Ivo
Established Member
I've just had a message in relation to problems with the English language (hence the title), and it has gotten me thinking.
The word "take" for example is often used in English in a way that doesn't fit other languages. For example, in English we say "take a picture", whereas in other languages they say "make a picture". Another common one is the use of "be" (etc) in relation to feelings; we would say "I am cold" to mean "I feel cold".
What other examples are there? In theory English should be really easy to learn for a non-native speaker, due to its simple structure and general lack of genders, but things like this (and other problems such as nonstandard pronunciations, as evidenced in this thread, and irregular verbs) prove otherwise...
The word "take" for example is often used in English in a way that doesn't fit other languages. For example, in English we say "take a picture", whereas in other languages they say "make a picture". Another common one is the use of "be" (etc) in relation to feelings; we would say "I am cold" to mean "I feel cold".
What other examples are there? In theory English should be really easy to learn for a non-native speaker, due to its simple structure and general lack of genders, but things like this (and other problems such as nonstandard pronunciations, as evidenced in this thread, and irregular verbs) prove otherwise...