If you change one aspect of the English language,

Sandwhich   Thu Dec 18, 2008 8:28 pm GMT
no matter how trivial or drastic, what would it be? Question open to native and non-native speakers.
Guest   Thu Dec 18, 2008 9:30 pm GMT
I would drop phrasal verbs and pronunciation would be more similar to Italian or Latin.
ushuaiaus   Thu Dec 18, 2008 9:45 pm GMT
I'd create shorter words for "Hundred" and "Thousand", or else make wider checks, so you don't have to write so small to squeeze in a number like "One Thousand Three Hundred Seventy-seven and 22/100"

Reintroducing Eth and/or Thorn might be handy, too.
Atheist   Thu Dec 18, 2008 9:58 pm GMT
Bring back 'thou' and 'whither/thither/hither'.
Johnny   Thu Dec 18, 2008 11:50 pm GMT
Spelling. It would be cool to be able to read words you have never heard before. The main stress would still have to be guessed though, unless some accents were added on stressed syllables.

Rad -> Rad
Radio -> Reidio
Bury -> Bery
Liar -> Lair
Air -> Er

It would be difficult to design though, as there are just too many vowels in English. And of course it's not even worth thinking about it, as such a spelling reform will never happen.
Peter   Sat Dec 20, 2008 3:46 am GMT
Pronunciation. It would be awesome if english were phonetic
WiseOne   Sat Dec 20, 2008 3:58 am GMT
I would also make English phonetic, but each dialect would have its own spelling according to their pronunciation. This would give English the appearance of a dialect continuum and accelerate its disintegration into dialects. That would be capital.
Caspian   Sat Dec 20, 2008 8:26 pm GMT
Well, as a native speaker, I have no problem with spelling, so I might change a grammar aspect. I'd bring in a Genitive case, like they have in German, so that people would not be so STUPID with apostrophes, as apostrophes would only have one purpose - in contractions such as 'don't'.

The person's tree = The persono tree.
Intruder   Sat Dec 20, 2008 10:51 pm GMT
Well, as a native speaker, I don't like words such as : bet, bad, bat, bet, bud ...they have very similar sound but also very different meaning... This is common in English , only context can provide a sense ...
Intruder   Sat Dec 20, 2008 10:53 pm GMT
OK, as a non-native speaker, sorry typo.