Which one is more difficult?

Guest   Sun Nov 04, 2007 11:17 am GMT
Italian isn't easier than Spanish! Italian pronouciation is harder, that's for sure: you should learn to distinguish simple and double consonants, it's the most complicated feature in italian pronounciation. Unfortunately most foreigners don't even notice that!! Italian has 7 vowels Spanish just 5. As for the grammar, in my view Italian is a bit more complicated than Spanish Take a look at the articles, the italian system of articles is richer than the Spanish one, and after that all articles combine with prepositions in different forms: dello, nello, dal dai col coi, sul etc. Spanish has just two simple forms. al/del. On the whole the use of preposition is trickier than Spanish. Besides, Italian takes use of two different verbs two form all compound tenses: Essere and Avere and the italian use is even harder than the French one. Last but not least Italian has various pronominal particles like ci, ce, vi ve,ne their use is mainly idiomatic and it's quite hard to master it.
Guest   Sun Nov 04, 2007 11:29 am GMT
Guest:

<Italian isn't easier than Spanish! ......>


Italian is harder than French and Spanish? And French is harder than Spanish? Right?
I hate myself   Sun Nov 04, 2007 11:42 am GMT
Spanish also has 2 form of "be", one is "ser", the other is "estar", there're some difference between them.
Guest   Sun Nov 04, 2007 11:54 am GMT
Spanish also has 2 form of "be", one is "ser", the other is "estar", there're some difference between them

Yes, it does and its use is harder than in italian. Italian also has "essere and stare", but I have to admit that its use is easier than in Spanish.
In my view Plurals are really easy in Spanish, it' s the only language I know which doesnt' have any irregular forms. Italian has some irregular plurals (some of them come from the latin neuter) for instance. Uovo -uovA egg-eggs Spanish huevo huevos Portuguese ovo, ovos. dito/A finger/s Sp. dedo/s. Moreover, Italian has some weird forms like Uomo/uomini (man/men) hombre/hombres. il Dio/gli dèi, God/gods dios dioses, tempio/templi, Temple/temples. However italian plurals are quite regular compared with other languages like German, Russian or Arabic.
Guest   Sun Nov 04, 2007 1:43 pm GMT
Doesn't Spanish have some slightly irregular plurals, such as Vez - Veces?
Guest   Sun Nov 04, 2007 2:12 pm GMT
"Vez - Veces"

That's only a spelling variant, the sound doesn't change.....
Yop pas prêt d'être pris   Sun Nov 04, 2007 2:43 pm GMT
<That's only a spelling variant, the sound doesn't change.....>

Yup it's pretty regular actually, being that C before a E is pronounced exactly the same as Z. Furthermore, in Spanish the S marking the plural needs a E it the word ends with a consonant. So that too is regular.
Guest   Sun Nov 04, 2007 3:29 pm GMT
What about foreign nouns in Spanish? Don't they ever retain the original plural?
Guest   Sun Nov 04, 2007 3:37 pm GMT
Spanish plurals look like those of an arificial language, that is, very very easy
Guest   Sun Nov 04, 2007 3:47 pm GMT
Probably most oral French plurals are even easier than the spanish ones :-)
furrykef   Sun Nov 04, 2007 5:36 pm GMT
<< What about foreign nouns in Spanish? Don't they ever retain the original plural? >>

Usually no. The only irregular Spanish plural that comes to mind is that the plural of "lord" is "lores".

There are a few words that are the same in the singular and plural, though, usually because the singular form already ends with "s". For instance, "rompecabezas" (jigsaw puzzle), "rascacielos" (skyscraper).

- Kef
furrykef   Sun Nov 04, 2007 5:40 pm GMT
Oh, and I should have addressed this point:

<< Doesn't Spanish have some slightly irregular plurals, such as Vez - Veces? >>

No, that's actually a regular plural. The letter "z" *always* becomes "c" when followed by "e" or "i". The only exceptions are the name of the letter "z" itself, "zeta", which is sometimes spelled "ceta" anyway, and a few loanwords like "zepelín". The same rule applies to verb conjugations.

- Kef
Rodrigo   Sun Nov 04, 2007 5:56 pm GMT
There is only one irregular plural in the whole article about them in the RAE's page. Hipérbaton which becomes hipérbatos, when the regular rule would make the plural Hipérbaton because it's esdrújula (with the antepenultimate syllable accented) and ends in a consonant. Nonetheless hipérbaton is a literary figure, the word is rarely mentioned in normal speech and I persnolally have used it in the plural very, very, very little times.
Guest   Sun Nov 04, 2007 7:13 pm GMT
I personally find it a shame that English didn't retain more irregular plural forms. I think forms such as 'children' and 'mice' are more interesting somehow than simply adding an 's'.
Guest   Sun Nov 04, 2007 8:02 pm GMT
I also wonder why a few of these plural forms in English simply refused to die, while most did.