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submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by Lt_Worf@lemmy.ca to c/memes@lemmy.ml

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[-] yata@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

For instance, you can chop a tree down. Once you’re done, you can chop a tree up.

Imagine the confusion this causes lol.

This is an absolutely minor thing, and it is also a phenomenon which occurs in basically all other languages.

[+] Gork@lemm.ee -8 points 1 year ago

Minor, yes, but there are quite a few of them.

Break a leg
It's raining cats and dogs
Bite the bullet
Piece of cake
Hold your horses
Spill the beans
Hit the nail on the head
Let the cat out of the bag
It costs an arm and a leg
Can't have your cake and eat it too

[-] ByteJunk@lemmy.pt 14 points 1 year ago

These are just idioms, all languages have their own.

Learning English has it's snags, but it's not a hard language. That's a good thing btw.

[-] margaritox@lemmy.world -1 points 1 year ago

There are no objectively “hard” or “easy” languages. What makes certain languages “hard” is their difference from one’s native language.

[-] ByteJunk@lemmy.pt 3 points 1 year ago

Ah, we disagree my friend. I think languages can be easier or harder based on other criteria too, and not only familiarity.

Suppose an alien, the kind from outer space, crashes on earth and now needs to learn a language to communicate with humans.

It's not a stretch to consider that all human languages are so far removed from his own as to be considered equally hard to learn if looking only at familiarity. In this scenario, surely there are features of individual languages that make them harder to learn - stuff like gendered articles as mentioned before, as there's no logic to them and have to memorized.