# What are the distinguishing characteristics of english? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 20, 2006, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-distinguishing-characteristics-of-english/373421 "2006-09-20T15:21:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2006, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-distinguishing-characteristics-of-english/373421/1 "2006-09-20T15:21:38Z")
I can’t speak french, but if I saw something written in that language i’d probably be able to say “Oh, that’s in french” despite not actually knowing what it says. You can recognise languages by what they look like even if you don’t speak them. I guess this is probably a question for people who didn’t speak english at one point, then; how do you identify english? What stands out about it in comparison to other languages? ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2006, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-distinguishing-characteristics-of-english/373421/2 "2006-09-20T15:25:22Z")
Back when I didn’t speak English, I wouldn’t have been able to distinguish it from Dutch or German. I would have known it was “not a romance language, European, not Scandinavian (no crossed out letters)”. If I’d learned German before learning English, I still would probably have problems distinguishing it from Dutch unless I had some sort of context information. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2006, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-distinguishing-characteristics-of-english/373421/3 "2006-09-20T15:32:04Z")
I’m a native English speaker. However, I had a weird experience one day coming home. I’d been at an Esperanto-speaking meeting. I was reading a French comic book. I got on my bus and as I was sitting down, noticed a lady reading a newspaper with headlines written in an unfamiliar language. It appeared tio be a mutant relation of Dutch, with not as many vowels and lots of consonants like Ts and Hs. Suddenly, something clicked in my brain, and I realised I was looking at English headlines in the Toronto Sun. Just for that moment though, I was looking at English from outside. It was quite an eye-opener. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2006, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-distinguishing-characteristics-of-english/373421/4 "2006-09-20T15:35:00Z")
High frequency of “the” is supposed to be one of the best tipoffs. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2006, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-distinguishing-characteristics-of-english/373421/5 "2006-09-20T15:37:33Z")
[QUOTE=Sattua] High frequency of “the” is supposed to be one of the best tipoffs. [/QUOTE] Yeah, but it requires you to have some knowledge of the language. Lots of -ing terminations too, but again it requires you to have some specific knowledge. Of course, since English is so all-pervading, everybody knows more English than they think (it’s even the theme of a current ad for a Spanish EFL school). ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2006, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-distinguishing-characteristics-of-english/373421/6 "2006-09-20T15:56:00Z")
In the late 1990s, I stumbled on a dummy text generator that, along with lorem ipsum, would generate paragraphs that looked like various European languages. The English text it generated didn’t look a thing like English, but to the eyes of a non-English speaker, it’s probably close. To my eyes, the fake French and German looked almost indistinguishable from the real thing. I know a bit of Spanish, and the fake Spanish dummy text it generated based seemed obviously fake, but still a bit Spanish-y. I think the more familiar you are with the language, the less familiar the fake versions of it will seem. Here’s another [fake English generator](http://www.adhesiontext.com/) I just found. The quality doesn’t seem that good; it just seems to lob together real words, including obscure and archaic terms, from a massive English dictionary and other source texts. > [@](#): > > Me, bum so swig homy raw, attainder, gebur forams rechanging sum, uvito alarming nematogene. Cuss rued, cop, bodword, a ha reinterfere masterlily gastrular, hots craniotympanic thatn, colonopathy, locutories. Jalur, um gedunk surface phi, chasseur bindi. Embargo, reserve a flook epee sis inhesion, rasp, clavelization ketuba mise preshared unadaptedness pal. Wry a a eupatory, ow be, senvy ner, whole, lulu lame andouille. My reclamations, taw junglegym, a figs. Us goo, ow jimper, asmoke, mist, idealogies soda a mossback, elopers cholelithotripsy yawl, fog. Pusill, transmigrationist, ax caudated, vow. Are, suade, ow hull trichogen toe at, snivey funnels thulium fulfil. Hanif, tore, reban diem brae, leg, so costume rime, my lovelorn, ilk is. Logarithms, irking, a wry ye. Bona pup, song. Set, git carrion, hairstreak am a subregent on rugby ack room we, faq. Recriminated, hafted, specif dills flightworthy remediation freestyler brag wowing fried knotless, vanda, uredia the um slab by hyaloplasma inspectingly hue, dufoil a tic snapwood sweepup, kitab flushes. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2006, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-distinguishing-characteristics-of-english/373421/7 "2006-09-20T15:56:46Z")
[snark]One distinguishing characteristic is that the names of languages are capitalized. 🙂 [/snark] ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2006, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-distinguishing-characteristics-of-english/373421/8 "2006-09-20T16:39:17Z")
