En réponse à Jan van Steenbergen :
>"om" is a difficult word. Basically, it means "in order to", or simply "to".
>Dutch people tend to overuse it. I would say "moeilijk te leren", but: "een
>moeilijke taal om te leren" ;) .
German does exactly the same IIRC.
>"als" is absolutely not incorrect, but "wanneer" still has my preference. It's
>the same thing with "if" and "when", I guess.
I have difficulties personally knowing when to use "als" and when to use
"wanneer". Is there a rule?
>"spreken kan": this is German word order. In Dutch, the rule is that in
>subordinate clauses the auxiliaries come first, and the actual thing comes
>last. What you wrote is not forbidden, but "kan spreken" definitely sounds
>more
>Dutch.
I prefer Dutch over German in this case because its verb-final rules make
for funnier word orders :)) . I especially like the fact that even after
final verbs, you can add some complements, which seems to give them more
importance.
>Well, that depends on how interesting a language it to me. When a grammar is
>written in Finnish, I can still enjoy the tables, but I completely fail to
>understand the explanations. I find that frustrating.
Me too. There's for instance this online grammar of Ainu that keeps teasing
me. I'd love to learn about the language, but the only grammar I've found
is in Japanese, and I can't read enough Japanese to read it :(((( .
Christophe Grandsire.
http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr
You need a straight mind to invent a twisted conlang.