What's missing from English? Let me know below. And start speaking a new languages in 3 weeks with Babbel 🎉. Get up to 60% OFF your subscription ➡ Here: go.babbel.com/t?bsc=usa-influ-promo&btp=default&KZread&Influencer..May-2024..USA-TATAM..promo-yt-robwords-may-2024

@minecraftmore4359

25 күн бұрын

First! 🎉 Also, there should be a letter for "sh" "ch" and "kh". Stuff like that! Like, Turkish has the letter “Şş” which makes the “Sh” sound. Bye! 😊

@LiteKipe

25 күн бұрын

One weird thing that English does not have is tone--the use of pitch to distinguish meaning. In many Asian languages, changing the pitch you use on a certain phoneme changes the meaning of the word. So, "ma" in standard Mandarin has 5 distinct tones, and using any in place of the other will change the meaning of the word significantly. One can be a question particle, one can mean horse, while another can be part of the word for mother.

@leventevarga

25 күн бұрын

quite a lot... the "Đ" sound is considered quite usual along with "r". The word order isjust makes sense, rets of the more developed languages dont HAVE TO, since we can overcomplicate with pre--and suffixes.(saying this as a Hungarian)

@leventevarga

25 күн бұрын

also in Hungarian w euse plenty of thos fixes (up, dodown, etc, and we literally say the same way to give up (felad , whereas fel= up ; give(s) = ad )

@CAP198462

25 күн бұрын

Rob likes him a proper brew. 👍

English is weird. It can be understood through tough thorough thought though.

@m4m4b0y2

25 күн бұрын

Nicely done! I may plagiarize you very soon.

@xNillowsx

25 күн бұрын

That's a thoroughgoing thought thoroughly thought throughout; through and through!

@TomMarvan

25 күн бұрын

It's good to see you have thought it through.

@thorstenjaspert9394

25 күн бұрын

The English world is connected and divided by one language.

@yakkothegoat2326

24 күн бұрын

are you trying to give me a stroke?!

When only a contraction sounds "right" but the full words do not. Don't you dare! v. Do not you dare!

@sem1ot1c

25 күн бұрын

Interestingly, to my ear the first is a command and the second a question.

@frankleyJ

25 күн бұрын

well, I think it would be rearranged... You do not dare!

@apolo399

25 күн бұрын

The cambridge grammar of the english language argues that ·n't functions as a verbal suffix, that verbs negated this way are inflected for the negative (synthetic negation) and as such are not entirely equivalent to the "non-contracted" construction (analytic negation). They do acknowledge that ·n't was a contraction, that its etymology was of a reduced pronunciation of "not", but they argue that that's no longer the case. If you have access to the book, it's chapter 3, section 1.9

@sidarthur8706

25 күн бұрын

'dare not' is better but no one would take you seriously

@MusikCassette

25 күн бұрын

@@sidarthur8706 Do not dare!

A conversation with my Italian friend... "How do you say your alarm wakes you up in the morning?" "My alarm goes off.." "NO! Your alarm goes ON!" Gave me pause for thought.

@danytalksmusic

17 күн бұрын

Well if it's going off in the morning, then logically you should turn it on to stop it?

@twincast2005

17 күн бұрын

@@danytalksmusic Technically you turn it on when you set the timer (or activate the smoke detector), and the alarm is the last thing it does before it gets turned off.

@TheAtomoh

15 күн бұрын

​@danytalksmusic If the alarm is on then it's making a sound, if it is off then it's doing nothing.

@FriedAudio

14 күн бұрын

Perhaps the phrase "goes off" is like a rocket "goes/going off" its launchpad. Something IS happening within the mechanism of the alarm clock to keep it from ringing (launching) UNTIL its proper set time. The alarm sounds when the silencing mechanism "goes off".

@FriedAudio

14 күн бұрын

@@danytalksmusic Well, you'd be "turning on" the stop mechanism to cease the audible alarm sound.

A friend of mine started using "grandboss" for boss's boss and I love it.

@RobWords

22 күн бұрын

That's excellent

@Rocketsong

22 күн бұрын

I would probably go with Überboss (overboss).

@CheeseWyrm

20 күн бұрын

The Big Boss!

@PHill

19 күн бұрын

​@CheeseWyrm But Big Boss is the CEO, the person at the point of the org chart. Well, at least in my dialect it is.

@listen2meokidoki264

18 күн бұрын

Even grandbosses have a boss. It keeps going until you reach the Godfather who is God's earthy representative. His title is The Godfather. And he is always a genetically determined man who identifies as a man who, like God himself only makes offers you can't refuse..

In Australia, we use a word to negate a negative statement and we use it all the time. For example “Rob, you didn’t take the bins out again.” “Bullshit!”

@Morpheux1

21 күн бұрын

🤣🤣🤣

@Siqueira_andrew

21 күн бұрын

Bullshit! I'm living here hahahah

@snowstrobe

20 күн бұрын

Can confirm!

@Wreniffer

20 күн бұрын

As an australian I have no idea what your talking about. 😢

@CheeseWyrm

20 күн бұрын

@@Wreniffer Bullshit! 🤣

As a Swede, I'm so jealous of your access to single words to describe certain bodily movements like "shrug", "squat", "frown", "nudge" and "poke". In Swedish, you often have to describe it with a whole sentence, like "sitting down in a crouched position" or "push someone gently with your elbow". A terrible waste of time for us..

@NikiHolmes

19 күн бұрын

Feel free to borrow the English words 😊

@Threezi04

19 күн бұрын

@@NikiHolmes Yes we already borrowed our fair share of Scandinavian ones 😂

@katam6471

19 күн бұрын

But we can say "closing your eyes" and "opening your mouth" with just one word . And moving away from bodily movements, what about bädda=making the bed, diska=doing the dishes, cykla=ridning a bike?

@cathjj840

17 күн бұрын

@@katam6471 Well, we do have cycling, but not usually used in the same context. And the Brits have washing up (unless they've americanized that one, too). As for the first one, young men just don't bother, either with the words or the thing.

@jeffrascal9244

17 күн бұрын

Swedish is like most European languages then.

Loved the "medieval KZread" screen 😂 The little details like "brethren", "subscribeth", the video with the boar. That's quality: taking time to produce a result, even if that product is there for a few seconds.

@respectedgentleman4322

19 күн бұрын

Yeah I had to go back and pause it to see all the little details. Top work!

@amedina.mobile

19 күн бұрын

@@respectedgentleman4322 I also had to and it's how one realizes, values, and appreciates the effort that goes into quality work.

A: You didn't take the bins out again. B: Rubbish!

@Primitarian

10 күн бұрын

Yes, the rubbish bins. You didn't take them out.

@ThomasBirch

7 күн бұрын

Preposterous!

@mattlassen5948

4 күн бұрын

B: Rubbish?

@wildchild5738

13 сағат бұрын

Wrong!

“Rob, you didn’t take the bins out again.” “False.”

@ZeMarkKrazee

25 күн бұрын

I like to use “correct” and “incorrect” in these situations.

@belg4mit

25 күн бұрын

That is appropriating a nother word for the situation, he was referring to a dedicated word.

@iandrake4683

25 күн бұрын

Bullocks!

@CWinterstorm

25 күн бұрын

"Lies!"

@na195097

25 күн бұрын

Often a sound is used but not a word. Like "bah" or a negative grunt-like sound, something that would be classified as a scoff.

The part about phrasal verbs reminds me of a joke that Victor Borge used to tell about how, in English, it is odd that you have to cut down a tree before you can cut it up.

@user-pt3id3xx1f

11 күн бұрын

Non native speakers of a language are always aware of its idiosyncrasies.

@TamasSzebeni

11 күн бұрын

In hungarian we cut the tree out then cut it up.

@mariannewhyte8310

2 күн бұрын

I have always giggled at this sort of phrase ‘The burnt house was razed to the ground’ what would you call it? Oxymoronic phrase?

I'm scottish, my wife mocks me for saying y'all. But it is an effective contraction that flows much more easily than "you all". I think it should be formally adopted as an acceptable word.

@sierragutenberg

9 күн бұрын

I didn't even know that was Scottish until now 😂

@michelejones711

7 күн бұрын

I was born and raised in South Texas and agree 100% that y'all should be adopted as an official word.

