English thread. Why not?

[Ravick]

Well, despite this being an English forum, there are many members that are not native English speakers. And it is a common thing to see English mistakes in mods and posts (mines...), or even seem phrases in mods that are ok grammatically but was construct in a very unusual/unnatural/unrealistic manner. So, why not a thread about expressions, slangs, syntax, common/colloquial ways of saying something in English?

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Well, for a start, I'm having problems in naming a kind of 'floor door' for a map I'm working on. It is a ship, that is suposed to look 'more or less' just like a La Fayette frigate:

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As in the image, it has some kind of cannon in the front deck. But, in the map,it is storage at the inner floor of the ship. And, when needed, a big 'door' in the deck's floor should open so it can raise the cannon outside the ship. Well, how would it be a good name for this 'door' at the door? Hatch? Hatchway? Trap Door? Scuttle? Bibb? I rly don't know the right word for this. o.õ

[Reactor]

I think a simple "trapdoor" will do it, but "hatch" is also a fine choice. A pod hatch maybe, after all, it is a gun pod.

[Ravick]

gun pod.

Another expression I didn't know!

Thank you, Reactor!

[NeuralStunner]

"I before E, except after C, unless [disturbingly long list of exceptions]..."

English is a mangled mess held together by tape, and I really don't blame non-native speakers for having problems with it. (Amusingly, a lot of you have better English than many of the people who grew up in the US.)

As for me, a common problem I run into is when I drop unusual words casually. I really don't do it to be conceited, I just read a lot of books (mostly older ones) during my early life. A lot of vocabulary stuck and, unfortunately, not much that's actually useful.*


* To paraphrase Sherlock Holmes, a person's mind is a lot like a warehouse: Put too much junk in, and there's not a lot of room for anything else. For example, the fact that I remember that metaphor. :v

[Trance]

Gun pods are add-on attachments to things that didn't already have guns. They're more like part of an ordnance loadout than a built-in component of a military craft. Helicopters and some fighter aircraft typically fit them when needed.

That gun there is part of that ship's original design, and isn't easy to remove or replace. It's called a gun turret.

As for the name of the door that lets the turret be raised or lowered, either "door" or "hatch" would be acceptable enough terms I think. It's not a design I've ever seen on a real ship, so your guess is as good as mine. The only thing I've heard about which has any similarity would be a disappearing gun mounting, but those were extremely rare in anything but a coastal defense context, since those mountings added a lot of weight and complexity to the gun systems.

[Rachael]

English is a mangled mess held together by tape, and I really don't blame non-native speakers for having problems with it. (Amusingly, a lot of you have better English than many of the people who grew up in the US.)

As for me, a common problem I run into is when I drop unusual words casually. I really don't do it to be conceited, I just read a lot of books (mostly older ones) during my early life. A lot of vocabulary stuck and, unfortunately, not much that's actually useful.*

English is a very old language, existing at least for 3 half millenia, though it's certainly not the oldest European language by far.

I would hate to use a coveted source port project (GZDoom) as an analogy, but unfortunately it kinda fits - the longer something exists, the bigger and harder it becomes to manage.

I, too, do not use big words to try and sound conceited. But I try not to be bothered when people see it that way - people judge you for completely random shit all the time and if they have a big problem with that, there's plenty other far more reasonable people you can deal with, instead. So I'll use my vocabulary - especially in instances where an unusual word conveys a feeling in a sentence more than an actual meaning.

[insightguy]

English is a mangled mess held together by tape, and I really don't blame non-native speakers for having problems with it. (Amusingly, a lot of you have better English than many of the people who grew up in the US.)

As for me, a common problem I run into is when I drop unusual words casually. I really don't do it to be conceited, I just read a lot of books (mostly older ones) during my early life. A lot of vocabulary stuck and, unfortunately, not much that's actually useful.*

English is a very old language, existing at least for 3 half millenia, though it's certainly not the oldest European language by far.

I would hate to use a coveted source port project (GZDoom) as an analogy, but unfortunately it kinda fits - the longer something exists, the bigger and harder it becomes to manage.

I, too, do not use big words to try and sound conceited. But I try not to be bothered when people see it that way - people judge you for completely random shit all the time and if they have a big problem with that, there's plenty other far more reasonable people you can deal with, instead. So I'll use my vocabulary - especially in instances where an unusual word conveys a feeling in a sentence more than an actual meaning.

