<p>In the English language, third-person singular noun gets the special treatment of an extra “s” at the end of most verbs in the present tense? Why? First-person and second-person singular do not have it. I can understand using the “s” for singular noun to separate it from the plural one and avoid confusion, but why restrict it to just third-person? Is there a logic to it, some arcane Latin rule, or is English just want to make it confusing for non-native? </p>
<p>In fact, why do we even have “has” and “does” just for third-person?</p>
<p>How does this qualify under “College Life”? Well, I’m in college, and this is what I’m currently spending my life doing :D</p>
<p>If there are grammar-Nazi out there, please explain.</p>
<p>In other languages, verbs are conjugated (i.e. have their endings changed) depending on their person, number, tense, voice, and mood. For example, in Latin, “you love” is “amas” while “he loves” is “amat”. It’s just the same thing in English.</p>
<p>In many languages, the verbs for to be, to do, and to have are irregular just like they are in english. I study french and trust me it’s just as complicated in that language too.</p>
<p>Thank to all those who have replied so far.</p>
<p>Yes, I do realize that many languages have some strange rules. I’ve studied a language that does not modify the verb period, not in past, present, singular, plural, to be or not to be, future, first, second, or third-person. Talk about simplification.</p>
<p>But I want to know is why does English have the rule.</p>
<p>English used to be just as complex as other European languages until the 9th century. At that time Scandinavians invaded Great Britain and for some reason grammar became a lot easier all of the sudden, including a loss of gender and cases - with the exception of pronouns. Conjugations almost disappeared too but a few irregularities survived, namely the third-person “-s”, the past “-ed” and a few “irregular verbs”.</p>
<p>I used to wonder why they say that English is the most difficult language to learn. Then I started studying other languages and thought no wonder it’s so difficult. For example, in the Tongan language, they have this strange grammar rule where no two consonants can be together. The one exception to this rule: ng. As in Tonga, the country of the language’s origin. They also have no verb conjugations. Just fun stuff :7)</p>
<p>I personally had a much harder time learning Latin than English.</p>
<p>Imo English is a fairly easy-to-learn language. There are no cases, genders or conjugations (very limited), only few tenses and participle constructions, just 26 (/52) letters, rules for pronunciation are pretty simple and words go in a fixed order: subject-verb-object. I also found the exact meaning and connotations of words a lot easier to grasp in English than in Latin - maybe because the perception of abstract concepts has changed a lot over the centuries.</p>
<p>English as we speak it is a pretty simple language to learn to speak decently, but hard to learn to speak like a native because there are so many rules that can trip you up unless you grew up speaking it. For example in the OP’s first post “Is there a logic to it, some arcane Latin rule, or is English just want to make it confusing for non-native?” the second “is” should be “does”, and an “a” is missing in front of “non-native”. Why? Got me, its just the way it works.</p>
<p>English is a language that reflects the centuries of invasion and conquest of that Isle. While a french speaker can at least read and understand something written in french from 6 centuries ago, for an english speaker it would be incomprehensible. Originating as a Germanic language, the Norman conquest introduced a lot of French into the language. The ruling class was French and they needed to talk to their serfs in the field, so English was dumbed down to practically a creole and that’s what we speak today. That’s why articles are simple (no gender), verbs barely change, etc.</p>
<p>mikemac, gaining native fluency is hard to impossible in all languages, not just English. I have not met a single non-native speaker of German who managed to speak for two minutes without screwing up an article or the conjugation of a verb. Does that make German the hardest language to learn? I doubt it.</p>
<p>My German teacher in 9th grade was not a native speaker. Although he started learning German when he was 8 (at least that’s what he claimed) and had been living in the country for 30+ years, he still mixed up genders every now and then. So what?</p>