@tonyleukering8832

5 күн бұрын

@@michelejones711 The problem is created by using "you" for both singular and plural subjects, so "you all" was, presumably, established organically as the plural version of "you," thus allowing for the bastardization into "y'all." However, in the southern US, "y'all" has come to be used for both singular and plural, and that has produced the relatively recent (at least in my experience) adoption of "all y'all" as the plural form of "y'all." Where does it end?

Even the word "weird" is weird! Its etymology involves meanings such as "fate" and "to turn" and "to become". Not only that, I just found out that Shakespeare reintroduced the word into English! It had fallen out of use in Middle English, but came back through Macbeth's Weird Sisters. Your videos are so wonderfully jovial and witty, as well as deeply informative! Thanks so much 😊

@paulwicht6294

10 күн бұрын

Guess Shakespeare was the original weirdo then!😂

When you talked about the present tense, I thought you were going to mention (you almost did but didn't quite), the fact that we don't use the "present tense" as our present tense: "What are you doing?" "I am reading a book." We never ever say: "I read a book." The so-called "present progressive" has completely supplanted the present tense in our language.

@Acadia26

22 күн бұрын

I suppose you use it to show habit, 'On my way to work, I read a book', 'On Mondays, I visit my parents'. Also to state facts: 'The moon is Earth's satellite'.

@infernalstan886

22 күн бұрын

That.. that is the present tense though.... Or else what tense would you class "I am reading" as?

@TubeLVT

22 күн бұрын

Some of these conventions are needed to distinguish between heteronyms (words spelled the same but pronounced differently). For past tense, we write “I read a book.” We understand the pronunciation /rɛd/. For the present tense, we must write “I am reading a book.” The root there is pronounced /riːd/. Vocally there wouldn’t be a problem. It’s in the weird English spellings and phonics. There’s no such difficulty writing the past tense “led” and the present tense “lead”.

@eoinmacantsaoir811

21 күн бұрын

Irish has two present tenses for the verb "to be" (immediate & continuous) and so two present progressives. This has shaped how we speak English. So we would say in English: I read books I am reading books (now) I do be reading books (generally)

@gramail2009

21 күн бұрын

It's more subtle than that Eric. We have different present tenses for different situations. What you call the present tense, 'I read', is for habitual actions, usually qualified with an expression such as 'on Mondays' or 'if I'm sad'. 'I am reading' is the present tense for just saying what I am doing right now. 'I do read' is a now old fashioned and dialect present form which is mainly used for emphasis now, especially when contradicting a negative.

Mine own owl, grown and gowned, owned a crow's crown, mined by the slow plow, flown down, never scowling, yet unknown.

@thomassunkel9229

23 күн бұрын

🤣👍🏻👍🏻

@glennlaroche1524

23 күн бұрын

Nice.

@adfaklsdjf

23 күн бұрын

i don't get it. i see that there are a bunch of "ow"/"own"s that are pronounced differently (seems like mostly 2 pronunciations).. but it seems like there must be more to it than that?

@angeldude101

23 күн бұрын

Me trying to read this: ow.

@chrismanuel9768

22 күн бұрын

That's... just two pronunciations repeatedly?

5:26 - My mother who was raised in England would END a sentence with "do" for emphasis!, as in "Stop it, DO!" (very British!)

@pablovivant9089

22 күн бұрын

Like in the song, "Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer, do!"

@daveanderson802

21 күн бұрын

@@pablovivant9089 Yes, another use of "do" as a generic verb like in the standard response to "May i (verb)?" = "Please do"

@geofflepper3207

19 күн бұрын

I had thought the expression "Do tell" was a request for someone to tell more of the shocking or scandalous or interesting information but a number of sources indicate that it simply an expression of surprise and not necessarily a request for more information.

@anicecupoftea8303

13 күн бұрын

“Love Me, Do” by the Beatles.

Here are my entries for potential collective nouns for "aunts and uncles": 1. Eldrins - Combines "elders," indicating seniority or older generation, with a suffix "-ins," which adds the familiar touch. 2. Eldsiblings 3. Kinparents - family (or made family) that are in a parental role without directly being parents. 4. Elderkin 5. Eldrets - eld + rets, a creative contraction of relatives of how it may have shortened over time.

@CheeseWyrm

20 күн бұрын

I like Elderkin as the collective noun. Furthermore in colloquial application it would likely be contracted as in this example: "Ah yes, let Eldkin Peter have that mug, he is Mum's Uncle after all".

@lostcause28

6 күн бұрын

my only weigh in would be to replace the eld with gran or grand so it fits in with general usage of grandparents that we already use. ive also heard "niblings" for collective nieces and nephews

20:26 We should bring back overmorrow and ereyesterday into common usage, they could be pretty useful (although maybe change "ereyesterday" to sound better since it doesn't sound as nice as "overmorrow" to me).

@annapplepie9342

25 күн бұрын

Overmorrow sounds fantastic 😆 I think I'm gonna start using is for real. It's just... it's just too good!

@saturninefeline6063

25 күн бұрын

I’m here to stick up for ereyesterday-it sounds poetic to me, and I think that, ere long, it could make a comeback! 😊

@Bread992

25 күн бұрын

I'm already using "overmorrow" and explaining to people what it is when they are confused. But "ereyesterday" indeed sounds too odd, I wish there would be some better alternative.

@jamesmccrea4871

25 күн бұрын

I use these, sometimes. Confuses the hell out of people. In fact, they were my choice to post as needed words. I tend to pronounce ereyesterday as just eresterday, I guess it seems more like a single word, rather than two words, ere and yesterday, mashed together.

@altosanon

25 күн бұрын

I was going to bring up overmorrow - a nice sounding word. We could have yesterdayeve instead of ereyesterday?

Indefinite article in Dutch created the word 'Decoy'. It came from 'Eendekooi', duck cage (Eend = Duck), which was used to catch wild ducks by putting tame ducks in a cage. Wild ducks would flock with the tame ones making it easier to catch them. Anyway, it was wrongly assumed the 'Een' at the beginning was the indefinite article, thus 'Een dekooi' which turned into 'a decoy'.

@stevencommon

24 күн бұрын

Same kind of change as "an ewt" becoming "a newt" in English (so I've been told)

@twincast2005

24 күн бұрын

@@stevencommon Yep. Also "a nadder" to "an adder", "a napron" to "an apron", "accord" to "a chord", and "alone (all one)" to "a lone" among several others.

@CallippoShafai

24 күн бұрын

That's a nice random fact that I'm going to remember 😅

@ThW5

24 күн бұрын

@@twincast2005 And the funny thing about the nadder-to-adder thing, is that that one happened both in Dutch and English.

@ThW5

24 күн бұрын

That is a bit doubted, you had Eendekooi (modern spelling "eendenkooi"), but you had "de kooi" (the cage) too as a possible source of confusion, it may be that both misunderstandings played a role.

5:49 While english may be the only language to use the meaningless "do", danish uses the word "can" in the exact same meaningless way. "I do not like matcha" = "Jeg kan ikke lide matcha (da) / I can not like matcha (en)" "Do you like coffee?" = "Kan du lide kaffe? (da) / Can you like coffee? (en)" "Do you see how special it is?" = "Kan du se hvor specielt det er? (da) / Can you see how special it is? (en)"

@twincast2005

20 күн бұрын

Interesting. Points to a general desire in Germanic languages for a filler word. My personal assumption would be to simplify grammar by avoiding inflection for most verbs. And despite Rob's claims, German very much does have meaningless "do" ("tun") as well. It is simply considered "uneducated speech", but it has been resilient despite teachers railing against it for centuries and decades of mass media language standardization. Especially in the north, so there might be a Hanseatic aspect to its origin.

@Viljarms

11 күн бұрын

This confuses me as a Norwegian. Lide means suffering in Norwegian. I do not like matcha (En) Jeg kan ikke lide matcha (Da) Jeg liker ikke matcha" (No) The Danske way sounds like "I can't suffer matcha." Do you like coffee?" (En) Kan du lide kaffe? (Da) Liker du kaffe (No) The Dansk sounds like "Can you suffer coffee?"

Rob: we don't have a word to negate a negative statement. me: incorrect

@cathjj840

17 күн бұрын

That's only what fastidious people/nerds say

@ESL1984

17 күн бұрын

​@@cathjj840 that's what the word "Bullshit" is for.

@tonemoreno763

17 күн бұрын

lol, how about “Rubbish”?

@Origen17

16 күн бұрын

@@tonemoreno763 Wrong!

@FryazinoStation

10 күн бұрын

Objection!

