# Why Is English So Simple (Comparatively)? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 26, 2020, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-english-so-simple-comparatively/846985 "2020-01-26T06:44:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2020, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-english-so-simple-comparatively/846985/141 "2020-02-02T17:33:52Z")
I’m always impressed with **Johanna** ’s knowledge of these topics. I heard that Russian is relatively easy to spell from a teacher, and took this at face value. I don’t really know. If it is not true, I would not be shocked. Russian inflects verbs (unlike Mandarin), but like Chinese seems to have a more straightforward approach to time and tense. Compared to say, French, where you memorize matched verb patterns for sentences like “I would have come to the game, but I had to study for an exam”. Hindi and Urdu obviously have words borrowed from Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic and English (and many more). But in learning basic Hindi expressions like “Swiss chocolate” were taken wholesale. The frequent nasalization is rarely used in English, and gender and degree of familiarity are highly prominent. Interesting to read how many non-English sounds exist in different languages. I was surprised the first time I heard a clicking tongue (possibly in The Gods Must Be Crazy). This, of course, is just one of many factors that can make language challenging. Hungarian has pitch accents. I assume that is like tone, but could be wrong. My interest in language is amateur. I forget what I-E morphology is and will have to refresh my memory (if indeed I previously knew it). ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2020, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-english-so-simple-comparatively/846985/142 "2020-02-02T17:41:12Z")
I guess I knew some basics, but googling recent research shows a degree of complexity that surprised me. Personally, I like learning a language much more than studying the finest points of grammar. But of course this nitty-gritty is why some languages are more straightforward. ---
**Author:** ![lynne-42](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lynne-42/32/3138_2.png) [@lynne-42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lynne-42)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2020, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-english-so-simple-comparatively/846985/143 "2020-02-02T22:44:33Z")
In learning French, I am in total agreement with comments about vocabulary not being the main issue. I am finding all the little in-between words and the verbs (irregularities and tenses) much harder than new nouns. Given that I can’t travel to France, I am trying to get more immersion through songs and films and videos. It is that instinctive use of common expressions which is critical and very hard to learn without hearing native speakers a lot. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2020, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-english-so-simple-comparatively/846985/144 "2020-02-02T23:54:12Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > Finnish and Hungarian are good examples of language with a one-to-one mapping between sound and symbol; you hear it, you know how to write it; you read it, you know how to say it. Every time I’m not sure I would say “every time.” For example, in Hungarian, there are some phonemes that can be represented multiple ways. For example, the “ly” in my screen name vs. “j”. Or when consonants experience voicing or devoicing when appearing in clusters. Or a word like “éljen”, pronounced as _éjjen_? It’s _él_ + _jen_, but how would you know to drop that /l/ and just lengthen that /j/? Granted, it doesn’t happen often, but it does happen. There’s not always a one-to-one correspondence between a sound and the letters used to represent it. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2020, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-english-so-simple-comparatively/846985/145 "2020-02-04T10:53:34Z")
Let me say some more about what I talked about in post #135. One of the reasons that English has so many more technical terms in its dictionaries is that in many fields when you talk about technical matters in the field, you speak or write English. English is now the language that most papers are written in for most academic fields. Up until about 1650 the language used was Latin. Then it became French and then German. By about 1950 academic papers were mostly written in English. It’s now hard to learn about any academic field beyond what’s in college freshman textbooks unless you know English. If you have to say something in any other language using fairly technical terms, you use the English word: > **[Why Science's Universal Language Is a Problem for Research](https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2015/08/english-universal-language-science-research/400919/)** > > The vast majority of scientific papers today are published in English. What gets lost when other languages get left out? > **[Nobel Prize: How English beat German as language of science](https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29543708)** > > A world war, xenophobia and the rise of American research made English the universal language of science. