Re: There Are a Number vs. There is a Number

"Peter Moylan" <peter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:440bbbe0$0$1140$afc38c87@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Donna Richoux wrote:
Alexei A. Frounze <alexfru@xxxxxxx> wrote:

Why doesn't exist a perfect language without so many exceptions from the
rules?..

Alex, have you ever considered studying Esperanto? I hear it's very
regular.

Esperanto, like several other languages, uses exactly the same word for
"there is" and "there are". Indeed, I've just remembered that Russian
does the same. You could legislate the problem out of existence, even
in English, by inventing a new word. It doesn't seem to help much,
though. I suspect that large numbers of English speakers would vote for
Russian as one of the most difficult languages to learn.

It's been a couple of years since I've recognized that too -- I simply never
thought of that before.

Even Esperanto has its problems. My son, who knows more about the
matter than I do, tells me that Esperantists still argue over the
difference between a future auxiliary used with a past participle and a
present auxiliary used with a future participle. (Or something like
that. I don't pretend to know the details. I'm still struggling to
understand the difference between the suffixes -igxota and -igonta.)
Verb tenses are particularly regular in Esperanto, but you still have to
figure out which one to use.

Just read a few introductory articles. Looks interesting. And it's very
regular. And the H^ sound is new to me.

Alex


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Regular English
    ... English, though "the pronouns, the relatives, the demonstrative ... Esperanto at home. ... I think the suggestion is that Esperanto's regular grammar might have ... Poul Anderson's Anglic has drastically reformed spelling; ...
    (alt.usage.english)
  • Re: There Are a Number vs. There is a Number
    ... have you ever considered studying Esperanto? ... I hear it's very regular. ... difference between a future auxiliary used with a past participle and a ... Please note the changed e-mail and web addresses. ...
    (alt.usage.english)
  • Re: Question words and word order
    ... >> Esperanto is billed as regular and easy to learn and as having ... Speakers of European languages certainly ... But besides rules, Esperanto also ... Do come: Nu venu. ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: Question words and word order
    ... > Esperanto is billed as regular and easy to learn and as having ... Speakers of European languages certainly ... But besides rules, Esperanto also ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: On Topic Wednesday: Universal Synthetic Languages
    ... >> Esperanto as a universal language. ... >> variety of languages represented on Riverworld than exist in the world ... Jenerally, then, the improvement would kontinue iear bai iear ...
    (rec.arts.sf.written)
Loading