The English Language is Flawed!

The English language is flawed in that there is no subjunctive tense. The subjunctive tense has the ability to make life just that one little bit more cherisable, but English does not have it! No wonder a lot of the English speaking people I know are dull, and miserable. But they cheer up, once they learn to use the subjunctive. Why does English not have a subjunctive? It is a critical flaw, one which restricts the well-being of those who speak this language.

Sorry about my bad grammar.
Ana

If you had more knowledge of languages you would realize that all languages manage to express conditionality, albeit in different ways. I am not sure what "cherisable" means but if I were guessing I would say it refers to cherries. If you had happier friends maybe you would not post such nonsense.

We happen to have the subjunctive, actually:

http://www.fortunecity.com/bally/durrus/153/gramch09.html

We prefer to use the indicative case over subjunctive. In fact, it sounds quite odd today to say "I be tired," or "I be working." We instead use the indicative "I am working" and "I am tired." But you'll find it often used in sentences like "If I were working, I wouldn't be sitting here talking with you."

Here are some examples, from the above site:

The simple indicative and subjunctive tenses of the verb To Work

Simple Present

Indicative Subjunctive
I work I work
you work you work
he works he work
she works she work
it works it work
we work we work
they work they work

Past Continuous

Indicative Subjunctive
I was working I were working
you were working you were working
he was working he were working
she was working she were working
it was working it were working
we were working we were working
they were working they were working

The English language is not flawed.

If Ana were to read these sentences, she'd realize that what she wrote is incorrect. May the Antimoon forum be her guiding light!

Me han hecho reír, que Dios se lo pague.

Mmh, Spanish has a big usage of subjunctive, and I don't feel very, very happy. Quizá esté enfermo.

I am studying Spanish at the moment and the subjuntive (mood) is used much more frequently than in English. In Spanish you can say "Until the train were to arrive we will not be able to leave the station" but in English we normally say "We cannot leave the station until the train arrives" hence the subjunctive is used a lot less in english

I find one thing very bizzare about the English language is there are no synonyms for subject pronouns unlike in my native language. For example, the pronoun "you" is used for all ages of people (this is so bizzare and it looks like the language lacks respect). I mean it looks so odd on my ears when a 25 year old girl is telling a 75 year old man "YOU must be a great genius)..(Thank YOU Tom for sharing your views with us).. it sounds like both people are belonged to the same Age group. There is no formal feeling in it. Also, when I speak in my language I keep my voice tone lower when I'm talking with an older person ... that means I have respect for them .. but I notice that all English speakers older or younger are speaking with the same voice tone.. I guess it's a cultural thing.. but it is very difficult for me to say a 70 year old man " you are looking handsome today".. it feels like I'm talking with my own age group person.. a teen.. infact, he is 53 years older than me!! Very strange!

I also wanna know that how it feels on native speakers' ears when I call someone who is older than me. For example: .. Joe Bro.. Anna sister rather than calling with only names Joe or Anna.

The present-day explanation for English tense depends much on a falsehood, hiding away the 'Past Family' -- past time adverbials such as "in the past, in the past year, within the past two months, during the past three decades, over the past four weeks, for the past few years".

ALL GRAMMAR BOOKS hide away these past time adverbials for Present Perfect and then preach that past time adverbials are not compatible with Present Perfect:
Ex: *I have seen him yesterday.

But the fact is, as we all well know, the Past Family are quite compatible with Present Perfect:
Ex: I have seen him in the past few days.
== Grammar writers cannot explain this, and therefore they have to hide them away from their books.

So English is still flawed.

Donald,

What exactly are you going on about? We (speakers of English) have no trouble communicating with one another. This whole notion of English being "flawed" is ridiculous.

"I have seen him in the past few days." This sounds a bit odd to me. For it sound better, you might want to throw in "couple of times" or "several times" or whatever it may be: "I have seen him a couple of times in the past few days."

As for Boy's comments regarding the use of "you" in all social scenarios...rather than it seeming disrespectful, English seems to be a language in which all are treated equally. There is no 'this person is my superior, therefore I have to address him/her as .....'; it's always "you." Although there are formal scenarios where one must use "sir," "ma'am," or "the gentleman," or "the lady."

I don't understand how you can consider English "flawed." English doesn't share the same qualities as whatever language you compare it to, but that doesn't make it flawed. It's all a matter of perspective. You can keep complaining that English is flawed, but at the end of the day it's no more flawed than any other language on this planet. This is how we do things in English, bottom line, end of story. I could go on and on of how complicated the German case system makes things, but it makes sense, and it's how the German language is. Case closed.

The English language used to have formal and informal you, but, of course, it died out with time. Believe me, we relay respect perfectly fine even if we don't have Usted vs. tu or Sie vs. du.

You can only learn a language if you are prepared to accept it the way it is. Once you start saying the new language is strange because it is different from my own, you are resisting the language. Language is learned by becoming observant of how it is used, its forms and components (words and phrases) and gradually integrating this usage into your own speech. Grammatical analysis is at best not useful and often, as in Donald's case, a source of confusion.

What can I do but repeat what others have written? No, the language ain't flawed. Yes, we have and use the subjunctive. And that we always use "you" is a reflexion of the sense that all people are equal.

However, in mediæval English things were somewhat different. In mediæval English one would use the plural forms; "ye", "you", "your" and "yours"; as a sign of respect. When talking to an inferior or a close friend, family memeber, lover, etc. one would use the singular forms; "thou", "thee", "thy" and "thine".

This usage survived into Shakespear's time. However, in later Modern English the distinction began to vanish with the polite form being used for all occasions. It is interesting to note, though, that in prayer the familiar singlular forms were used to address God and the Blesséd Virgin. This usage still survives today in prayer.

So there you go. We do have two forms in English, still not the three forms that exist in your language but a distinction is drawn. We use the familar form to address God and the Blesséd Virgin and we use the polite form for ordinary humans. Odd, isn't it?

In English we use words like "sir" and "madam" to show respect.

In Spain it seems like less and less people are using "usted" and more are using "tu" form. I wonder if in time the "Usted" form will become archaic just like "thou" has in English.