> [@](#): > > Me, bum so swig homy raw, attainder, gebur forams rechanging sum, uvito alarming nematogene. Cuss rued, cop, bodword, a ha reinterfere masterlily gastrular, hots craniotympanic thatn, colonopathy, locutories. Jalur, um gedunk surface phi, chasseur bindi. Embargo, reserve a flook epee sis inhesion, rasp, clavelization ketuba mise preshared unadaptedness pal. Wry a a eupatory, ow be, senvy ner, whole, lulu lame andouille. My reclamations, taw junglegym, a figs. Us goo, ow jimper, asmoke, mist, idealogies soda a mossback, elopers cholelithotripsy yawl, fog. Pusill, transmigrationist, ax caudated, vow. Are, suade, ow hull trichogen toe at, snivey funnels thulium fulfil. Hanif, tore, reban diem brae, leg, so costume rime, my lovelorn, ilk is. Logarithms, irking, a wry ye. Bona pup, song. Set, git carrion, hairstreak am a subregent on rugby ack room we, faq. Recriminated, hafted, specif dills flightworthy remediation freestyler brag wowing fried knotless, vanda, uredia the um slab by hyaloplasma inspectingly hue, dufoil a tic snapwood sweepup, kitab flushes. I believe you have the contents of my spam folder. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2006, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-distinguishing-characteristics-of-english/373421/9 "2006-09-20T16:41:43Z")
[QUOTE=Nava] Yeah, but it requires you to have some knowledge of the language. Lots of -ing terminations too, but again it requires you to have some specific knowledge. Of course, since English is so all-pervading, everybody knows more English than they think (it’s even the theme of a current ad for a Spanish EFL school). [/QUOTE] Sorry. I assumed that, in order to know the identifying characteristics of a language, one would have to have some knowledge of the language. …? ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2006, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-distinguishing-characteristics-of-english/373421/10 "2006-09-20T16:44:21Z")
[QUOTE=Nava] Back when I didn’t speak English, I wouldn’t have been able to distinguish it from Dutch or German. I would have known it was “not a romance language, European, not Scandinavian (no crossed out letters)”. If I’d learned German before learning English, I still would probably have problems distinguishing it from Dutch unless I had some sort of context information. [/QUOTE] I don’t know about Dutch, but German capitalizes all nouns, so if you saw lots of sentences in which nothing was capitalized except the first word of each sentence, you could probably rule out German. English does not decorate any of its letters with those goofy little marks (accent marks, um lauts, etc.), except perhaps occasionally on words that were borrowed from other languages or [names of heavy metal bands](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_metal_umlaut). ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2006, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-distinguishing-characteristics-of-english/373421/11 "2006-09-20T16:49:59Z")
[QUOTE=Thudlow Boink] English does not decorate any of its letters with those goofy little marks (accent marks, um lauts, etc.), except perhaps occasionally on words that were borrowed from other languages or [names of heavy metal bands](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_metal_umlaut). [/QUOTE] That’s actually a pretty strong tip-off for English. Given enough text, it really stand out from other languages that use the Roman alphabet. Here’s a handy one for differentiating the largest three Scandinavian languages (and I’ll bet I’m blowing it, but what the heck?): Swedish has **å** but not **ø**. Norwegian has **ø** but not **å**. Danish has both ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/96bed5/32.png) [@Cat\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Jones)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2006, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-distinguishing-characteristics-of-english/373421/12 "2006-09-20T17:02:02Z")
The joke is that if you compare notices on European trains for example the French version will be twice as long as the others, the German will just be one long word, English the most concise. Doesn’t help if you have nothing to compare to though. I’d hazard a guess that English has more shorter words than other roman alphabet languages, fewer consonant clusters and a lack of words ending in vowels (except “e”). ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2006, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-distinguishing-characteristics-of-english/373421/13 "2006-09-20T17:08:14Z")
[QUOTE=bordelond] That’s actually a pretty strong tip-off for English. Given enough text, it really stand out from other languages that use the Roman alphabet. Here’s a handy one for differentiating the largest three Scandinavian languages (and I’ll bet I’m blowing it, but what the heck?): Swedish has **å** but not **ø**. Norwegian has **ø** but not **å**. Danish has both [/QUOTE] Yeah, you blew it. There’s no difference in Danish and Norwegian, alphabet wise. ---