3:16 RIP, Rob. Eaten by his Kitten. Another tragic instance in which a comma could've saved a life.

@chantelm9255

25 күн бұрын

Great catch! I missed that and went back to look. I sincerely hope the feline's request will not be met!

@talastra

24 күн бұрын

I dedicate this comment to my parents, Ayn Rand and God.

@MrKotBonifacy

24 күн бұрын

Once I have came across a restaurant in Seoul, advertising it's services - "BREAKFAST, COFFEE JUICE". My Slavic-parsing mind (i.e. one used to proper grammar, as in "Romanes eunt domus", but I digress here) never noticed it, but my pal, a native English speaker, started to laugh the moment he saw it. And this, my children, is what happens to languages when they don't upkeep their grammar and let it disappear - a single coma becomes a life or death difference... ;-)

@talastra

24 күн бұрын

@@MrKotBonifacy Yes, a coma is a serious medical situation.

@user-tf1rq9vg1j

23 күн бұрын

@@MrKotBonifacy The famous: "Let's eat Grandma.", as opposed to: "Let's eat, Grandma."

The missing word I've been asked about several times by learners of English is the question word asking for an ordinal number. "Whichth wierdness was the pronouns?" - "The seventh." "Whichth president was Obama?" - "The forty-fourth." Thanks for the video!

@KenFullman

24 күн бұрын

I've had exactly that problem before and it's stumped me as I searched my brain for a method to explain exactly what I'm trying to ask. And I'm a native speaker. "In a chronological list of presidents, where does Obama fall?" seems such a mouthfull. We really need a "whichth" type word.

@foo0815

23 күн бұрын

And thus we have another candidate for a crazy spelling...

@MKisFeelinSpicy

23 күн бұрын

It doesn't sound like it would be technically correct, but I usually ask this as "which/what number". As in "What number in the list was the pronouns?" or "Which number president was Obama?"

@jonathanmong4927

23 күн бұрын

which works fine in both

@KenFullman

23 күн бұрын

Ironically we have it available for monarchs but as soon as you try to put it into a sentence you find it's redundant: Which reginal number did Henry the Eighth have?

Kul att du lär dig svenska Rob! Det svåraste måste vara att veta när man ska använda ”en” och ”ett”. Många gör fel på det. Och att höra skillnaden på ”anden”, the bird, och ”anden”, the spirit, till exempel, men kämpa på och lycka till!

For refuting a negative statement you can say, “FALSE!”

@shadowpulpfan1810

22 күн бұрын

Also "Wrong!"

@stewartmorrison6290

22 күн бұрын

There is another phrase beginning with 'f' that is commonly used :)

@ArtUniverse

21 күн бұрын

OBJECTION!

@JuanMPalacio

21 күн бұрын

@@ArtUniverse “You didn’t take the bins out again…” “OBJECTION!”

@gregorymorse8423

21 күн бұрын

"Horseradish!"

When it comes to family trees, I love the obscure word niblings for nieces and nephews.

@user-ff4tw8uf4b

25 күн бұрын

Good one!

@draig2614

25 күн бұрын

Also “piblings” as a gender-inclusive term for aunts and uncles (parent’s sibling) 🙂

@amarissa.xaos0320

25 күн бұрын

and piblings for aunts and uncles! (parents siblings)

@stevetournay6103

25 күн бұрын

Sounds like two kinds of Halloween candy...

@patrickrose1221

25 күн бұрын

Thanks Seth 😉👍 and I thought I knew it all 😆😅 We're never done learning are we pal 🍻 Like punctuation Patrick? 😆😅

Native Afrikaans speaker here. I can attest to the fact that the "th" is *extremely* difficult to learn when learning English. This normally gets substituted by the "f" sound, but "At school I thought a lot" has somewhat of a different meaning than: "At school I fought a lot"

@CaptainSpock1701

25 күн бұрын

12:07 - Just went past that bit in the video. Went instantly from "yeah, your English is weird" to a very proud: *"Ah yes! We're also weird!" *

@andriaduncan5032

23 күн бұрын

I thought it was only cockneys that said "f" when they meant "th." Some Brit in the KZread world does that, and to me it feels like fingernails on a blackboard, just intolerable to listen to. Hearing a non-native English speaker do it is probably a lot less aggravating.

@GingerBiPolarBear

22 күн бұрын

Somehow I never struggled with the "th" Vs "f". I had more trouble with "r"s. I'm so glad Afrikaans doesn't have gendered forms of words though!

@jmodified

22 күн бұрын

But doesn't the other "th" as in "the" use a "z" sound, as well as "th" as in thought when it is in the middle of a word (not beginning or end)?

@chrismanuel9768

22 күн бұрын

I do find that particular accent easy to understand myself, and clarification is usually simple if there's ever miscommunication. Bostonian accents though, those are impossible.

"English does not a word for disagreeing" OBJECTION YOUR HONOUR

@loisdungey3528

6 күн бұрын

I disagree works very well. Or " I don't happen to agree with you!"

I know you have mentioned it in other videos, but the fact that we have different words for live animals and eaten animals is very weird. It's so unnatural, that animals discovered after the Norman Conquest that are eaten, like kangaroo, just get the 1 word

@w.reidripley1968

11 күн бұрын

'Mulga Mutton' is slangy.

@anthonyforte1400

9 сағат бұрын

It reflects the Norman/Saxon class distinction after the Conquest. The Saxon peasants raised or captured the pigs, cows, and deer (all words from Saxon German); but the pork, beef, and venison (all words derived from Norman French) were eaten by the Norman nobles. I guess the peasants ended up eating a lot of chicken.

We, who managed to learn english as a second language, thank you from the bottom of our hearts, Rob! You just validated a lot of struggles people had to come to terms with.

Your old-timey KZread page was brilliant. I went back and paused the video so I could read everything and appreciate the clever humour.

@AlyraMoondancer

24 күн бұрын

Yes!!! It's at 10:23 for those who want to go have another look. I could not stop laughing! (well, actually I did, but I'm about to start again just thinking about it) 🤣🤣🤣

@Mullkaw

12 күн бұрын

ThouTube 😂😂

The disagreeing word in response to you didn’t take the trash out would be “bullshit”

I taught for years at a high school in Northern California that had a huge immigrant population from eastern Europe and Asia. Those poor kids. I finally ended up telling them, “don’t try to make sense of it. It’s English”. 😆😆😆👍🏼. Very much enjoy your channel.

I love all your videos but I find this particularly meaningful since every non-English speaking friend has complained about English's "weirdness." This spells that out. Thanks!

@barrymcdonald16

24 күн бұрын

Or do what we Irish do....never give a yes/no answer.. agree/disagree with the question with an "I didn't", or "I did", or if its obvious the action wasn't carried out just say say "I know"

The episode should be shown at the beginning of every B1 ESL course - the best one so far. Thanks Rob!

@corvidsRcool

25 күн бұрын

It should also be showed to every bigoted person who throws a fit when they see a person in the US speaking a language other than English in public. I grew up speaking English and I'm impressed anyone can learn it as a 2nd or 3rd language because of all the weird quirks. I still have trouble some days myself!

@bopmaster404

25 күн бұрын

​@@corvidsRcool The worst part of english is pronunciation tbh. I mean it's satisfying if you're able to read/speak something in your amalgamation of english accents (it's my case; I target mostly northern american; I know there's more to it but idk) but it's also frustrating if you stumble upon something you didn't really say in your entire life or its grammatical structure makes it tongue twister for you

I was searching KZread for English history videos, and this channel popped up. So I clicked on it. This is now one of my top three favorite KZread channels. Thanks for not only being educational, but also amusing.

I love the overall video: the script, editing, background, etc. You've just got another subscriber. Thank you.

Swedish has male and female names for pet owners. Husse - male owner of pet Matte - female owner of pet

@davidioanhedges

25 күн бұрын

...and it's useful exactly how ? ..and how to you refer to an owner of a pet you don't know the gender of?

@reineh3477

25 күн бұрын

@@davidioanhedges you have the same thing in English when you talk about children; mother, father and parent. If you don't know the gender just say "ägare" (owner).

@Ceruleanst

25 күн бұрын

In English these are "master" and "mistress" but the words have so many other uncomfortable connotations that most prefer to pretend we are their parents instead.

