[Cedric_Statherby]

RichHI1

It was ever thus. One of the reasons English has fewer word endings than other languages (eg to signify case, gender or person) is because it largely lost them when Danes and Saxons tried to speak to each other in the 9th century.

Old Danish and Old Anglo-Saxon were really quite similar languages, with very similar vocabulary, but they tended to have different endings to their nouns and verbs. The practical solution was to drop the endings and make good with pronouns. Thus English has

I will be
You will be
He will be

and so on, whereas for example Spanish has seré, seras, sera (as of course in Qué sera sera …)

So we have the Danes to thank for simplifying English!

[RichHI1]

Absolutely. As with Spanish , English makes extensive use of the subjunctive and conditional tenses, the correct ” I would like” is now though replaced by “I want” and try explaining shall against will to the average “english” speaker.

[canucklad]

Compulsorily taught french at school in Vancouver…….also took German and Japanese….Their methodology was very effective…As soon as you entered the classroom the use of English was Verbotten!

After moving here I found that my multi linguistic skills started to vanish–even though i had moved an ocean closer!

Oddly and bizarelly after being volunteered by my football supporters bus in France 98 to be our translator….and making a howling hash of it… much to the amusement of French TV crew..and bus load of drunken Tartan Army …who questioned whether I ever “parlezed” at all

A couple of days later-one of my room mates announced to the group over breakfast that I talk in my sleep…And I was yaking away to a frenchman and then confirmed that it was almost fluent french!

Put it down to the re-call powers of a nice Bordeaux rouge

[Cedric_Statherby]

Rich HI1 and “I would like”: If not replaced by “Gimme”!

I vey much like the insight that English is an easy language to speak badly … and yet still be understood. This is I think crucial to it being usable by non-native speakers. The contrast with French is interesting – I have schoolboy French, and a combination of poor accent, faltering grammar and limited vocabulary means my best attempts are usually met by “Comment?” … followed by English!

[canucklad]

Oh….I will also add that as a consequence of living most of my adult life in Scotland my English language skills have also diminished!

The looks of inquisitive horror on my relatives faces back in Vancouver tells me that Scottish slang and colloquial terms have dilutered m understandability !!!!! Ya ken,,,,,,would have been worse if i stayed in Glasgow and not Edinburgh

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