Saturday, August 13, 2011
Do you think it would be a good idea to change the way English verbs are written to make it more Germanic-ee?
No, to introduce a more "standardized" verb conjugation system into the English language would only make things more complex. In German, while the infinitive is different than any other conjugation of the verb, one must conjugate the verb for each person (1st singular, 2nd singular, 3rd singular, 1st plural, etc.). In addition, German has a declension system for nouns and adjectives to free up word order and to help with what each word is referring to. While these grammatical features may seem easier and more simplistic, they actually come with multiple grammar rules and memorization of conjugations and declensions. For example, instead of learning just the verb forms run and runs, one would have to learn a full conjugation of 6 verb forms to differ from the infinitive. For simplicity's sake, let's just stick with adding "to" before our infinitives.
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