@akaHarvesteR

25 күн бұрын

Ok we definitely need this added to English

@letitiarademakers6304

25 күн бұрын

I often see hudad and humom used in pet related social media posts... In Dutch we have 'baas' or 'baasje' (boss, little boss) as non gender option over 'eigenaar/eigenaresse' (owner).

I want to tell you about a concept that we don't have a word for, in English, but I just can't put it into words!

@bhami

25 күн бұрын

That's because English is quick to adopt any such needed words; e.g. "schadenfreude" from recent German. Our history as a massive German/ French creole shows that this goes back centuries.

@mariapiazza-od8ib

25 күн бұрын

English is poor in so mAaaaany concepts ; homesickness ( NOSTALGIA for a person, nothing to do with HOME ) , kidnapping ( RAPIMENTO of a dog, nothing to do with KID ) , blackmailing ( RICATTO from a son to his mother ) nothing to do with MAIL etc. 😢😢 What annoys me most is BUTTERFLY 🦋🦋🦋 what the damn has BUTTER to do with this wonderful insect ??? 😅😊😅😊😊

@Kastchei

25 күн бұрын

​​​@@mariapiazza-od8ibI can't attest for any English other than what I speak on the US east coast, but I don't use the words you describe in that way. Homesickness really is about one's home. It might be a physical house, but could also be about a hometown. If my parents moved away from my childhood home into an apartment, I'd never say I was homesick unless I meant the town I grew up in or my childhood home. Likewise, if I live alone and have been traveling for a month, I would say homesick to mean I miss my apartment, despite there being no one there. Kidnapping is most often used to describe the taking (napping?) of a child. Yes, it can be used for an adult, too, but it's usually a kid. I'd never use it for a dog. I'd probably just say someone stole the dog. Maybe I'd playfully say dognapped. Blackmail, to my knowledge, used to be done by mail, but yes, nowadays means any form of extortion. It means threatening someone with some action, often revealing a secret, if the victim doesn't pay money to the blackmailer. It doesn't really have to do with sons and mothers. Usually it's between non-family, and often enemies or work colleagues/adversaries. You got me with butterfly!

@Aetheraev

25 күн бұрын

​@@mariapiazza-od8ibI'm not really sure what you are saying in the first part. Are you trying to say the words are more restricted in their definitions than the Italian words you mention or that the etymology of them is strange. Blackmail for example comes from "mal" an old word for payment or rent. As to butterfly I quite like that each European language seems to have their own idiosyncratic word for butterflies: vlinder, schmetterling, mariposa, farfalla, papillon, sommerfugl, borboleta, leptir, motyl, fjäril. No two languages seem to have gone for the same origin

@user-hz4zq3lu5e

25 күн бұрын

@@mariapiazza-od8ib well butterfly, is a hiccup of flutterby which was the original, surely!

Just take it from German: A day before yesterday = foreyesterday A day after tomorrow = overtomorrow And though for doch You're welcome

@FlorianBaumann

15 күн бұрын

Und wir tun was ähnliches haben wie das Englische "do". Gilt nur halt als schlechtes Deutsch. (And we do have something like the English "do", but it's considered as bad German)

@leslietruver7386

13 күн бұрын

English does (or did) have overmorrow (no 'to') and ereyesterday.

@Bjowolf2

10 күн бұрын

They already have it in English: overmorrow But unfortunately only very few English speaking people seem to know that these days ;-) It would be fun if some people just starting using it - and other old words - again casually to see how people would react to the use of such archaic and "mysterious" English words.

Love this, (English speaker here). Recently went on a new language journey. Other than learning a new language I learned that English is horrible to learn as an adult ❤

round of applause for the medieval KZread recreation, Rob. I had a good chuckle at that.

@eekee6034

22 күн бұрын

That was well done :)

@althejazzman

22 күн бұрын

I particularly loved the video titled "Should I learn to read?". Rather ironic title.

Rob: “We don’t have a single word to negate a statement.” Me: “False.”

@mr.turdlybird4387

25 күн бұрын

Wrong

@btbb3726

25 күн бұрын

“Not” or “N’t” 😜

@encycl07pedia-

25 күн бұрын

SMH

@mbfhh

25 күн бұрын

Nuh-uh! Yuh-huh!

@daphnegeorge7481

25 күн бұрын

Me - Rubbish!

Meaningless Do made learning other languages in school very hard. I was always asking what's the word for Do in situations where the foreign language structure was different.

I have autism and love learning about words / language. This channel is fascinating

Tom Scott's short video about language features that don't exist in English was neat. Of those, clusivity is easily the most useful and I wish we (all) had it.

@ahorrell

25 күн бұрын

I speak Tok Pisin and I'm learning Te Reo Māori, both of which have clusivity. In my experience, clusivity is not as useful as you'd think. Cos how often do we find ourselves saying "Do mean 'you and me' or 'you and them'? I don't understand." BUT Tok Pisin is kinda fun cos it has singular, dual, trial, and plural clusivity! It all looks super confusing until you see the English etymology - eg, 'Yumitripela' comes from You-me-three-fellows. SINGULAR: Mi = I/me Yu = you Em = she/her/he/him/it DUAL: Mitupela = The two of us (but not you) Yumitupela = The two of us (including you) Yutupela = the two of you Tupela = the two of them TRIAL: Mitripela = The three of us (but not you) Yumitripela = The three of us (including you) Yutripela = the three of you Tripela = the three of them PLURAL: Mipela = Us (4 or more, but not you) Yumi = Us (4 or more, including you) Yupela = You (4 or more) Ol = Them (4 or more) But in practice, a lot of people drop the dual and trial. Eg, if you're about to leave a place with someone, they'll often just say 'yumi go' instead of 'yumitupela go'

@wolf1066

25 күн бұрын

@@ahorrell Good on ya for learning Te Reo Māori. Personally, I do find the clusivity of Te Reo useful and bemoan its lack in English - and I'm a "pasty white boy", so it's not a "my language is the best" thing. As an autistic person, I find myself confused when someone says "we are going to..." *more often than I care to remember* if there's enough people to make a "we" that doesn't include me. I constantly find myself wondering if only they're going or they mean me as well. I don't get that with "mātou" and "tātou".

@bopmaster404

25 күн бұрын

@@ahorrell I don't understand. Is "mitupela" used in situation where there are 2 people or 3 people? If the first is the case why don't use "mi" for instance? I'd understand if a person wants to make them clear that it's not you but other than that it seems somewhat useless. I think plural ones are really neat tho PS. Didn't notice the thing you typed on a bottom bottom of a comment. I see why they drop it

@CheeseWyrm

24 күн бұрын

@@bopmaster404 "tupela" is used in the case of a grouping of 2 people. "mitupela" signifies that the 2-person group includes me. For 3 people (me, you & another) it would be "yumitripela". Tok Pisin is intriguing ... think of "tupela" as "two fellas". So "mitupela" (or me-two fellas) = "two fellas including me". This clearly excludes you - as to include you would be "mi-YU-tupela" (me-YOU-two fellas). Same concept applies to 3 people (tri-pela), and likewise Plural. Hope that helps :)

@lanjieke

24 күн бұрын

Yes! This exists in Mandarin, although usage is not entirely strict. 我们 (wo men) can mean 'we' in all contexts. 咱们 (zan men) can only mean 'we' as in the people included in the conversation. Unfortunately, I am so used to my native English that I never use 咱们, since 我们 works just fine, and as many native Chinese speakers often neglect to use 咱们, I can't see that changing anytime soon! I do believe (though I may be wrong) that 咱们 is more often used up north, whereas I live in Shanghai, which is in the east.

I would argue that the indefinite article serves an absolute purpose, in clarification. Such as, from Monty Python and the Holy Grail: "You got my note!" "Well, I got A note." It doesn't work the same without that indefinite article specifying that he doubts the note's authenticity.

@stevieinselby

25 күн бұрын

Zactly. There are all sorts of aspects of language that are functionally redundant in _many_ cases as they can be inferred from context and probability, but there are still times when their correct usage provides a useful distinction or where their incorrect usage could create confusion.

@CahiraOMalley

24 күн бұрын

I think it works. In Irish your example would be "Fuair ​​tú mo nóta" - "Fuair ​​mé nóta" (I got a note) instead of "Fuair me do nóta" (I got your note). If I leave out the "do" (your) intentionally it is the same statement as in the English example. Namely "don't know if it's YOUR note".

