of things that I find strange in the English language. For starters I'll write a few and if the thread gets any attention I'll write more.
Why does fat and slim chance mean the same thing?
The fact that there is not a unique plural form of you it's confusing and it makes some people use you guys as that plural form of you.
Click to expand...

Sure there is. Haven't you ever heard of y'all? I think that fills that particular gap in the language quite nicely.

Y'all have a great day now, y'hear?
 
JujuFish

JujuFish

Lifer
Feb 3, 2005
11,444
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02ranger said:
Sure there is. Haven't you ever heard of y'all? I think that fills that particular gap in the language quite nicely.

Y'all have a great day now, y'hear?
Click to expand...
Y'all = you singular
All y'all = you plural

Or so my brief experience in the south tells me.
 
02ranger

02ranger

Golden Member
Mar 22, 2006
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JujuFish said:
Y'all = you singular
All y'all = you plural

Or so my brief experience in the south tells me.
Click to expand...

Must be a regional thing. Here Y'all is you plural, and all y'all is you plural+pissed off. Examples:

Y'all come in the house, yer supper's gittin' cold.

vs.

All y'all better git yer hind ends in this house this minute, cause yer fixin' ta git a beatin'!
 
02ranger

02ranger

Golden Member
Mar 22, 2006
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Mr. Pedantic said:
I don't understand how a contraction of "you all" could possibly be singular.

It's like saying "can't" should now mean "can".
Click to expand...

IDK, there's some pretty crazy stuff in our language, so that isn't too far fetched. Like saying something is bad to mean good, all sorts of oxymorons like that..................
 
Imp

Imp

Lifer
Feb 8, 2000
18,828
184
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You can make any new noun or verb up as you go or by adding "-ing".

English rocks... No stupid male/female nouns like French, Spanish, and other languages. No "ustedes" or "vous" form of "you. "I work" and "He works", but no "trabajo" or "trabaja". No weird accents. And best of all, you can sort of pronounce things by sounding them out unlike East Asian languages.

...Chinese is so much damn easier without the conjugation and any sort of adjective/adverb agreement though. Too bad the writing system, even the Romanization system using accents, is effed up.

I'm thinking of going to teach English in China. Dead end "career", but meh.
 
BlitzPuppet

BlitzPuppet

Platinum Member
Feb 4, 2012
2,460
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JujuFish said:
Y'all = you singular
All y'all = you plural

Or so my brief experience in the south tells me.
Click to expand...

Such a horrible word...lol.

Luckily them "city folk" don't use that word, it's usually the country bumpkins/small town people.
 
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