Thread

1. deliciousturkey · 1789900662 · focus · HN ↗

   As a native speaker of a language without articles, I find the English article system by far the most intuitive and easiest to learn of all the languages I have studied. Most other Indo-European languages have articles that you simply need to memorize, as there is no way to derive them from the word itself. Which I never manage to do.

   1. nlitened · 1789901724 · focus · HN ↗

      You probably mean word genders? So you probably say it's sometimes difficult to derive the gender of a noun, hence the correct article

      1. andoando · 1789902020 · focus · HN ↗

         Genders in language is seemingly such a needlessly pointless concept I am really confused as to how it ever developed.

         I still feel Armenian is such a great Indo European language. No articles, no genders, completely phonetic, consistent verb endings, no particular word ordering

         1. eru · 1789903157 · focus · HN ↗

            > Genders in language is seemingly such a needlessly pointless concept I am really confused as to how it ever developed.

            Genders, or word classes in general, often work like registers in a computer. So you can quickly refer to things mentioned earlier.

            1. andsoitis · 1789909866 · focus · HN ↗

               How does gendered nouns make it so you can more quickly refer to something mentioned earlier?

               1. shakow · 1789910756 · focus · HN ↗

                  FR: « J'ai transporté le canapé (M) et la table (F), mais il (M) s'est cassé. » -> the canapé/sofa is broken.

                  EN: “I carried over the sofa and the table, but it(?)/the sofa broke”

Unofficial Hacker News client; not affiliated with Y Combinator.