Please rate the following 'easy' languages...

cases are easy   Wed Apr 01, 2009 5:11 pm GMT
Its definately not simpler than french. One can say, objectively, that the french language doesn't even have half of the verb complexity of portuguese

I'm sorry but I don't agree. First of all I was referring to Standard Brazilian Portuguese, which has suffered a process of creolisation: lots of verbal forms are no longer used, such as the second person singular and plural forms of all tenses and moods (ex. cantas, cantais and so on). Even the first person plural (cantamos) is often replaced by the third person singular form ( a gente canta). In addition, in most tenses the first and the third person has the same form( eu cantava ele cantava, eu cantaria ele cantaria, eu cantara, ela cantara, eu cante, ele cante eu cantasse ele cantasse, eu cantar ele cantar and so on). As you can see you only have to learn two or three different forms of each tense to speak a proper Portuguese. Although Standard French makes uses of fewer tenses, particularly in the subjective mood, all verbal persons are still in use. Last but not least, French has two auxiliary tenses to form all compoud tenses and the choice of the correct auxiliary is not always that easy. Finally the concordance of the past participle is one of the most difficult aspects in French grammar.
Paul   Wed Apr 01, 2009 10:30 pm GMT
<<Although Standard French makes uses of fewer tenses, particularly in the subjective mood, all verbal persons are still in use.>>

Nonsense. In french theres only 3 different inflected forms for person/number for nearly all verbs in any given tense. The verb paridigms in french underwent the most simplification in the entire romance language family, which is why its the only romance language that doesn't drop pronouns.

<<First of all I was referring to Standard Brazilian Portuguese, which has suffered a process of creolisation: lots of verbal forms are no longer used, such as the second person singular and plural forms of all tenses and moods>>

The only difference between Brazilian Portuguese is that they don't use second person familar (Tu) forms, everything else is the same. The second person plural forms are archaic and aren't used anywhere.

So essentially, Peninsular Port uses 5 different verb forms for person/number, Brazilian Port 4, and French 3.

...and you only seem to be considering conjugation for person and number, but what about tense, aspect, and mood? Portuguese (Brazilian and Peninsular) makes a MUCH richer use of verbs overall, and has ALOT more forms.


<<Last but not least, French has two auxiliary tenses to form all compoud tenses and the choice of the correct auxiliary is not always that easy.>>

Choosing between être and avoir is not complicated. Definately not more complicated than choosing between the two portuguese copula ser and estar; a distinction that doesn't exist in french.


<<Finally the concordance of the past participle is one of the most difficult aspects in French grammar.>>

Like most french grammar, this is merely an orthographical feature, that doesn't actually exist in the real spoken french language.
User   Wed Apr 01, 2009 11:39 pm GMT
"Non native fluent speakers of spanish are pretty rare."

You obviously have no idea what you're talking about, for example a 15 y/o kid that emigrates to an Spanish-speaking country will be a native speaker by the age of 25 (I've seen it planty of times in Mexico and Spain), that doesn't happen to often in English-speaking nations.
horrid   Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:36 am GMT
el análisis, los análisis


<You obviously have no idea what you're talking about, for example a 15 y/o kid that emigrates to an Spanish-speaking country will be a native speaker by the age of 25 (I've seen it planty of times in Mexico and Spain), that doesn't happen to often in English-speaking nations. >>

Actually, it does happen often in English-speaking nations. I've seen it plenty of times in Australia and New Zealand.
luar   Thu Apr 02, 2009 11:30 am GMT
Like most french grammar, this is merely an orthographical feature, that doesn't actually exist in the real spoken french language


What are you talking about??? Take a look at these irregular verbs:

Il l'a pris or il l'a prise (une chaise)

elle l'a prise ( la pomme)

on l'a dit
on l'a dite (la vérité)

In the above examples there's a clear difference in spoken language,not only in the written one.

The difference between ser and estar is quite easy to grasp and if you alrealy know Spanish it is a peace of cake in Portuguese. In my view It's much harder to divide all the verbs into two different groups according to the auxiliary verb. All compoud tenses must be conjugated with the appropriate auxiliary.....Anyway that's just me...
filho da lua   Thu Apr 02, 2009 7:36 pm GMT
the Portuguese phonetics is more complex than the french one.
The french has the rules, and the vowels are, in my opinion, more intelligible than the Portuguese ones.
The French consonants are quite easy just like in Italian or Spanish. On the other hand Portuguese has some consonant groups very difficult to pronounce.
filha da rua   Thu Apr 02, 2009 7:41 pm GMT
English
Afrikaans
Dutch
Brazilian Portuguese
French
Portuguese
Spanish
Italian
walalla   Thu Apr 02, 2009 7:41 pm GMT
The French consonants are quite easy just like in Italian or Spanish

Italian and Spanish consonants are harder than the French ones.

French doesn't have these Italian sounds: tz, dz, gl, gj, double consonants,
French doesn't have these Spanish sounds: jota, Y, d, c/z
corrado   Thu Apr 02, 2009 7:43 pm GMT
English
Afrikaans
Dutch
Brazilian Portuguese
French
Portuguese
Spanish
Italian

no way

Afrikaans
Dutch
English
Brazilian Portuguese
Spanish
Italian
French
Portuguese
corrado   Thu Apr 02, 2009 7:50 pm GMT
tienes un e-mail. abrelo porfa.

obrigadinho :)
at walalla   Thu Apr 02, 2009 7:53 pm GMT
i said: "just like in"

i didn't write more/less.

but, maybe you're right. Now i agree