• dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    the alternative is to make the syntax become a hellish mess. Like Mandarin or English.

    Now hang on just a second. English is fine. You just have to memorize or correctly guess the etymology of whatever word it is you’re trying to spell/pronounce in order to get … oh, okay, I think I see the problem now.

      • YTG123@sopuli.xyz
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        2 years ago

        In Latin for example it’s just a “…near the noun? Whatever, just don’t be ambiguous."

        It doesn’t need to be remotely close to the noun lol

        Though Latin syntax can get annoying sometimes (when do I use the subjunctive? What’s the correct negation? Perfect or imperfect… maybe pluperfect? Which noun is this random genitive modifying?), it does make sense eventually. I guess that is also true for English, but I still mess up the tenses sometimes.

      • tiredofsametab@fedia.io
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        2 years ago

        Think you this some kind of joke?

        (What do you mean you don’t want to sound like an Elizabethan or earlier?!)

          • tiredofsametab@fedia.io
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            2 years ago

            I think “think you that this is some kind of joke” is more grammatically correct (from a prescriptive POV, anyway), but I’ve seen similar sentences as the above before.