Gotten

[user 36867]

I once had a German friend ask me what was the differance. There are a lot of trees, There are many trees

 

[treeturner123]

Don't forget that the Romans wrote with, essentially no punctuation and, certai9nly on gravestones, a huge number of shortened words which clearly the population understood, but, unless you are Mary Beard, you struggle to understand!

Thanks goodness Latin to English translation of JC's De Bello Gallico was from punctuated Latin!!

Phil

 

[guineafowl21]

I once had a German friend ask me what was the differance. There are a lot of trees, There are many trees

Similarly, 20 years ago a Spanish friend was asking me about the distinction between:
“I like swimming”, and
“I like to swim”.

Apparently, there is one. Perhaps some old-fashioned usage handed down from teacher to teacher, which is a mystery to native speakers.

 

[treeturner123]

Similarly, 20 years ago a Spanish friend was asking me about the distinction between:
“I like swimming”, and
“I like to swim”.

Apparently, there is one.

Yes, there is, but subtle!

Swimming could include watching or swimming yourself whilst Swim relates specifically to something you like to do.

 

[guineafowl21]

Thanks goodness Latin to English translation of JC's De Bello Gallico was from punctuated Latin!!

His sentences, in his account of the invasion of our shores, were sometimes ten lines long, with the verb right at the end! He also wrote, rather grandly, in the third person.

 

[guineafowl21]

Yes, there is, but subtle!

Swimming could include watching or swimming yourself whilst Swim relates specifically to something you like to do.

I can’t remember, but it was something like that, or maybe “to swim” was more of an official hobby, whereas “swimming” was a general statement. I guess we know that without thinking, but they have to learn it.

I did Spanish too, and was struck by how simple a language it is, apart from the usual Romance stuff (gendered nouns, millions of verb forms). The vocab. and spelling is dead simple - all phonetic and there aren’t many different ways of saying anything. I suspect a Spanish thesaurus would be quite short.