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2020, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-english-so-simple-comparatively/846985/146 "2020-02-04T14:25:17Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Let me say some more about what I talked about in post #135. One of the reasons that English has so many more technical terms in its dictionaries is that in many fields when you talk about technical matters in the field, you speak or write English. English is now the language that most papers are written in for most academic fields. Up until about 1650 the language used was Latin. Then it became French and then German. By about 1950 academic papers were mostly written in English. It’s now hard to learn about any academic field beyond what’s in college freshman textbooks unless you know English. If you have to say something in any other language using fairly technical terms, you use the English word True, but when we’re talking about vocabulary, it’s somewhat debatable the extent to which it “belongs” to English. What I mean by that is, scientists and technologists tend to create new words using Greek or Latin roots, name things after people, or just make up words out of whole cloth. The average native English speaker with no experience in that field may have no way to even guess what these technical terms mean. Meanwhile a, say, Spanish person, working in that field, would be quite comfortable throwing that word in while discussing a model in Spanish. Heck, it might have been a Spanish speaker that coined the term in the first place (in an English-language paper). ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2020, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-english-so-simple-comparatively/846985/147 "2020-02-04T15:20:11Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I’m not sure I would say “every time.” For example, in Hungarian, there are some phonemes that can be represented multiple ways. For example, the “ly” in my screen name vs. “j”. Or when consonants experience voicing or devoicing when appearing in clusters. Or a word like “éljen”, pronounced as _éjjen_? It’s _él_ + _jen_, but how would you know to drop that /l/ and just lengthen that /j/? Granted, it doesn’t happen often, but it does happen. There’s not always a one-to-one correspondence between a sound and the letters used to represent it. Spanish is pretty much perfect in the direction of spelling to pronouncing. If you know how a word is spelled, you know how to pronounce it. In the other direction, the silent letter “h” and the fact that a few sounds have alternate spellings produces a few ambiguities. For example, in most dialects _hoya_ (pit or hole) and _olla_ (cooking pot) are homophones. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2020, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-english-so-simple-comparatively/846985/148 "2020-02-04T20:28:54Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > It’s now hard to learn about any academic field beyond what’s in college freshman textbooks unless you know English. If you have to say something in any other language using fairly technical terms, you use the English word: No. This is not correct at all. I was involved in the translation industry back in the 90s and this is completely wrong. My wife worked in a post doc research position for a couple of think tanks in Tokyo, on of which was associated with the University of Tokyo (for those who know that name) and you are completely wrong. There is research being done in Japanese and Chinese, all the way up to cutting level technology. Your statements simply do not reflect the fields I’m familiar with in East Asia. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2020, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-english-so-simple-comparatively/846985/149 "2020-02-04T22:11:52Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Spanish is pretty much perfect in the direction of spelling to pronouncing. If you know how a word is spelled, you know how to pronounce it. In the other direction, the silent letter “h” and the fact that a few sounds have alternate spellings produces a few ambiguities. For example, in most dialects _hoya_ (pit or hole) and _olla_ (cooking pot) are homophones. Sure. Those are similar sorts of things you get with Hungarian, too. I’m perhaps picking a bit too fine of a point. In Spanish, the “b” vs “v” is what I see most commonly as being ambiguous in the direction of oral \> written, judging by handwritten signs I’ve seen (as they are allophonic.) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2020, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-english-so-simple-comparatively/846985/150 "2020-02-04T22:21:09Z")
And, actually, to add to the above, my 5-year-old daughter went to a Spanish-speaking preschool in 3rd and 4th grade and she learned her letters and sounds that way. This year she’s in an English kindergarten, and, while she transitioned fine, it was interesting for me as an adult to see just how much more a pain in the ass it is to teach spelling and reading in English vs Spanish. I mean, I knew it was, but it seems like every word she wants to spell I have to say, well, “it’s kind of funny and tricky in English…” Especially when starting with something as simple as “how do you spell ‘two’?” "Well, it depends on which /tu/ you mean … " It’s a miracle any of us learned how to spell. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2020, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-english-so-simple-comparatively/846985/151 "2020-02-04T22:28:05Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > And, actually, to add to the above, my 5-year-old daughter went to a Spanish-speaking preschool in 3rd and 4th grade :smack: That was supposed to come out as “pre-K3 and pre-K4,” not “3rd and 4th grade.” ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2020, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-english-so-simple-comparatively/846985/152 "2020-02-04T22:43:48Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > And, actually, to add to the above, my 5-year-old daughter went to a Spanish-speaking preschool in 3rd and 4th grade and she learned her letters and sounds that way. This year she’s in an English kindergarten, and, while she transitioned fine, it was interesting for me as an adult to see just how much more a pain in the ass it is to teach spelling and reading in English vs Spanish. I mean, I knew it was, but it seems like every word she wants to spell I have to say, well, “it’s kind of funny and tricky in English…” Especially when starting with something as simple as “how do you spell ‘two’?” "Well, it depends on which /tu/ you mean … " It’s a miracle any of us learned how to spell. I once had a supervisor who was a Mexican woman. She never really learned to spell English but usually spelled English words as if they were Spanish. One of my tasks was to go to the bank for a change order. That is, get rolls of coins and small bills for the store. She would write out how many of each kind of coin to get. So for quarters, she would write cuarters or something like that (can’t remember her exact spelling, but it started with C). And for pennies – well, no doubled letters and dropping silent letters (the second E is silent as far as Spanish speakers are concerned). I never had the heart to tell her what she was actually spelling. I did have to explain to the bank tellers at times. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2020, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-english-so-simple-comparatively/846985/153 "2020-02-05T03:49:14Z")
TokyoBayer, if you’re right, the problem isn’t just that I’m wrong but that the two articles I linked to are wrong. Did you read those two articles? Why do they disagree so greatly with what you just wrote? ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2020, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-english-so-simple-comparatively/846985/154 "2020-02-05T04:11:53Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > TokyoBayer, if you’re right, the problem isn’t just that I’m wrong but that the two articles I linked to are wrong. Did you read those two articles? Why do they disagree so greatly with what you just wrote? You’re both right. WW, your articles don’t talk about east asia (one mentions Korean scientists living in the U.K. but that’s it). Japan exists in a cone of silence apart from the rest of the world. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2020, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-english-so-simple-comparatively/846985/155 "2020-02-05T04:41:25Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > TokyoBayer, if you’re right, the problem isn’t just that I’m wrong but that the two articles I linked to are wrong. Did you read those two articles? Why do they disagree so greatly with what you just wrote? Of course I read the articles. More importantly, did you? You made some specific claims which I say are bullshit. Can you please quote the lines in articles which support the following specific claims you are making. > [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > It’s now hard to learn about any academic field **beyond what’s in college freshman textbooks** unless you know English. My bolding. That is a very specific claim so it should be very easy to cut and paste the supporting sentence from the article. > [@](#): > > If you have to say something **in any other language** using fairly technical terms, you use the English word: My bolding. That is a very specific claim so it should be very easy to cut and paste the supporting sentence from the article. Here is a random example of a technical term: thermodynamics And the term in Japanese: 熱力學 The articles aren’t stating what you claim they are. Here is a random paper published in Japan > [@](#): > > 核燃料サイクル開発機構（現日本原子力研究開発機構）は，原子力委員会バックエンド対策専 > 門部会の方針 1)に基づき，1999 年にわが国における高レベル放射性廃棄物の地層処分の信頼性を > 示すため，その安全評価について取りまとめを行った 2)。この安全評価では，ガラス固化体を封 > 入した金属製の容器が破損した後，固化体から地下水に溶出した放射性核種が処分施設内に沈殿， > 緩衝材中を収着・拡散，地層中を移流・分散（収着を考慮）により移動し，生物圏に達するとい > ったシナリオ（地下水シナリオ）を想定し，線量評価が実施されている。評価では，ガラス固化 > 体から溶出した放射性核種の地下水に対する溶解限度の設定が重要となる。この溶解限度につい > ては，様々な地下水条件において評価が行える化学平衡モデルに基づき得られた溶解度が設定さ > れている。化学平衡モデルには，地層処分施設の化学的条件（たとえば，中性領域からアルカリ > 性領域）および温度条件（地表温度～100℃以下）に対応した放射性核種（元素）などの熱力学デ > ータが必要となる。Yui et al.3)は，上述した高レベル放射性廃棄物の地層処分の安全評価に用 > いるために，熱力学データベース（Japan Nuclear Cycle development institute’s Thermodynamic > Data Base; JNC-TDB\*)を整備・開発し，PHREEQC4)などの化学平衡計算コードで使用できるフォー > マットで，誰もが自由に使用できるようにウェブ公開している（ website: > [http://migrationdb.jaea.go.jp/](http://migrationdb.jaea.go.jp/))。 I can read this since I read Japanese. Since you read English and your claim is that anything above a freshman level is in English, can you read this? As I said, I was involved in the translation industry and we translated articles such as this. My wife wrote research papers in Japanese (in another field) and she doesn’t read English well, let alone write it. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2020, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-english-so-simple-comparatively/846985/156 "2020-02-05T09:10:30Z")
I question the claim that English has so many more “technical” terms than many other languages. As noted earlier, tech terms are often coined from Latin or Greek roots, and are commonly adopted in the same or nearly the same form into many languages. “Telephone” is an example, existing in other languages too. (French: Téléphone. German: Telefon. Hebrew: טלפון) Some may argue that it is then a “loan word” borrowed from English into the other language – but why argue that? It can just as well be an “original” word in all those languages! Sure, a word that exists in other languages may be spelled differently, or even look different when written in non-Latin-or-Greek alphabets. I give you: Russian: колибри Hebrew: קוליברי Trouble pronouncing those? Perhaps the German spelling will help: (Try to guess before you look!) Kolibri Still can’t make it out? Why, it’s: **Colibri**! So a lot of all those “technical” terms in English may exist in other languages too! ---