@Shna_na

24 күн бұрын

I can definitely understand where you're coming from with this in that it's good for emphasis of clarity, but in the case where there was no indefinite article then the very absence of the definite article is enough to provide that clarity. In your example, "You got my note!" "Well, I got note" would be understood to mean that the received note wouldn't necessarily (though still could) be the one indicated by the definitive article

@CahiraOMalley

24 күн бұрын

@@Shna_na That's what I intended to say. Reading over my own comment again I think it might be a bit confusing?! 🤔😬

@Shna_na

24 күн бұрын

@@CahiraOMalley Ah, yes, I had the video paused for a while before watching so your comments weren't there for me when I replied. My reply was for the original post, don't worry

Your content is fantastic! Thank you!!

Absolutely brilliantly thought provoking. Best video for ages Rob. Thank you. We (English) just take so much for granted. This will provide me and my French English students hours of fun. I will encourage them to look up some examples and not to look down on me.

I knew a French man who asked me why do you say washing 'up' and drying 'up' , I didn't have an answer for him.

@davidhoward4715

25 күн бұрын

When we do the washing up we're cleaning dishes and cutlery. When we do the washing we're cleaning clothes.

@franimal86

24 күн бұрын

Heheh try explaining the difference between a lay up and lay down.

@sluggo206

23 күн бұрын

And what's a "lay-by"? In England it's a turnout/siding at the side of a highway where you can stop if your car's not working right or you're tired.

@Mrbeahz1

21 күн бұрын

A puddle can dry up. But if you've washed up, you then dry off.

@jessicajohn1962

18 күн бұрын

One can just say to wash the dishes and to dry the dishes . Up defines the end task. To do something up = to renovate or make something look better . It adds finality. Like to grow and to grow up. A start up defines the finality of the “start”… geddit? 😅😂

"We can't make a question out of a statement by merely appending one word, eh?" is a perfect example of something that might be intrinsic to almost all languages, because it's in no way "official" grammar for English but it's so NEEDED that we all do it anyway.

@dbolt6543

25 күн бұрын

You can in Canadian eh!?

@tiyenin

25 күн бұрын

Easiest minimum pair for TH voiceless and TH voiced: Thigh / Thy. I've also used Thistle / This'll, because I'm a word nerd.

@tiyenin

25 күн бұрын

17:44 English didn't even use articles CONSISTENTLY. Plurals are under no obligation to use an article ("I bought a chair / I bought chairs"), but what's weirder is that there isn't really an indefinite plural article at all, with the possible exception of "some": I bought the chair / I bought the chairs I bought a chair / I bought (some) chairs

@WizardofoOZeAU

25 күн бұрын

Innit?

@grizwoldphantasia5005

25 күн бұрын

I had a short conversation in Japan at an onsen (hot spring). Among other things, she said "inu suki" (dog like) with a rising tone making it an obvious question. No "ka" at the end, just that rising tone. You can do the exact same thing in English, but the words reverse: "like dogs" with a rising tone. Language are surprisingly flexible.

Another tour de force, Mr. 'Words! One thing that has bugged me about my native language ever since I was a teenager (I just turned 64), is the ambiguity of the word "Why?" It is used to mean "from what cause?" and it is also used to mean "towards what goal?" These two questions are in many cases unrelated. But all I can say is "why did you do that?" I have given up trying to say "What was your motivation for doing that?" or "What were you trying to accomplish through that action?" because people wouldn't answer; they would just look at me as if I were weird. Which I am. Copious thanks!

there is a video on grammatical gender where a (very small) study was done comparing English speakers ability to distinguish what was said in corrupted audio files vs., i believe, german. germans were markedly better since they have two cues to decipher a word / apart of a phrase: the word, and the gender of the word. so, in crowded rooms and loud spaces, it may have been advantageous to have more cues to distinguish words (ie. gender)

When a judge is tired of hearing a witness's ranting tirade, the judge can either shut up the witness or shut down the witness, and these two things are the same despite "up" and "down" being opposites. And "beating up" and "beating down" a person are ALMOST (but not quite) synonyms, again regardless of which opposite "up" and "down" is used. At least "standing up" and "standing down", and "sitting up" and "sitting down", are more reasonably distinct.

@kinolibby6580

25 күн бұрын

It's the same with a form you can 'fill it in' or you can 'fill it out' and it means the same thing even though in and out are opposites

@SchmulKrieger

24 күн бұрын

I would say that up in English is actually a cognate of German auf and Dutch op, it means on(to). I don't thing down and up are opposites, especially not historically.

@JaysicleSticks

24 күн бұрын

@@SchmulKriegerregardless of their origins, up is now generally the opposite of down.

@topherthe11th23

24 күн бұрын

@@SchmulKrieger Clearly, in English, "up" and "down" are opposites. When you stand outside an elevator-shaft and press one of two buttons to summon the elevator (this assumes you are not on the lowest nor the highest floor), if they are labeled in English they will say "up" and "down". Also when you want louder music, you say "turn it up", while for quieter music you say "turn it down". "Uptown" and "downtown" are also opposites. If "up" is NOT the opposite of "down", then what is? Please Reply, as I'm genuinely curious as to what your opinion is.

@topherthe11th23

24 күн бұрын

@@kinolibby6580 Meanwhile, "we'll get that nailed down" and "we'll get that screwed up" are nowhere near synonymous. It's so inconsistent.

20:07 Meanwhile in the dictionary... Ereyesterday: **Am I a joke to you?** Overmorrow: **Am I a joke to you?** Aside from that, great content :D

@razerx100

25 күн бұрын

Those are archaic words.

@mjb7015

25 күн бұрын

@@razerx100 they're only archaic if people don't use them. I also want "fromwards" to be brought back.

@empathogen75

25 күн бұрын

They’re archaic and weren’t ever really used. They’re mostly attested in translations from German, where it’s a calque of the German equivalent.

@eboone

25 күн бұрын

Well I use them.

@aviat4ion

25 күн бұрын

@@mjb7015 Also froward (like backward, as in to and fro)

i like that we have a definite and indefinite article idk why it just has good vibes

About grandparents our family traditionally call the father’s side ‘ grandpa and grandma’ and mother’s side ‘nanna and granddad’. Saves a lot of confusion. Love you show.

@sspfn

8 күн бұрын

Does that get confusing between cross cousins? The grandchildren by your male children and the grandchildren by your female children would refer to you by different terms then

(I) Love your videos, and always find it amusing to compare with my native Danish. My (English) grandchildren call me “morfar” (mother’s father) but in English I can distinguish between granddaughters and grandsons. In Danish they are all børnebørn (childrens’ children). When I studied Bahasa Indonesia, I discovered that you can do very well without the verb “to be”. (“I Danish” in stead of “I am Danish”). My teacher explained that “to be or not to be” had to be rendered as “hidup atau tidak hidup “ (alive or not alive). Languages are such fun.

Gotta love, how as a Hungarian speaker learning English, a lot of these didn’t feel weird at all, like no genders, the clunky future tense and the definite/indefinite articles. Phrasal verbs too.

@Judith-zl9he

25 күн бұрын

Yes, phrasal verbs are a very difficult part of learning Hungarian. I have had to create flashcards to drill them in.

@peterhemmings2929

24 күн бұрын

uszername checks out

@andrewcarson5850

23 күн бұрын

Yeah, but Hungarian is even weirder, or so I've heard.

@19Szabolcs91

23 күн бұрын

@@andrewcarson5850 It sure is an outlier in many more ways, I just find it strange and funny how, the first two languages I learned have some common elements that I assumed are the norm, when in fact they are pretty rare.

@andrewcarson5850

22 күн бұрын

@@19Szabolcs91 Out of the frying pan and into the fire, one might say.

Current English communication problems: The Anglians languages as English left behind the SVO scheme of discourse by VOVS OR VSVO scheme of discourse which provides yet another reinforcement of polysemy, paradox, redundancy and even verbiage, which are the current diseases of languages and human communications. In these cases, contemporary English is also the rule of the situation described above, unfortunately given its global character and the fact that it functions as a creole romanesque that takes words that are confusing in meaning and repeats without need words with the same meaning and usefulness across all continents of the planet.