You think English is bad enough, check out mainland Chinese:

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《施氏食狮史》
石室诗士施氏，嗜狮，誓食十狮。
氏时时适市视狮。
十时，适十狮适市。
是时，适施氏适市。
氏视是十狮，恃矢势，使是十狮逝世。
氏拾是十狮尸，适石室。
石室湿，氏使侍拭石室。
石室拭，氏始试食是十狮。
食时，始识是十狮尸，实十石狮尸。
试释是事。

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« Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den »
In a stone den was a poet called Shi, who was a lion addict, and had resolved to eat ten lions.
He often went to the market to look for lions.
At ten o'clock, ten lions had just arrived at the market.
At that time, Shi had just arrived at the market.
He saw those ten lions, and using his trusty arrows, caused the ten lions to die.
He brought the corpses of the ten lions to the stone den.
The stone den was damp. He asked his servants to wipe it.
After the stone den was wiped, he tried to eat those ten lions.
When he ate, he realized that these ten lions were in fact ten stone lion corpses.
Try to explain this matter.

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« Shī Shì shí shī shǐ »
Shíshì shīshì Shī Shì, shì shī, shì shí shí shī.
Shì shíshí shì shì shì shī.
Shí shí, shì shí shī shì shì.
Shì shí, shì Shī Shì shì shì.
Shì shì shì shí shī, shì shǐ shì, shǐ shì shí shī shìshì.
Shì shí shì shí shī shī, shì shíshì.
Shíshì shī, Shì shǐ shì shì shíshì.
Shíshì shì, Shì shǐ shì shí shì shí shī.
Shí shí, shǐ shí shì shí shī shī, shí shí shí shī shī.
Shì shì shì shì.


Remember, each "tic" you see in the words are how you emphasize them. Shì = Shi! (with a sharp enunciation)

[kodi]

The English equivalent ought to be

James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher.

or with punctuation:

James, while John had had "had", had had "had had"; "had had" had had a better effect on the teacher.

[Graf Zahl]

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« Shī Shì shí shī shǐ »
Shíshì shīshì Shī Shì, shì shī, shì shí shí shī.
Shì shíshí shì shì shì shī.
Shí shí, shì shí shī shì shì.
Shì shí, shì Shī Shì shì shì.
Shì shì shì shí shī, shì shǐ shì, shǐ shì shí shī shìshì.
Shì shí shì shí shī shī, shì shíshì.
Shíshì shī, Shì shǐ shì shì shíshì.
Shíshì shì, Shì shǐ shì shí shì shí shī.
Shí shí, shǐ shí shì shí shī shī, shí shí shí shī shī.
Shì shì shì shì.


Remember, each "tic" you see in the words are how you emphasize them. Shì = Shi! (with a sharp enunciation)

So that is why Chinese sounds like gibberish to the average European...

[Reactor]

Well...Arabic is no simpler either So many glyphs to understand, dag-nabbit. But hell, humanity messed up its ways at Tower of Babel back then, unjamming it is extremely hard for common people. Sometimes I think about God gave only 70-80 years of lifetime for people because otherwise we would learn and know everything, thus, become gods ourselves.

[NeuralStunner]

So that is why Chinese sounds like gibberish to the average European...

This goes way back, too. The word "barbarian" arose from the Greek sentiment that foreign languages all sound like "bar bar bar bar" to them.*

I've heard from a few places that German is pretty horrible... but if I ever manage to learn a language for fun I'd still like it to be German.


* You know how I said I've picked up a lot of useless trivia? :b

[ibm5155]

heh, german is the language from the mad people (they all sounds like if they were in a fight Õ-o)
two things that are strange for me is the difference between "to" and "for" (I heard from sometime they are all the same and you just use the one sounds right in the sentence) and how the hell do I know do I know the sound of 'I' in every given word, like window and little has the letter i with the sound of 'E' while bike and might has the sound of 'I'

[Reactor]

German, as it is, is far less complicated than Chinese IMHO. Its vocabulary is rather easy. What really brought my piss to a boil was the dumb "der-die-das" stuff at the beginning of each word. Uh, same goes for French. And there is absolutely no logic in this shit whatsoever. What makes a table's gender male, but the word for "little girl" is neither male or female? Whoever came up with this was a complete and utter asshole, that's for sure.

[Graf Zahl]

I think you will find insanities like that in every language. For example, who came up with the insane pronounciation of English where most words do not even match the letters they contain!

[Rachael]

Most "silent letters" are used in loanwords from the French language, which despite English's Germanic origins, has had a huge influence on it.

In fact, arguably, English is a merging of French, German, and some bits of Latin (like every European language), with its own crap added to it.