QUOTE(AhumanRS @ Dec 23 2020, 21:07)
English is already such a shit language. You are afraid of something that already happened.
Shakespeare weeps, look at what we have lost:
1. Thou vs You
Thou is informal and singular, You is plural and/or polite
The verb ending for Thou is -st.
2. Whence/whither/where, hence/hither/here, thence/thither/there
Whence=from where
Whither=to where
"Whither do you walk?" (Where do you go to?)
"Where do you walk?" (What place do you walk in?)
3. Inalienable possession:
Use an adjunct or indirect object for body parts:
"I wash him his/the hands" or "I wash him by the hands"
"I wash the hands on me" (my own hands) vs "I wash my hands" (I have taken from someone)
4. Productive verb prefixes
Like in the the words be-devil/for-sake/with-stand
5. Pronominal adverbs:
Preposition+this/that/what
Here/there/where+preposition
Ex: Hereby=by this, thereunder=under this
6. "To be" perfect tense vs "to have"
"They are fallen/I am become death" vs "The have taken the book/They have hit it"
7. No "verbing", use a prefix like "begoogle" or "forgoogle" like they would in German
8. Word boundaries, no verbing or nouning, use a derivational affix.
9. "Become" passive like German "Werden" passive.
"The door is becoming opened" (it gets opened now)
"The door is being opened" (it is opened often)
10. V2 word order, verb is always second place in a main clause.
"Yesterday walked the man to the shop."
11. Indefinite "man" pronoun like German or French "on".
In Germany they don't say "you could say" they say "man could say", but this is too sexist for English.
12. Reflexive verbs, common in other European languages
"I open the door" but "The door opens itself"
"I remember me/I need me something"
"I lay me down to sleep" (You can't say lay down alone)
"I relax myself" "I vex myself thereabout"
This post has been edited by weegeeweegeeweegee: Dec 23 2020, 16:31