**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:** [February 7, 2020, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-english-so-simple-comparatively/846985/157 "2020-02-07T00:53:48Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Sure. Those are similar sorts of things you get with Hungarian, too. I’m perhaps picking a bit too fine of a point. No, you were right to remind me of the homophony of \ and \. I was mainly thinking of Finnish (which truly is one-to-one symbol to sound), but threw in Hungarian for good measure because of my habit of thinking of the Uralic family all together. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2020, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-english-so-simple-comparatively/846985/158 "2020-02-07T09:47:38Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > I don’t know how many words are enough to get by. That would depend on whether you are studying in university, or conducting business (maybe in a specific field with related jargon), or just trying to get basic ideas across, say hello and order coffee. It can be the other way 'round, my French vocabulary is a lot better when it comes to complex business ideas than to trying to get a meal. Grammar too, I use frequently stuff which would normally be taught at [C1 levels](https://www.coe.int/en/web/common-european-framework-reference-languages/table-2-cefr-3.3-common-reference-levels-self-assessment-grid) but have never learned things that are considered A2. But I only went to school for A1: everything I’ve learned after that has been through inmersion in business settings, going out to eat with coworkers, or salf-taught. Quote function no likey TB’s post. > [@TokyoBayer](#): > > My former company choose to have it’s European head office in the Netherlands because of its high English proficiency. It’s my understanding that many schools did teach various subjects in English Most, to the point that they’re seeing the beginning of a backlash. They were getting to the point where younger Dutch had a better vocabulary in English than in Dutch; the vocabulary they acquired in HS or Uni was almost-exclusively in English. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2020, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-english-so-simple-comparatively/846985/159 "2020-02-07T10:01:54Z")
Re. borrowing words from English. How do you say Florida? Toledo? Those two are borrowed from Spanish, but if you’re speaking English you do not say them the same way as if you’re using the Spanish word meaning “full of flowers” or the name of the Imperial Capital. The same thing happens when other languages borrow terms from English. The Spanish pronunciations of _delete_, _RAM_ or _USB_ are not the same as in English. They’re not English words any more than Toledo Ohio is a Spanish town. > [@DPRK](#): > > It is true that many technical books and articles for international consumption are published in English, but, once again, it has nothing to do with English being simpler or more complicated than Japanese or Chinese. It is merely serving as a lingua franca. Over decades that might change to another language-- who knows? +1 ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2020, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-english-so-simple-comparatively/846985/160 "2020-02-10T18:43:07Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > … > One of the most basic verbs in any language, “to be”, is one of the most irregular of all in English… As others have noted, “to be” is pretty damn irregular in pretty much every language. I’ve studied French, Italian, and Ancient Greek (seriously) and it’s a mess in all of them. Greek was the worst but the others were no treat. “to have” is easier in English than others: I have, you have, he/she/it has, we have/you have/they have, versus j’ai, tu as, il a, nous avons, vous avez, ils ont. I had to look up the Italian: io ho, tu hai, lei/lui ha, noi abbiamo, voi avete, loro hanno. I am not going to look up the Ancient Greek. And there are lots of variants on the tenses, e.g. passe compose vs passe simple in French, those are a treat to try to remember. Tenses make things even funner\* - “j’irai” and “je vais aller” are both, essentially “I wlll go” with slightly different connotations (“I will go” vs “I am going to go”). When speaking, I typically just go with the “je vais” version because I can’t remember the other variant! My personal theory: these are pretty much THE most commonly used verbs and as such, old variants have become very entrenched and unchanging. English is (IMO) relatively simple grammatically (except when it isn’t) - simpler than my experience in either French or Italian, but the spelling would give any sane person nightmares. THAT is surely at least partially a result of how many languages it’s ingested. Italian is by far the simplest (of the ones I’ve studied) from a spelling and pronunciation standpoint; I’d lay odds that I could pick up any unfamiliar Italian text and read it aloud in such a way that an Italian could understand me. French… I might be understood (I managed in Quebec last summer) but would rightfully be laughed at, at least after I left the room. - which is a dandy example of how English violates its own rules; usually when doing the superlative, 1 and most 2-syllable words just add ‘er’ and ‘est’ but “fun” is typically “more fun” and “most fun”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-english-so-simple-comparatively/846985.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-english-so-simple-comparatively/846985.md?page=9)