Spanish the easiest language to learn after English?

unstressed out   Fri Nov 06, 2009 5:53 am GMT
<<'Ya' is case marked in slang English, in that it's only ever going to be used as an object.

Ya like that - NOT ENGLISH>>

Is 'ya' really slang, of just the unstressed form of 'you' that would usually be used in normal speech, when 'you' is used as an object?
Lol   Fri Nov 06, 2009 10:51 am GMT
Maybe it is just the unstressed form, but the fact remains that a different pronounciation has emerged between the subject and object.
98   Sat Nov 07, 2009 5:59 pm GMT
slightly more difficult grammar and morphology

Spanish grammar and particularly morphology is light years more difficult than the English one
As for pronunciation I do not think Spanish is so easy if English speaking people have problems to pronounce it properly
guapo   Sat Nov 07, 2009 6:22 pm GMT
Gender isn't really a big deal in Spanish since you can almost always tell by the ending. Grammatical gender is only a problem if it means it has to be learned along with every word.

This is not true either. Noun gender of about 30% Spanish words is unpredictable. Those ending in a consonant or -e. Besides there are other exceptions:
el dia
el tema
el enigma and so on
Paul   Sat Nov 07, 2009 6:40 pm GMT
<<Based on that link, it looks like Norwegian is still morphologically tougher than English:

- inflected passive voice
- true genitive case
- adjectives change before noun? (whatever that is) >>

Do you read the link?

-The infected passive voice is actually simpler than english because you just add an s at the end of the verb.

- the "true" genitive case is exactly the same as english.
I survived Poughquag   Sat Nov 07, 2009 9:13 pm GMT
<<-The infected passive voice is actually simpler than english because you just add an s at the end of the verb.>>

But it's morphologically more complex, because it adds something to the verb itself. The English passive may be harder to form, but there's no additional morphology there beyond what other compound tenses already have -- just different syntax.

<<- the "true" genitive case is exactly the same as english. >>

Some people analyze the English "genitive" as an "enclitic possessive" and not really a case at all. There may be differences of opinion on this, however. Would an enclitic formation fall under syntax or morphology?