**Author:** ![Sunrazor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sunrazor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunrazor)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2006, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-distinguishing-characteristics-of-english/373421/14 "2006-09-20T17:54:35Z")
This very question – both what it looks like in print, and what it sounds like to non-English speaking ears (there’s an oxymoronic mixed metaphor for ya’, Slappy!) has occurred to me many times, but I always thought it was an over-active thyroid that caused thoughts like that. I’ve also wondered, what does an American accent sound like in German or French? ---
**Author:** ![kellner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c2a13f/32.png) [@kellner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kellner)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2006, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-distinguishing-characteristics-of-english/373421/15 "2006-09-20T18:15:50Z")
[QUOTE=Sunrazor] I’ve also wondered, what does an American accent sound like in German or French? [/QUOTE] For obvious reasons it’s hard to verify for me, but I heard that an average American who wants to know how his accent sounds to German ears should imagine a severe case of a stereotypical old-fashioned southern accent. ---
**Author:** ![mks57](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@mks57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mks57)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2006, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-distinguishing-characteristics-of-english/373421/16 "2006-09-20T18:23:01Z")
Every language has distinct letter-use statistics. A computer can use these to guess which language a text is written in. They are also used in cryptanalysis. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2006, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-distinguishing-characteristics-of-english/373421/17 "2006-09-20T18:47:10Z")
[QUOTE=naita] Yeah, you blew it. There’s no difference in Danish and Norwegian, alphabet wise. [/QUOTE] I had second thoughts 😃 I gotta have another look at my Berlitz guides … could have sworn there was an easy visual distinction to make between written Norwegian (probably Nynorsk?) and Danish. The alphabets are the same, but perhaps there are some conventions that are different? ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2006, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-distinguishing-characteristics-of-english/373421/18 "2006-09-20T19:30:02Z")
[QUOTE=Revenant Threshold] I guess this is probably a question for people who didn’t speak english at one point, then; how do you identify english? What stands out about it in comparison to other languages? [/QUOTE] For comparison’s sake … let’s consider how some other Roman-alphabet languages stand out visually: **French** – common use of _é_ and _è_, word endings like _-é, -it, -ie, -ière, -ien (-ienne)_. Frequent use of digraphs _ou_ and _ai_. Common short words include _de, du, au, la, le, pas, ou, avec_. **Spanish** – common use of final _-o_ and _-e_. Suffixes such as _-ia_, _-ción_, _-idad_. Use of the letter _ñ_ and of _-rr-_. Initial _ll-_. Common short words include _el, la, de, del, hay, no, con_. **Italian** – A strong majority of words end in vowels. Frequent use of double consonants, especially _-cc-, -gg-, -tt-_. Use of _-gl-_ and _-gn-_ internally within a word. Use of initial _sg-_, _sb-_. **Portuguese** – the ubiquitous ending _-ão_ is the usual tip-off. Also, use of internal _-nh-_ and _-lh-_. **Finnish** – Greater frequency of _y_ and _h_ than in English. Use of _ä_ and _ö_. High frequency of double letters. Absence of _b_. **Hungarian** – Frequency of the digraphs _-ty-, -gy-, -ny-, cz-, sz-, zs-_. Use of double-accented _ő_ and _ű_, as well the five basic vowel symbols with single accent (_á,é,í,ó,ú_). **Polish** – Use of the letters _ł, ę, ą, ć, ś, ź_. Frequent use of _rz, cz_ and final _-ch, -ego_. _J_ and _w_ occur more than in English. **Dutch** – Frequent use of _-ij-, -oe-, -aa-_. Double _o_ and the lone letters _v_ and _k_ will appear more often than in English. … English surely has similar markers – _th_ has got to be a major one. ---
**Author:** ![yBeayf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e274bd/32.png) [@yBeayf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yBeayf)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2006, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-distinguishing-characteristics-of-english/373421/19 "2006-09-20T20:42:27Z")
> [@](#): > > Me, bum so swig homy raw, attainder, gebur forams rechanging sum, uvito alarming nematogene. Cuss rued, cop, bodword, a ha reinterfere masterlily gastrular, hots craniotympanic thatn, colonopathy, locutories. Jalur, um gedunk surface phi, chasseur bindi… Joyce could have saved himself a lot of time if he’d had access to this program. ---
**Author:** ![ChicanoRojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@ChicanoRojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChicanoRojo)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2006, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-distinguishing-characteristics-of-english/373421/20 "2006-09-20T21:17:20Z")
[QUOTE=Revenant Threshold] I guess this is probably a question for people who didn’t speak english at one point, then; how do you identify english? What stands out about it in comparison to other languages? [/QUOTE] As a Spanish native speaker and raised in the Texas-Mexico border, what stands out fast while reading it is “The” as in “The car is parked in the garage.” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-distinguishing-characteristics-of-english/373421.md?page=2)