Skip to main content

The English 'language'

It's only when trying to learn another language (I'm determined to improve my Spanish)  that I've noticed how ridiculous English is.
I'm sure there's hundreds of examples of this, but the one which has been keeping me occupied today is this.

Let think about the following phrases :

I open the door.
I am opening the door.

I opened the door.
I will open the door.

All makes good sence.  The first two are in the present tense - the first being the simple present tense and the second the present progressive.  The thrid is simple past tense, the fourth is simple future.  Of course there are lots of other tenses, but that will do for my example.

Let's see what happens when we want to negate these phrases.

I don't open the door.
I am not opening the door.
I did not open the door
I will not open the door.

Some of these are sensible.  The future tense makes good sence.  We simply put a "not" after the will. The second also works well : put a "not" after the "I am".  I like the idea of putting a not after the verb to suggest negation. This is essentially how latin languages like Spanish do it : they put 'no' in front of the verb.

So, why can't I say "I open not the door" or "I opened not the door".  These seem to me to make better grammatical sense (and I suspect may once have been used. they sound kind of archaic).  Why it the verb "to do" in there?  When was it decided that we need to introduce this verb into our sentences?

Why do we use the past emphatic to negate simple past tense phrases?  Answers on a postcard....  Or just type a comment :)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Arráncame la vida

Last night we attended the first night of the Hola Mexico Film Festival in Wellington.  The first movie of the season was Arráncame la vida (Tear This Heart Out) , the story of a woman who marries a Mexican General in the years following the Mexican Revolution of 1910 .   I found it to be a real genre breaker as far as Mexican cinema goes.  Over the years, we've seen several Mexican movies, and the general theme seems to be heart breaking tragedy, and rarely a happy ending.  This one was different however.  Although tragedy played a huge part in the story (I don't want to give anything away, but don't get too attached to the Carlos character.  He doesn't last long..), the ending seems quite uplifting.  Well, comparatively at least. The story starts when the protagonist is 15 years old, and being whirlwinded into a marriage with a famous (or infamous) general, twice her age.  It tracks her sexual awakening as a teenager, through to her...

Slow Cooked Pork with Potatoes & Gravy

Well Jacqui's away back to Mexico for a bit.  The teenagers were here and it all went very well. They're nice kids, and we had a GREAT TIME :) I also have some opinions about the state of modern Mexico that I'm dying to write about, but it's a bit to heavy for a sunday afternoon, so instead I'm gonna tell how to make something delicious. So, lets say you've got one of those slow cookers, and you've tried a few things but it always ends up kinda-tasting-the-same. Well, I know exactly how you feel.  I've tried several things, and usually they're OK, tasty enough, but lacking in whatever it would take to make the 6-8 hours worth it. Until I discovered a secret.  I didn't find this anywhere on the web, but I have inferred it. The secret with slow cooking is simplicity.  Each ingredient just adds to the mess of flavours and makes it's easier to get wrong.  It's like mixing paint.  The more colours you add, the more likely you are to ...