Re: French (was Re: Re: Optimum number of symbols)

Kendra wrote:
>Huzzah for Spanish! The more I hear about Spanish, the happier I am to be
>taking it next year, after the pronunciation nightmare of french >
No pron. nightmares in Spanish that I can think of; but you will still have
gender problems, as in "está enfermo ~está enferma" 'he ~she is sick'; _you_
will have to say "estoy cansada" 'I'm tired' but I say "estoy cansado";
greater use (in speaking) of the preterit and subjunctive tenses.  I'm not
sure I agree with Christophe as to whether Span. has more irregular verbs
than French.......at least you pronounce all the endings (and don't
generally use personal pronouns).  Generally the same verbs are irreg. in
Span. as in French (though in different ways, naturally); just as most Span
nouns have the same gender as in Fr. with minor exceptions. Knowing one
Romance lang. helps greatly in learning another.
(snip)

>...though there are extensive
>discussions about creating third-person gender neutral pronouns for
english,
>like xe/xir, hey/hem/heir, and so forth.
The one I really like was introduced (without success, of course) by Marge
Piercy in her lovely novel "Woman at the Edge of Time"-- _per_, used for
subject/object, _pers_ possessive. (< person, of course)

Replies