As far as I understand, jokes from other comments aside, I think English did at one point have official "refuting statements". Unless I am misunderstanding we used to use Yay or Nay for "agreeing statements", and Yes or No for refuting statements. For example "Did you not take out the garbage?" could have been answered "Yes, I didn't" or "No, I did." and in that case just answering "Yes." actually implies the former, while answering "No." implies the latter. I THINK with no evidence really that "Yea" and "Nah" might be descendants of "Yay" and "Nay". Such that "Did you take out the bins?" should be answered "Ya I did" or "Nah, I didn't." I would also hedge a guess that there are remnants of these use cases still practised by people. "Are you never on time?" "Yes" probably means you aren't ever on time but as Rob pointed out in modern English it's technically ambiguous and we rely on tone. Replying "Yes, I am." to "Are you NEVER on time?" could be short for "Yes, I am never on time." but sometimes we wonder if it instead means "Yes, actually, I am usually on time". I didn't support or explain this very well but basically as far as I understand there was a time where "Are you ever on time" would have been answered "Ya." and "Are you never on time" would have been answered "Yes." Both meaning you AGREE with the statement, the former for positively posed questions, and the latter for negatively posed question. No meaning you DISAGREED with the negative statement. Because we started using meaningless do it got weird. Some people might say "Didn't you like the movie?" and some people aren't sure the correct way to reply. Based on my conjecture and limited reading, it's appropriate to say "No, I did" or "Yes, I didn't." but we don't REALLY care either way. I think we got away from these distinctions due to fears of double negatives lol. Eventually they lost any distinction and Yes or No became de facto, even though we often still say Yea, we tend to consider Nay archaic, and none of us really care for or understand any distinction.

A fun fact: in “Star Trek: Enterprise” they don’t use the definite article about the ship (eg. “We need to get back to Enterprise.”). In other Star Trek series, they do use it (eg. “We need to get back to the Enterprise.”).

@adrianbruce2963

23 күн бұрын

I've always thought that there was a general difference between American and English on that topic - Nelson served on HMS Victory versus Kirk served on the USS Enterprise. It's not always like that - just usually.

@redmondmacdonagh7557

23 күн бұрын

In the film Titanic, they always referred to the vessel as simply Titanic. In my dialect, I say the Titanic - as I do for all large floating vessels. The Mayflower, the Golden Hind, the Flying Dutchman, the Bounty, etc, etc. Note that the 1960s British war film was "Sink the Bismark", not "Sink Bismark"

@mattyt1961

23 күн бұрын

Enterprise would be more accurate since military vessels tend to be gendered. So you would "Go to Rob" not "Got to the Rob"

@SigEpBlue

22 күн бұрын

But what if he's the only one? ;)

@chrismanuel9768

22 күн бұрын

The difference between humanizing a ship (Enterprise) versus treating it like an object (the Enterprise)

Native Chinese(Mandarin) speaker here. When we started to have English classes in 2nd grade, I noticed a whole lot of parallelism between Chinese and English, and it became ever more noticeable when I started to learn even more languages like French Japanese Hebrew and Spanish. I cannot explain the parallelism but it's fun to point out.

@kiga14

23 күн бұрын

Both have SVO word order, lack of inflections of nouns and verbs, and Mandarin is in the process of developing the indefinite article as yige (一个). Chinese can drop pronouns but in practice uses them more often than, say, Japanese. The 3rd person singular (he/she/it) is pronounced identically (tā) but in the written form are different (他，她，它). They both have a sound that is like a retroflex r, especially in the Beijing dialect (zher 这儿).

@jumpingjohnflash

22 күн бұрын

Yes, you can very often say the same sentence in English or Chinese using the exact same word order.

@jumpingjohnflash

22 күн бұрын

​@@kiga14 I found Japanese students would often miss a/the when speaking English, which since English is stressed-timed language ruins the sentence rhythm (and hurt my ears) - I got my revenge on the students by speaking Japanese and leaving out the "wa" 😊 after every subject noun.

@Hwyadylaw

20 күн бұрын

@@jumpingjohnflash Leaving out the は isn't *as* bad as leaving out the article in English though

@jumpingjohnflash

20 күн бұрын

​. True. Still made them wince though.

Brilliant video! Great content excellently presented

20:40 the word "cap" fits this actually

Hi Rob! Swedish speaker here! It should be "Tycker du om ost?" not um (um is it not word :D) Great video nonetheless!

Just yesterday I used the word “weird” and I immediately thought of this channel and wondered about the history/etymology of the word “weird” and if it has ever been covered here.

@miralupa8841

25 күн бұрын

weird..

@manueldumont3709

25 күн бұрын

WEir(ri=ra)D=WED(nesday)=SED=SETH(+RA) .

@wordytoed9887

25 күн бұрын

@@miralupa8841weird..

@amandaburnham8626

25 күн бұрын

It would have been weird if he did a quick bonus fact about the history of the word weird at the end. 😁

@btbb3726

25 күн бұрын

@@amandaburnham8626 Indeed!

Excellent video, thank you.

That's really very interesting! Thanks a lot!

The thing I think English really needs is an exclusive we/our. A simple way to indicate "[belonging to] the group of which I am a member, but you/they are not."

@rerdavies2

22 күн бұрын

Them.

@MRTOWELRACK

22 күн бұрын

Us. Ourselves. Edit: "Our group" (as stated by @gregorymorse8423) is even better. Not perfect but ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

@jumpingjohnflash

22 күн бұрын

​but we don't say "Us are going" or "Ourselves are going" - and neither distinguish between including or excluding the listener in any case.

@jumpingjohnflash

22 күн бұрын

Te reo Maori has "maua" (s/he and I) and taua (you the listener and I) and also matou (3 or more people excluding the listener) and tatau (3 or more people including the listener)

@gregorymorse8423

21 күн бұрын

"Our group"... done. You are welcome

I regularly use the word "false" to negate the negative statement in English

@eelarol

25 күн бұрын

Or "untrue" would also work

@kcgunesq

25 күн бұрын

The issue isn't that we don't have a word for this. Its just that the common ones aren't polite. But from "poppycock" to "b*llsh&t", we have lots of words that have the ability to do this function.

@Lectrikfro

25 күн бұрын

Just "No" and walk away, let them soak in the gravy of their own poorly formatted questions

@GustavLjungars

25 күн бұрын

What we need is a contradictory yes, like jo in Swedish, doch in German or si in French. Most of the time we use these words we're far from being aggressive, we're just contradicting in the affirmative.

@aoi7910

25 күн бұрын

You sound like Dwight

Again a well done video Rob, interesting and entertaining. In Australia I heard sometimes "youz" instead of "you", if more than one person is addressed.As a nativ German speaker, I found English much easier to learn than French, or Italian. In the north of Germany and the east of the Netherlands there are some Frisian speakers, which obviously share quite a bit of vocabulary with English.

“you didn’t take the bins out today!” “WRONG!”

"Do not turn off your computer" You can turn off a motorway so why isn't it - Do not turn your computer off. ? The local supermarket sign says: "Please ask if you need help" So I did. I asked an assistant: "Excuse me - Do I need help?"

@stevetournay6103

25 күн бұрын

😁 That's asking WHETHER you need help. But it's their fault for omitting a comma: "please ask, if you need help". Or if it was in certain American locales, perhaps you should have "aksed"?

@danielstreeter6738

25 күн бұрын

Since the turning in that sense is figurative and references turning a knob or switch into an "off" position, I'd say that keeping the "off" next to "turn" instead of "computer" is reasonable. You are not turning the computer anywhere, you are doing to the computer the same thing you would do to another device by turning a smaller component on it (one not literally present on your computer).

@ventonthorn3455

25 күн бұрын

Assistant: "Yes, I think you do."

@sethb124

25 күн бұрын

You can totally say "Do not turn your computer off." It actually sounds a bit more natural to me than the other way, although both sound fine

@JamesGroom

25 күн бұрын

Having a little experience with this, I'd guess the choice to use "Do not turn off your computer" was for the benefit of non-native speakers, for whom the 'shifting'[1] of the particle in "Do not turn your computer off" may be unfamiliar or less intuitive. I'd have used the more common "Don't" as well. [1]: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_phrasal_verbs#Shifting

I'm surprised you didn't talk about the English 'r' sound in the weird sounds segment. It's only present in 4 other languages.

@jlangevin65

25 күн бұрын

Which one? The American, "R," sound is different from the English, and in fact, no other language does it. We Americans do a weird thing in which we curl the edges of the tongue up against the teeth when pronouncing, "R." It confounds ESL students and I think it's a major reason Americans have so much trouble rolling, "R," sounds when speaking other languages. It's hard to roll when you can't overcome the usual habit of curling up the edges.

