How do the word orders of English, French, and German differ?

 

Steven Haddock

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English and French are largely “Subject-Verb-Object” languages, where the position of the nouns shows their grammatical sense. “I love Hockey!”

However, if you use a pronoun in French as the object of a sentence, its position switches to before the verb, so it becomes “Subject-Object-Verb”. “I it love”

German is largely “Subject-Object-Verb”. Technically, this means the verb can be the last word in a very long sentence. However, in most cases, German speakers will move the verb to a more convenient point and break up a long sentence into pieces. “I football love”

Adjectives

In English, adjectives almost always go in front of the noun. There is a particular order depending on the nature of the adjective if there’s more than one - e.g. “big blue ball” not “blue big ball”.

German, like English, puts adjectives before the noun they modify.

In French, adjectives can go both before the noun and after, depending on their function, e.g. “big house blue” not “big blue house” or “house big blue”.

Is German a more efficient language than English?

 

Steven Haddock

Compliance Officer

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Slightly.

Efficiency is largely a measure of how many words you need to communicate ideas. Some languages are better at this than others. English isn’t actually that bad compared to a language like French.

English - I am going shopping today because I need some butter.

French - Je vais faire du shopping aujourd'hui parce que j'ai besoin de beurre. (In English - I am going for shopping on the day that is today for the cause that I need the butter)

German doesn’t use helper verbs like English and instead incorporates tense, which makes it a bit shorter

German - Ich gehe heute einkaufen, weil ich etwas Butter brauche.

Save one entire word. That’s typical of how German can be briefer than English.

Does German have English words?

 

Steven Haddock

Compliance Officer

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In one of the strangest examples of linguistic divergence in history, English, which is based on old German, has pretty much completely diverged from German to the point where only basic vocabulary terms are shared. Although most of the most common 5,000 English words are based on old German (including Mouse, House and Hound), when you get to vocabulary that developed after about 1100 C.E., the two vocabularies diverge wildly.

That’s largely because German and other languages based on it (the Scandinavian ones) form new words by compounding - taking existing words and stitching them together.

Swine + Flesh = Swineflesh

But English stopped doing that for new words and started introducing French words into its vocabulary

Old French Porc = Middle English Pork.

Well into the 20th century, this trend continued

Collar + Bone = Collarbone (German)

Latin Clavicle = Modern English Clavicle.

But this made many German words unwieldy.

Stroke + Screw = Strokescrew (German)

Greek Spiral + Wing = English Helicopter

Nature + Shaft = Natureshaft (German)

Latin Knowledge = English Science

As such, German has replaced some of its vocabulary with English where it’s easier (like “telephon”). However, it’s rare and rather scattershot. There might be just over a hundred English words that have been commonly incorporated into the language. Unfortunately, they don’t always mean the same thing:

HANDY - English adjective meaning “convenient”. German uses it as a noun for a mobile phone (i.e. like “cell” or “mobile”)

OLDTIMER - English for “elderly person”. German for “Classic Automobile”.

SMOKING - English for “using cigarette, cigar or pipe”. German for “Dinner Jacket” or “Tuxedo”. In English, a “Smoking Jacket” is quite different - a thick jacket designed to keep smoke off your clothes.

BODYBAG - English for a bag used to store dead bodies. In German, it’s a large messenger bag that’s slung over the shoulder with a single strap.

SHOOTINGSTAR - Informal English for “meteor”. German for “suddenly famous person”.

PUBLIC VIEWING - English for “private property that is available for public display, such as a house for sale”. In German it’s “large television screen in a public place.

Why in Manila there is no underground transport like in London?

 

By: Steven Haddock

Compliance Officer

Insufferable know-it-all, mostly law, science, politics and Canadian football

Prior to World War II, Manila had the largest tram system in Asia.

However, the battle for Manila at the end of the World War II devastated the city, and the tram network couldn’t be salvaged.

Luckily, when the Americans left, it turned out to be too expensive to take their Jeeps with them. They were sold for $1 apiece to the locals who cut them in half and put a top on them, thus was born…..

The Jeepney!

Privately operated Jeepneys, together with municipal buses and motorcycle taxis, form the backbone of Greater Manila’s transportation system. As most of the vehicles are privately operated, there’s massive political opposition to doing away with them and replacing them with a fully municipal system.

One of the problems is that Greater Manila is so big, but has lot of old narrow roads, there’s a massive “last mile” problem. Even Jeepneys have trouble navigating some of Manila’s neighbourhoods, which makes motorcycle taxis perfect for the job.

It would be nice if Manila could do something about it. It’s traffic is terrible and Jeepneys and motorcycle taxis are one of the reasons why. They run short routes, are always on the road, and stop at random places wherever they can pick up or drop off passengers. However, they’re also tremendously cheap - an auto taxi can cost ten times what a similar journey by motorcycle taxi and Jeepney will.

The people of Manila aren’t thrilled with the system despite its low cost. Only municipal buses make really long trips (more than 10 km) so a typical trip is motorcycle taxi to a Jeepney route, then Jeepney to a bus, take the bus to another Jeepney route, then take another motorcycle taxi to your destination. It’s insane.

The good (or bad) news is that Jeepneys can no longer be replaced - they’re brightly painted but usually patched together as best as possible.