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 Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 3:17 pm
So, my cousin's homework was sitting on my kitchen table yesterday, and he had just finished doing his English assignment. He had this one sheet that stated the fundamentals of the English language, and one of the rules stated was "I before E except after C." I know this is not true. Although I can't come up with many examples due to the fact that my brain is currently frizzled from a long day, the only example I can think of is the word 'weird'. Anyone else have any examples or "fundamental" rules that simply aren't true?
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Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 3:26 pm
a before a consonant, an before a vowel. [works, but only if you tack on a "sound" to each condition. ie. vowel sound]
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Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 6:53 pm
Most of them are "invented" rules that people have made up to try and make English logical. (Never end a sentence with a preposition, never split infinitives, and so on, ad nauseum)
Oh, and the I before E rule works if you modify it a bit...
I before E, except after C, or when sounding as A as in neighbor and weigh, or in weird words like weird.
Alas, that last clause pretty much sums up the way English works....
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Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 6:56 pm
And, you know, then there are the freak words, like 'their'.
That is a common rule, but like all English, there are exceptions to that rule.
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Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 8:51 pm
I regret to inform you that the English language... sucks.
I also regret that it happens to be my native language.
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Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 9:27 pm
Amphion Most of them are "invented" rules that people have made up to try and make English logical. (Never end a sentence with a preposition, never split infinitives, and so on, ad nauseum) Oh, and the I before E rule works if you modify it a bit... I before E, except after C, or when sounding as A as in neighbor and weigh, or in weird words like weird. Alas, that last clause pretty much sums up the way English works.... The preposition thing isn't really invented. Preposition = prae positum = placed before. If it's not placed before another word, it can't be a preposition. :/
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Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 2:24 am
The only rule you can count on in the English language is...
There are exceptions to all other rules.
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Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 5:08 pm
My boyfriend put it very astutely,
In French, you have unnecessicary letters and accents
In German, you have too many compound words
In Italian, you have too many vowel ending words
In Spanish, you have logical phonetics and accents with a couple exceptions
In English, everything is screwed up so just go with it.
In case you can't tell, his native is Spanish. I am finding it difficult to learn, but hey, if he can speak fluent English, French, and Hebrew along with Spanish, I can learn German and Spanish.
Basically English is a big mess of all the nonsense from too many languages. That's what we get for being a "melting-pot"
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Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 12:38 am
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Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 1:59 pm
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Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 2:03 pm
I before E, except after C, and when it says 'ey' as in neighbor and weigh, and on weekends and holidays and all throughout May, and you'll always be wrong no matter what you say. whee
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Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 3:07 pm
Intuicide I regret to inform you that the English language... sucks. I also regret that it happens to be my native language. Alas it does suck....However, in order to sustain your sanity, you can speak excessivly intelligently with nice long words (preferably those that you know the meaning of), and maybe even add in a slight British accent and British terminology.
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Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 4:23 pm
Be thankful its your native tounge... Cuz learning it would totally suck crying
With all its lying rules and outlaw words, you'd probably never be able to truly learn it...
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Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 6:47 pm
Ezra Pound The preposition thing isn't really invented. Preposition = prae positum = placed before. If it's not placed before another word, it can't be a preposition. :/ Yes, actually, it is. It was invented to make English more like Latin. Unless you think that this: Overzealous grammarians are people up with whom I will not putis more natural than: Overzealous grammarians are people whom I will not put up with. It's like the infinitives thing. In Latin, infinitives are impossible to split, hence, they decided, English infinitives shall not be split. Which is utter garbage. ----------- It has often been said that English has no rules, only lists of exceptions.
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Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 11:24 pm
LiefBlade Be thankful its your native tounge... Cuz learning it would totally suck crying With all its lying rules and outlaw words, you'd probably never be able to truly learn it... Oh trust me.. it is the weirdest language I've learnt.
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