Why English is so hard to learn

We'll begin with a box, the plural is boxes.
But the plural of ox is oxen, not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, and two are called geese,
yet the plural of moose is never called meese.

You may find a lone mouse, or a house full of mice,
but the plural of house is houses not hice.
The plural of man is always men,
but the plural of pan is never pen.

If I speak of a foot and you show me two feet,
and I give you a book would a pair be a beek?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are called teeth,
Why should not two booths be called beeth?

If the singular is this and the plural is these,
should the plural of kiss ever be keese?

We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
but though we say mother we never say methren.
The masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
are the feminine, she, shis and shim?

 

actually, compaired to the Italian Grammar, the English one is a breath of fresh air.

For instance when you speak to a person that you know well you use "tu", if you don't know him/her well you use "lei" and if you need to be very respectful you use "voi". This last form is used more in the south of the Country and it is becoming less and less frequent.

Infact when a person starts being friend with somebody they will say:"you can address me with 'tu'", if you like.

My mother family is from Tuscany and my cousin wife adresses his mother in law with "voi".

This is just a small example in a jungle of complicated rules.

 

Yeah, I know exactly what you mean there

 

As I dont speak another language I find it strange that we need to go into the detail of grammar.
You learn to speak from an early age, and mostly its picked up as you go along.

I only came across grammar at secondary school, and believe it or not I could mostly make myself understood well before then

Is it really necessary to understand the grammar of another language in order to learn it?
I mean, dont they make the whole thing of learning a language difficult, but quoting the rules?

 

The English language confuses me, and I've been English all my life

I know the plural of sheep is still sheep.
I think the plural of fish is still fish, and deer is deer.
I don't get why I can walk into a field full of sheep, deer, horses, or cattle. Why not sheeps, deers, horses, and just cows. That last one, if we've already got a proper plural for cow which is cows, then why do we need cattle?

 

I'm guessing that Cow & Cattle come from different languages. Pretty sure Cow comes from Saxon.

I remember a prog from years back that said that when the Saxons revisited Britain, the language had evolved from theirs to the extent that they knew they were both talking about cows, but couldn't understand how many were being talked about.

 

oops, I saw the title and thought you meant this....

 

Cattle defines the type of animal, a cow is female, a bull is male. So in effect when you say a field full of cows, it's not strictly true, because there may be males there too.

Cattle is also the last name of my daughters other half, I don't think he'd like to be called a cow.

 

Now, now, Armandii!