Did you know English didn’t have indefinite articles until middle English? (1 Viewer)

[Ahsoka]

Before that, English utilized the article ”the” only (but in many forms). It also had the word an, meaning one. But middle English was the first time people started using it as an indefinite article, much like we use an and an in modern day.

 

[Ahsoka]

Language tag:
@athenarose @intothevault @Nyaz @Dreamer_of_Songs @Nina @velvet @ChuuAntics @MyLovelyLove @alo @AllTimeChiara @eclipsoul @sick

 

[dark_tranquility]

Fascinating stuff.

and there is american english, british english and australian english?

 

[Ahsoka]

Fascinating stuff.

and there is american english, british english and australian english?

Yes, among many many more. There are a lot of dialects of English

 

[dark_tranquility]

Yes, among many many more. There are a lot of dialects of English

apparently english is hard to learn for foreigners

 

[Ahsoka]

apparently english is hard to learn for foreigners

It depends on what languages they already speak, but a lot of people do find it hard due to some of the irregularities, mostly in spelling. But someone who knows German wouldn’t struggle too much with English, same with some other Germanic languages. A French speaker would also be able to recognize quite a few words too in terms of vocabulary

 

[dark_tranquility]

apparently english is hard to learn for foreigners

for example my mother speaks english but it is 'broken' english
at least I can understand her somewhat

 

[dark_tranquility]

It depends on what languages they already speak, but a lot of people do find it hard due to some of the irregularities, mostly in spelling. But someone who knows German wouldn’t struggle too much with English, same with some other Germanic languages. A French speaker would also be able to recognize quite a few words too in terms of vocabulary

that's true. I even struggled with english even though I was in Australia

 

[Nina]

'The' is the superior one indeed

 

[MyLovelyLove]

interesting

 

[eclipsoul]

polish doesn't have these at all which is why it was painful for me as a kid in english classes to learn the difference where you put "an" and where you put "the"

 

[Ahsoka]

polish doesn't have these at all which is why it was painful for me as a kid in english classes to learn the difference where you put "an" and where you put "the"

Sometimes I’ll get so sick of French’s le/la/l’/les/un/une/de la/de l’/d’/du/des that I learn a bit of Korean that day and it’s so amazing because they don’t have them As a kid I didn’t understand when my parents said articles are confusing and stupid, but when I started to learn French I understood