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. igsomething · 1789908185 · focus · HN ↗

            In languages with genders you need fewer unique words for gender-related concepts. For example English (genderless) has "boy" and "girl", while Spanish (male and female) has "niño" and "niña".

            1. SamBam · 1789909054 · focus · HN ↗

               But that doesn't help you understand why "chair" might be feminine while "book" might be masculine.

               1. srean · 1789910950 · focus · HN ↗

                  If you ever feel inclined to learn Hindi there is more to grapple with. The verb gender is sometimes set by the gender of the object, sometimes by the gender of the object. Which way this will go loosely depends on tense.

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