# Why Is English So Simple (Comparatively)?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-english-so-simple-comparatively/846985>\
**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:** 3\
**Page:** 9

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**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\
**Post date:** [February 10, 2020, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-english-so-simple-comparatively/846985/161 "2020-02-10T18:57:49Z")

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There are languages without “to be” or “to have” in common speech

For example, in Bengali you would say “He is a Doctor” as “He Doctor”

Or “I have a book” as “By me there exists a book”

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**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 11, 2020, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-english-so-simple-comparatively/846985/162 "2020-02-11T07:23:57Z")

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> [@Acsenray](#):
>
> There are languages without “to be” or “to have” in common speech
> 
> For example, in Bengali you would say “He is a Doctor” as “He Doctor”
> 
> Or “I have a book” as “By me there exists a book”

Sounds like Bengali must be a derived form of Hebrew 🙂

Hebrew has no verb for “to be” in the present tense, but in other tenses the verb exists and is quite regular. Note, Hebrew tenses and verb structures are very different from English and other languages, so direct comparisons are difficult.

“He is a Doctor” is simply “He Doctor” (note also, no indefinite article).

“I have a book” is “There [is] to me book”, where [is] isn’t spoken in the present tense, but would be spoken in other tenses; again, no indefinite article.

This, by the way, is why you see a lot of words italicized in some versions of the English Bible. Those are words that aren’t present in the original Hebrew, but are added by the translators to make intelligible English.

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**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 11, 2020, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-english-so-simple-comparatively/846985/163 "2020-02-11T09:04:13Z")

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> [@Mama\_Zappa](#):
>
> As others have noted, “to be” is pretty damn irregular in pretty much every language.  
> […]  
> “to have” is easier in English than others
> 
> […]
> 
> English is (IMO) relatively simple grammatically (except when it isn’t)

I know you said “pretty much every” but Mandarin Chinese (in fact, AFAIK, _all_ Chinese languages), are a pretty significant exception.

There’s no verb conjugation in Mandarin at all, and there is nothing special about the verb “to be” nor “to have”.

Although in the interest of completeness, both are also used in additional grammatical structures:

E.g. (action in the past)  
Have you been to Belgium? I **have not**.

E.g. (describing the method / modifiers by which a verb was performed) Who did you travel with? I **is** with my girlfriend travel.

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