# Stuff missing from English **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 24, 2003, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-missing-from-english/184028 "2003-06-24T14:38:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2003, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-missing-from-english/184028/81 "2003-06-29T03:30:00Z")
_Ní fadhb, a deartháir._ 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-missing-from-english/184028/82 "2003-06-30T15:14:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by aaronrp \* > \*\*My sister-in-law (from Guanajuato, Mexico) doesn’t think it’s funny though. Oh well. \*\* What city is she from? Asking because my wife is from GTO state, too. ---
**Author:** ![NoCoolUserName](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5fc32e/32.png) [@NoCoolUserName](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NoCoolUserName)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-missing-from-english/184028/83 "2003-06-30T16:48:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by OxyMoron \* > **Another huge difference is counting. In Japanese, the word for a number changes depending on what it is you’re counting.** This happens in Chinese except the number doesn’t change, the measure word does. We have measure words in English (you never say “a water,” you say “a cup of water”) but in Chinese they are always used. You can’t say “one cat” you have to say “one zhe cat” since zhe is the measure word for cats (and most animals). There’s a whole field of humor we miss in English because using the wrong measure word is sometimes very funny–or so I’m told. Flip side: Chinese does not have articles or (except in certain circumstances) plurals. Disclaimer: I’m just a 2nd year student of Chinese, and not a particularly talented one at that. ---
**Author:** ![ravenous\_pigeon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f07891/32.png) [@ravenous\_pigeon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ravenous_pigeon)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-missing-from-english/184028/84 "2003-06-30T17:56:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jomo Mojo \* > \*\ ***hibernicus** , _tá dall_, you must have missed my post above on exactly that topic. \*\* This is why this site is so cool. I was just talking about this the other day to someone, then I go to this site and theres a thread that mentions the same thing. I had no idea that the distinction existed in Irish either; goes to show how much I paid attention in class. ---
**Author:** ![Dreaming\_of\_Maria\_Callas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f14d63/32.png) [@Dreaming\_of\_Maria\_Callas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dreaming_of_Maria_Callas)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-missing-from-english/184028/85 "2003-06-30T18:22:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jomo Mojo \* > **Arabic and Hebrew not only have gendered 3rd-person pronouns, they also have gendered 2nd-person pronouns. You say “you” differently depending on whether you’re talking to a man or woman.** Sanskrit has this too, _bhavatah._ for a male person and _bhavatya-h._ a female person. Hmm, could I type in Devanagari on the SDMB? > [@](#): > > \*\*Other languages that use the dual: > > Ancient Greek\*\* Homeric Greek used the dual often enough, but in Attic Greek it is very very rare. > [@](#): > > **English lack of gender, as pointed out by Mario Pei, makes it easier for cheating spouses. The husband can tell his wife he’s just going out to see “a friend.” But in Italian, for example, he has to specify a male friend, _un amico_, or a female friend, _un’amica_.** Ugh, why did you have to ruin a perfectly good post by quoting that charlatan? UnuMondo ---
**Author:** ![Avumede](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/avumede/32/7235_2.png) [@Avumede](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avumede)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-missing-from-english/184028/86 "2003-06-30T18:24:23Z")
> [@](#): > > Another Hebrew word that doesn’t seem to have a real equivalent is balegan. I don’t know if “fucked up chaotic mess” really carries the same meaning, and it certainly takes longer to say. Well, Trinidadian English has an equivalent word (I’m guessing, I don’t know Hebrew): Bacchanal. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-missing-from-english/184028/87 "2003-06-30T18:37:00Z")
English doesn’t distinguish between two different senses of “there”: there where you are (Spanish _allí_; Tagalog _diyan_) vs. over there where neither of us are (Spanish _ahí_; Tagalog _doon_). ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-missing-from-english/184028/88 "2003-06-30T20:45:24Z")
**UnuMondo** : What makes Mario Pei a `charlatan’? (I don’t know the guy from Adam, I’m not attacking your assessment, I’m just curious (and eager to hear one geek ragging on the work of another :D).) **Avumede** : A bacchanal is a loud party, preferably one with plenty of alcohol. Bacchus was the Greek god of wine and partying and the wilder side of nature, equivalent to the Roman Dionysus, hence Nietzsche’s seperation of cultures into Apollonian and Dionysian categories. I don’t know of any Hebrew connection. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-missing-from-english/184028/89 "2003-06-30T20:58:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dwc1970 \* > \*\*English does not assign genders to its nouns like many other languages do. \*\* I would consider that an advantage over other languages. Why do tables chairs, slat shakers and lamps have to have genders? It seems to me that you’re sexualizing a lot of things that really don’t have any sexuality. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-missing-from-english/184028/90 "2003-06-30T21:59:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Evil Captor \* > \*\*I would consider that an advantage over other languages. Why do tables chairs, slat shakers and lamps have to have genders? It seems to me that you’re sexualizing a lot of things that really don’t have any sexuality. \*\* First off, `slat shaker’? Do you really need to shake thin strips of wood that often? 😃 Secondly, `gender' and `sex’ have nothing in common, especially in grammar. Just because shoes, for example, are feminine doesn’t mean that they’re _feminine_: They could be owned and worn by a man. The grammatical construction is divorced from any possible sexuality. Thirdly, languages do odd things. Gender happens to be one of the more common oddities, at least in Europe. I have no idea why a language would burden itself with it, myself, but I suppose grammar nitpickers have to have _something_ to do. (“Egads, you’ve given my footware a sex-change operation! Say `the shoes,' not `tha shoes.’”) (Sorry.) 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-missing-from-english/184028.md?page=4)