English is hard

[Tero]

You folks with the European languages, can you just get the prepositions straight? We learn some prepositions in Swedish and kind of get the hang of it. Then we learn English, and they are not used the same way*! There is no one to one corresponding preposition from one European to another. In English you have the confusing for and to. Sometimes you use one, sometimes you use the other.

*this is of course why Swedish is now a relic, we use it in Finland in a few odd towns. And some fancy stores in Helsinki and Turku.

[Sælir]

Does any other language have the ability to create so many words with suffixes and prefixes, doesn't retire all but the most extreme archaic words, and allows such freedom for creating new or stealing foreign words?

Yes, many.

[Tero]

I think a lot of the stealing into English came from
1. invaders
2. English folk invading the world...colonialism

[tattuchu]

All your languages are belong to us

[MiM]

You folks with the European languages, can you just get the prepositions straight? We learn some prepositions in Swedish and kind of get the hang of it. Then we learn English, and they are not used the same way*! There is no one to one corresponding preposition from one European to another. In English you have the confusing for and to. Sometimes you use one, sometimes you use the other.

*this is of course why Swedish is now a relic, we use it in Finland in a few odd towns. And some fancy stores in Helsinki and Turku.

Well, I use it all the time, in the odd town of Helsinki. Very much in everyday life, with Ronja, with our kids and with friends, thank you.

And it's used by nearly 9M people just to the west of Finland, and understood by a big group of Norwegians and Danes as well. As compared to the slightly less than 5M who speak Finnish

[Tero]

Yes yess yes, I am not perussuomalainen. Just noted that Swedish, once powerful, has become about as useless as Finnish outside Scandinavia. It does have prepositions so English should be easy for Swedes.

I was just thinking where I would like to live in the Nordic countries. After Finland, maybe southern Sweden, as it has more daylight. And you could hop over to Copenhagen for culture events. Betwen my wife and me we cover all but Icelandic and Faeroese. I can go to the store in Sweden and buy potatis and knackkorv and sinap.

[MiM]

Didn't really think yo where , but then, English is as useless in the billion person community of China, so where is your point.

[Jason]

學習普通話或廣東話

Most smartphones come with a translation app.

[FBM]

Learn Mandarin or Cantonese
자세히 북경어 광동어 또는

[Jason]

Omat ilmatyynyaluksella on runsaasti ankeriasta

[Jason]

Learn Mandarin or Cantonese
자세히 북경어 광동어 또는

According to wickerpedia, Korean is one of the hardest languages for English (as their first language) people to learn.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Learn Mandarin or Cantonese
자세히 북경어 광동어 또는

According to wickerpedia, Korean is one of the hardest languages for English (as their first language) people to learn.

Pointed out nicely by the fact that so many people never actually learn it.

[Tero]

Omat ilmatyynyaluksella on runsaasti ankeriasta

haha!

[FBM]

Learn Mandarin or Cantonese
자세히 북경어 광동어 또는

According to wickerpedia, Korean is one of the hardest languages for English (as their first language) people to learn.

Pointed out nicely by the fact that so many people never actually learn it.

그러치. 대부분 한국 오랫동안 사는 외국인도 놈 게우르워서 안 배워. 정말 안 돼지...

[Callan]

Pffft.
English is a doddle.
All those foreigners speak it at home, when they think no-one's listening.