@Bear-ig5gu

25 күн бұрын

@jlangevin65 According to Wikipedia, the 'postalvelar' R sound is the standard one that's used in American, Australian and British English. This sound is only present in 4 other languages. However, the sound is often labialized which means that it's produced with rounded lips. This sound [ɹ̠ʷ] is only present in English dialects. So yes, you are correct that that sound is only in English if that's what you're referring to.

@britcom1

25 күн бұрын

Some English speakers don't pronounce the r at all (unless it's at the beginning) and others will roll their r's.

@Bear-ig5gu

25 күн бұрын

@britcom1 The standard English R, present in the majority of British, American and Australian dialects is rare.

@b.a.erlebacher1139

25 күн бұрын

​@@britcom1And some add an r that isn't there in the written version.

Great learning material and a lot of relatable observations.

The English language, like any other language, has its own characteristics and complexities in its abstract structure. Some examples of logical, grammatical and linguistic flaws in the English language include: 1. Ambiguities: The English language can be ambiguous in certain situations, leading to different interpretations of the same phrase or expression. 2. Irregularities: English has many irregular words and grammatical rules, which can make learning and understanding the language difficult. 3. Lack of consistency: Some English grammar and spelling rules may seem inconsistent or arbitrary, which can cause confusion for language learners. 4. Syntactic complexity: The syntactic structure of English can be complex and difficult to master, especially for speakers of languages ​​with different syntactic structures. 5. Phonology and pronunciation: English pronunciation and phonology can be challenging due to the variety of sounds and the lack of correspondence between the spelling and pronunciation of words. These are just some of the possible flaws and complexities of the English language in its abstract structure, without considering the speakers. It is important to remember that all languages ​​have their own peculiarities and challenges, and understanding these issues can help in learning and using the language effectively.

@mattipaajanen4109

18 күн бұрын

A native Finn here. I have noticed all of these, along with the obvious weirdness of articles and the whole cumbersome he/she -business (yes, Finnish has only one he/she -pronoun). Learning English is a life long journey. Some might consider Finnish difficult, and maybe it is to do with the 15 cases of inflections for nouns and verbal forms that inflect like nouns (don't remember the English name of these grammar terms)

@gmgianluigi

15 күн бұрын

Why the ChatGPT response?

10. Clusivity. I wish we had a separate system for specifying whether “we” was including speaker and listener, speaker and a group but not listener, or all three

@HalfEye79

25 күн бұрын

I would like this for German, too. When somebody says something with "we", you can ask: "Who is we?"

@Siansonea

25 күн бұрын

To my way of thinking, if context does not make it obvious, then it is the context that is the issue, not the speech. If you're using pronouns, you must first define them somehow, even if it isn't with speech. You can make gestures, etc.

@Elesario

25 күн бұрын

@@Siansonea Makes me think about the idea of unspoken language, effectively unspoken English. How universal are gestures and intonations?

@Dread_2137

25 күн бұрын

Don't you just use "they/them" if you and listener are not included?

@jacksondeane1629

25 күн бұрын

Yes! I want this all the time

English used to have a yea/nay/yes/no system, where the former two were used literally and the latter two only as a response to negative sentences (yes like French si).

@Siansonea

25 күн бұрын

We can repurpose "nay" to serve this role in modern English, I think.

@naromsky

25 күн бұрын

Aye!

@KanchidoShinokyoufu

25 күн бұрын

Aye, Yea & Nay are used in English but mainly for voting. Also in the military (mostly in the Navy) aye is used.

@moodyonroody5313

25 күн бұрын

and it's no nay neverrrr no neverrr no morrrre!

@Bjowolf2

10 күн бұрын

Danish: ja [yah], nej [nigh], jo [yoh] ( yes to a negative question a la "si" in French etc. )

We do have word/expression for disagreeing. “Lies!” and “Nuh-uh!”

I suddenly remember that if you ask me "don't you want a cup of tea/coffee (or something else)" I would reply with yes or indeed...

One of the most hilarious things I've ever seen just happened. A mid-roll ad interrupted the embedded ad. 🤣 But also and as well, great video, mightily entertaining! 12:41 my first thought was "What is similar to chocolate?"

@derekmills5394

25 күн бұрын

See how many meanings you can get by re-punctuating / capitalising this. "What is this thing called love" (For non-native speakers, remember 'Love' can be a familiar honorific for a partner or in some dialects, any female.) Reply with your version please

@YvonneWilson312

24 күн бұрын

@@derekmills5394 "What is this thing called, love?"

@aylivex

23 күн бұрын

Yep, that's what my thought too: “like chocolate” = “similar to chocolate.”

@derekmills5394

23 күн бұрын

@@YvonneWilson312 What! Is this thing called 'Love'?

10:25 I had to pause the video at the 1500's version of KZread. Very creative!

@rkneerzte

21 күн бұрын

HrodelbertWords 400k brethren 😄

I recently read Susie Dent’s “Word Perfect” and she cites “overmorrow” as a word for the day after tomorrow.

Rob: I do hope I will be seeing you over there eh? Woman in the back: Ja genau

For me it's your weird vowels and diphtongs. Your written vowels often have a different sound than other language's written vowels. For example, when you say the letter E, you make the sound that other languages typically would express with the letter I. And you pronounce other vowels as diphtongs, which other languages would use two vowels to express, if they do it at all. (In my language we don't use diphtongs, except for a few loan words and in some specific dialects.) Of course, this works well for English speakers speaking English, but it becomes a bit of a problem when native English speakers try to pronounce other languages. It isn't unusual at all for English speakers to see an A in a foreign word, for example, and automatically pronounce it as "ey" even though it makes it really weird, since it's a typical English pronunciation. Also, the vovel E at the end of a foreign word seems to create some sort of overload or something. :D I have heard three different pronunciations of it. The Japanese beverage "sake" often gets, to my ears, pronounced as "saki". And then we have the word "anime", which you pronounce as "animay". And I recently watched some reaction videos of the German show "Dark", where there's a character named "Helge". To my ears it sounded like many of the reactors pronounced this name as "Helga", which is the feminine form of "Helge". It's weird since all of these words have the same sound at the end in their original languages. I'm not sure how to transcribe it, but "eh" I guess would be the closest.

@ajs41

23 күн бұрын

Putting a short "eh" sound at the end of a word is difficult for English speakers. Not sure why, but it is.

@Morpheux1

22 күн бұрын

The short e at the end of German words do sound a lot like an "uh" sound, e.g. Porsche, meine, liebe, etc

@tovarishcheleonora8542

22 күн бұрын

To be honest, "sake" is used for any alcoholic drink in general in Japanese. So it's weird that everybody else uses it for a single specific Japanese drink.

@diarmuidkuhle8181

21 күн бұрын

​@@ajs41Because English doesn't have any words ending in that sound. While native Italian speakers have a tendency to add a final -e to their pronunciation of English words that end in a consonant, because in Italian those consonants would be followed by an -e.

Rob: Two different "th" sounds River Thames: Hold my beer

@jamesmccrea4871

25 күн бұрын

Thames uses the soft "th" in three, at least to my ear. Say them normally, back to back. Of course, your local accent might dictate otherwise, but to my ear, the Thames and Three uses the same sound, it's the "A" and "R" sounds that you have account for that make the "TH" seem different. After all, if you used a different consonant sound, you can really tell the difference is in the third letter. James/Jree or Dames/Dree.

@Demo-critus

25 күн бұрын

Thandiwe Newton: And mine!

@tbirdparis

25 күн бұрын

@@jamesmccrea4871 no it doesn't, it just uses the regular unvoiced aspirated "T" from the English phoneme inventory. It's written with a "th" at the start, but that has nothing to do with the phoneme we actually use when pronouncing the word.

@annecarter5181

25 күн бұрын

I love Rob’s presentations! Educational & entertaining!! Language is so complex.

@jamesmccrea4871

25 күн бұрын

@@Stossburg To me, the way I learned to say it, I hear the soft h of 'eth'. I am aware that some people say it without an 'h' sound at all, which is why I noted that your accent probably plays a role. I'm an American as well, and we have so many accents in this country it's weird enough without the weird English.

Thank you. I learned a lot.

Latin had more vowels. The long and short variants are different phonemes and lately we know that there also were nasal variants. Add that was a distinct rounded vowel and we're at 17 without considering diphthong.

