I'm intrigued. I notice common phrases in people whose first language is French (where the construction is generally much more elaborate than average)
Yes, French can be show-off and flowery. Lots of French idioms that don't translate directly to another language.
German (usually very direct and with better grammar than mine)
German and its 16 different words for *the*. It's *hard*.
and Polish (where articles tend to get left off).
The Slavic/Eastern European languages don't have articles. The terribly pretty Goran Visnjic, who plays Luka Kovac, on ER, is Croatian. He was *always* missing articles, when his English wasn't brilliant.
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Date: 2007-08-01 10:19 pm (UTC)I'm intrigued. I notice common phrases in people whose first language is French (where the construction is generally much more elaborate than average)
Yes, French can be show-off and flowery. Lots of French idioms that don't translate directly to another language.
German (usually very direct and with better grammar than mine)
German and its 16 different words for *the*. It's *hard*.
and Polish (where articles tend to get left off).
The Slavic/Eastern European languages don't have articles. The terribly pretty Goran Visnjic, who plays Luka Kovac, on ER, is Croatian. He was *always* missing articles, when his English wasn't brilliant.
< /language geek>