Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from December 19, 2009

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 : p