this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2023
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28
What are the most annoying things about English? (lemmy.xylight.dev)
submitted 1 year ago by Xylight@lemmy.xylight.dev to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world
52 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

here's some I've noticed:

  1. Why do we have articles? They're mostly useless.
  2. Why do capital letters exist? (this is mainly an issue with the Greek and Latin alphabet though)
  3. Why is "I" used plural for verbs?
  4. Why are there so many inconsistent prefixes for tenses?
  5. 's is used for possessives. However, "its" is the possessive and "it's" is not.
  6. Why do we have another set of pronouns for possessive pronouns?
  7. Why do adjectives go before the noun compared to basically every other language?
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[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 8 points 1 year ago (4 children)

The word "colonel."

Where is the god damn R sound coming from?!

[–] WadeTheWizard@kbin.social 8 points 1 year ago

The pronunciation came from French and the spelling came from Italian.

[–] ji88aja88a@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

..same as lieutenant, pronounced leftenant.. and then there's Cholmondeley , pronounced "chumley"

[–] ScOULaris@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

It's only pronounced that way in the UK, if I'm not mistaken. I went most of my life thinking that lieutenant and leftenant were seperate terms before learning that it's simply how the word is pronounced in Britain. Pretty bizarre, IMO, but that's English for you.

Personally, I kind of enjoy the chaotic nature of English compared to other more consistently structured Latin languages. I feel like there is a wider variety of ways to phrase things in English than there are in many other popular languages around the world, which is a nice perk.

[–] XTL@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 year ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonel

By the end of the late medieval period, a group of "companies" was referred to as a "column" of an army. According to Raymond Oliver, around 1500, the Spanish began explicitly reorganizing part of their army into 20 colunelas or columns of approximately 1000-1250 soldiers. Each colunela was commanded by a cabo de colunela or column head. Because they were crown units, the units were also confusingly called coronelas, and their commanders coronels. Evidence of this can be seen when Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, nicknamed "the Great Captain", divided his armies in coronelías, each led by a coronel (colonel), in 1508.

It's a mess.

[–] Silviecat44@vlemmy.net 3 points 1 year ago

Or lieutennant in British and Australian english (Left-tenannt)