Thank-you for this video. On the subject of articles, I think they do serve a purpose: they prepare your mind for what is coming. Yes, you can figure out what a non-native is saying, after they finish and you think about it. This preparation occurs in military marching commands also. "Left, face!", or "To the left, march!" both contain what are called a 'preparatory command' and a 'command of execution'. Since synchronized marching is not natural, the first command (the preparatory command) informs your mind of what direction (in this case) you need to be prepared to go; and the command of execution tells you when (now!) to do it. The particles synchronize the listener's brain with that of the person speaking in preparation for what will be referred to. This might not be necessary if the word order in English wasn't sometimes (but not always) backwards.

@kcgunesq

25 күн бұрын

And by insisting upon a symmetrical construction, it acts as a check-sum to show that a word wasn't omitted.

Excellent Rob, thank you. I am sorry if you have already done this but I have a weird fascination with the word "up". Why do we use it it in so many and often contradictory ways? We get up, wake up, start up, open up, close up, break up, shut up, rev up, pick up, mess up, wind up, and on and on.... Maybe a short video explaining would clear it erm up?

@Ron_Rhodes

25 күн бұрын

The kitchen got burned up but the house got burned down.

@catherinehoy5548

25 күн бұрын

@@Ron_Rhodes razed to the ground

@richarddaugherty8583

25 күн бұрын

And we park on a driveway, yet drive on a parkway! ??? I really miss George Carlin!

@nickfosterxx

25 күн бұрын

How do non native speakers put up with it all?

@moodyonroody5313

25 күн бұрын

@@Ron_Rhodes that's American English? Never heard of kitchens being burned up .....

Very good video. I like the clear and slow and colourful examples/texts. Really interesting to me as a beginning learner of Esperanto is that most if not all that you say weird here is "fixed" and first feels a bit odd (as a German native) but then so much easier in comparison. A weird thing to me is level of politeness in the language. Like: Could you / would you be so kind to / would you mind to ... That's (for a language) a bit weird I would add, not sure if there are languages without it, though. I know that Japanese is very strict and in German we basically have the same ways to express politeness as in English - but maybe there are languages that don't?

Rob, excellent as usual! Well, I always wonder how unique this is to English: the lack of a Language Bureau. Which sets the official spellings (either color or colour); creates and imposes the spelling of words like rendezvous, muscle, etc. And review its own rules, maybe every century, to account for changing habits. All of this is precisely what the National Literary Academy does here in Brazil. Along with equivalent bodies in other Portuguese speaking countries. And there's a "language-UN" that brings them together for across-countries reviews.

20:35 "We don't have a word to negate a negative statement." Well, it may be viewed as a bit rude, but some Americans just say *"wrong"* as a challenge, like Doch or Si.

@stephanzielinski7922

25 күн бұрын

Or, for that matter, "Bull!", "Bullsh*t!", or the corresponding euphemism "Baloney!"

@johnnydarling8021

25 күн бұрын

@@stephanzielinski7922 True, however those would be perceived as being even more rude. Except for "Bologna", that's probably the nicest way of directly contradicting someone.

@auldfouter8661

25 күн бұрын

In Scots you can say Aye , Naw ! for an emphatic no !

@ChristopherCurtis

25 күн бұрын

My comment to this was that I sometimes use *"not true"* as such a challenge, which is a bit less harsh than "wrong", but (as an American) I've probably said that as well. Granted, "not true" is two words but as I saw in another comment, _"untrue"_ also fits here.

@wittay

25 күн бұрын

@@johnnydarling8021 In certain parts of the States, we use "Hogwash!"

Rob - you just TOTALLY delight me. I really enjoy every one of your videos - and often refer them to folks. I've been teaching various forms of English in Germany for MANY years. In my university classes - one of my first statements to students is: "I'll be the first one to say: English sucks." or "English is stupid." HOWEVER - over the many years I've worked here, it's the pronunciations and the verb phrases and/or idioms that truly challenge non-native speakers. Once I give them tips on how to simplify and deal with such things - they are quite delighted with this "weird" language - as it can be quite quick to grasp because it DOESN'T have so many rules (I HATE der-die-das and all the tenses, for example). And my absolute favourite German word is "doch". I firmly believe it should be incorporated into English at all levels.

This vídeo is further more than interesting. I have enjoyed it very much. 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

WRT "hidden" phrasal verbs - slavic languages do that as well whilte also changing the meaning completely, Polish "robić" (to do) spawns "wrobić" (to set someone up), "zarobić" (to earn), "przerobić" (to alter), "nadrobić" (to make up for something), "wyrobić" (to have something made, like a document), "odrobić" (recoup), "podrobić" (to counterfeit), "narobić" (to make a lot of sth/to defecate), "dorobić" (to make an addition) In many instances such verbs have a direct counterpart in German (derived by translating the core verb and the prefix separately)

6:08 - Mind you, the reason why the Celtic languages do something vaguely like this is because we have question particles! "Useless do" might've entered English as a grammatical calque of this, so in a way, English does have a question particle. For those interested in how it looks, if I wanted to say "You understand", I'd say "tuigeann tú" (verb first), whereas if I were asking "do you understand?", I'd say "an dtuigeann tu?"

@sionsmedia8249

25 күн бұрын

I personally think it even comes specifically from Welsh (Old Welsh/Brythonic), because of the sound and obvious proximity, Welsh first person pronoun "I do" / "'dw i" (although it's a shortened form of "rydw i") the dw sounds exactly like the English "do".

@LeReubzRic

25 күн бұрын

Huh, the word for "you" is the same in Irish (That is irish right?), Spanish, and Hindi. I guess it's an Indo-European thing

@johnfisk811

25 күн бұрын

Whilst very few Celtic words entered English Celtic grammar and numerics have done.

@thomasrinschler6783

25 күн бұрын

@@LeReubzRic Indo-European pronouns are pretty conservative, which is one of the ways that shows it's a family (other language families are similar with their pronouns). And English does have its cognate for the "tu" in other languages - it's "thou" (which would have been pronounced more like "thu" before the Great Vowel Shift), which was our original 2nd person singular until it was dropped for the more formal "you" in the 1600s.

@markiec8914

25 күн бұрын

​@@johnfisk811 They didn't have to borrow but they certainly influenced the syntax and grammatical structure of the prestige language of the time(Old English).

We do, sorta have a word for "day after tomorrow", "overmorrow". At least, I've heard it used and I have used it. Mostly it confuses people, but it's a word for "day after tomorrow". "Eresterday" or "Ereyesterday" is one I've heard used, and have used for "day before yesterday." Again, it mostly just confuses people. Note: Another archaic word, "yestereve", rather than "last evening" Near as I can tell, they are basically obsolete words that are no longer used. But I like them.

@minuteman4199

25 күн бұрын

Where in the world have you seen these words used? Is it in an old regional dialect word?

@jamesmccrea4871

25 күн бұрын

@@minuteman4199 I'm an American, but mostly in older movies and TV shows. I remember a old fellow from my childhood, back in the 80s, lol, using ereyesterday and yestereve. Overmorrow I probably picked up years ago from reading various things. (I used to pick up dictionaries and encyclopedias, just to read them.) I'm certain I've seen them in the dictionary of archaic words that some of the "Classics" novels you can get cheap have in them.

@magnusengeseth5060

25 күн бұрын

It is also a direct translation to the word we Scandinavians use for this exact thing - övermorgon is how we write it in Swedish. It's just the words we use for "over" and "morning" combined into one word. To get to our word for two days ago you could pretty much get there by translating "ereyesterday" as well, as long as you know that "ere" means before. We say "förrgår" for this, which either combines "förra" which means last or "före" which means "before" with "igår" which is yesterday. Or it could be that we use the prefix "för-", our equivalent to English "fore-" as in forefather. I actually don't know which it is, and it doesn't really matter since either of them make sense.

@stevetournay6103

25 күн бұрын

Hey, that disaster movie from a decade or two ago could have been called "Overmorrow"...cool title...

@oliverscratch

25 күн бұрын

Thank you, @jamesmccrea4871, I came here to post the same thing. I have a taste for older literature, and these words pop up from time to time in the books I read. They are good words that deserve a return to daily usage.

As a native Spanish speaker, you don't know how glad I am that English lost its genders and that the verb conjugations are so simple. It made it so much easier to learn as opposed to French or Italian.

@Philrc

4 күн бұрын

Or Spanish

@joesterling4299

2 күн бұрын

¿Que dices? Learning French is much easier for us Spanish speakers than learning English. Italian, even more so. There are far more differences with English than with other Romance languages.