After seeing a lot of posts with very poor grammar and many spelling errors, I was wondering: For how many people posting is English a second language?

Not to be judgemental as my typing prowess is often displayed in spelling errors and missing punctuation. 'Sides, I have no second language.

English is my native language ... it could be lazy people causing spelling errors. It happens to the best of us.

Engish and Armenian-- first language.

I type veery fast (~60 wpm) with 2 fingers (my two index fingers) and my thumb-- that accounts for the spelling mistakes. :D

English is my second language, not my favorite though.

The thread is mine *evil grin*
lol

3 languages + minor knowledge of simular languages.

English is not my primary which should be quite visible in my spelling, on the other hand my spelling in my 1st language suck to, thats the price for not paying attension in school :)

p.s.
dont get stuck on gramma, it the point of the msg that counts

English my second language. Although my main language of communication nowadays is English I have the slight handicap that I don't actually live in a English speaking country.

I think I actually had to dumb down my English skills when I arrived here, because I was using too many difficult words (which prevented efficient communication). It is difficult though to reverse this process. I'm stuck now on this level.

To tell you the truth, I've been speaking English to a point that I have started misusing them...... or in a more specific term, misspelling. For example, there have been quite a few words I invented based on an actual word, simply for either twisting the original word's meaning, or just for fun. If that's not enough, I've started making new phrases too..... go figure (my favourite 'new' phrases are "the moon is in the air" and "to write zs in the air")

SM, 60 wpm with three digits? That's incredible!

I'm impressed by the intelligent and intelligible posts by those who are multi-lingual. (and those who aren't)

Curioucity, if your first reply meant you posted this thread before, my mistake. Didn't look first.

Hey Jin, great thread. English is my first language; however as a small child is spoke French as well. I like learning new languages, although not successfully, I've tried to learn several. Btw, Arabic is the most difficult to learn. :)

languages are intresting, i learned some korean sometime ago playing online games with them, I kinda liked those yellow bastards, they had the funkies english and at the time they also had some kind of hated thing going with americans which involved everybody speaking english, giving me they funniest chats in a long time :)

18

Curioucity, if your first reply meant you posted this thread before, my mistake. Didn't look first.

Uh, sorry..... looks like my mischief went awry...
I actually meant that the thread suits me very well, since English is my second language....
Don't feel bad about that...... as long as mods don't say there's been a copy of a thread, just pretend you're starting anew...
:D :D :D

ME. cantonese chinese and english

It is hard for me write such an long essay like others here but I will work on it.
any chinese here~?

race, yes, but unlike most of my family, I can barely speak Chinese.... my mum and dad are Chinese experts, my uncles and aunts speak Chinese almost constantly...... makes me wanna go O_o

Yep, English is my second language too.

What about making a poll so we can see?
Oh, and my first is (obviously) Portuguese. :) I dabble in other langs too... but nothing special. And I can understand Spanish, French, Italian and whatnot... some Latin too, when it's written ;) mwhahaha that's fun.

Ta ta

race, yes, but unlike most of my family, I can barely speak Chinese.... my mum and dad are Chinese experts, my uncles and aunts speak Chinese almost constantly...... makes me wanna go O_o

ABC? I like english the most altough My english is underdeveloped.
improved a bit since come here

Wow, sciforums = online Englich class!
*puts an ad*

About what I know about Chinese, well, some basic phrases only.......... Sometimes I'm even mixed up with good morning, day, evening etc.... duh...

And jaded, wouldn't it be obvious that if you speak Portugese you can speak Latin too? Or wait..... is the word Latin now only considered Spanish-based only? Nah, dun think so..... ask Brazil..


Come to think of the thread, where's jinchilla? I scared sumbody again eh?

Technically, english is my second language. Im as comfortable with it as I am with Tamil though.

And jaded, wouldn't it be obvious that if you speak Portugese you can speak Latin too? Or wait..... is the word Latin now only considered Spanish-based only? Nah, dun think so..... ask Brazil..

Ahhhhh!!!!!! Cleanse yourself for you have been ********!!!

Portuguese is NOT!!! the same as latin.

Latin is a language.

Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian, Romanian... are all Latin-Based.

So where the hell does Spanish based come in?? :eek:



and WTF? Ask BRAZIL?? What do they have to do with anything???

After seeing a lot of posts with very poor grammar and many spelling errors. . . Not to be judgemental as my typing prowess is often displayed in spelling errors and missing punctuation. . . It's not difficult for a native speaker to tell the difference between another native speaker who just happens to be spelling-challenged and a non-native who hasn't mastered the language.

For one thing, people who study English in non-English speaking countries learn the spoken and written language at the same time, unlike native speakers, so their spelling skills are often better than the graduates of our government-run school system.

Non-natives tend to give themselves away more often with syntax errors -- not putting a complicated sentence together with the right words in the right order.

But in my experience, most of all they are befuddled by our articles and prepositions. Articles: why do we breathe air, but birds fly through the air? My brother seems to be deep in thought, but I just had a thought? We're not even consistent among ourselves. An injured Brit goes to hospital, but an American goes to the hospital. Prepositions: words like on, at, by, for, in, to, with, etc., mean almost nothing! We could get by just like the Chinese do, with one single generic relationship word: "deh." They are for the most part just placeholders in our sentences. But if somebody uses the wrong one in the wrong place, even though the meaning of the sentence is still crystal clear, we know he's not a native speaker.

English is my native tongue. But I use a lot of Spanish and Portuguese, and some German, on the web. With a dictionary I can delve into Italian and even French, but it ain't pretty. I speak a modest amount of Mandarin but I can't read and write it. I am fluent in Esperanto and have many correspondents in the language, a few of whom now have e-mail.

English is my second language since I am from Germany. This may sometimes result in spelling errors or grammatical issues. Alas, I am having the same problems in German if I am writing fast or my thoughts are faster than my hands. This results in strange word creations and also affects my sentece structure sometimes.

English is my 2nd lang. After I started typing, I discovered I am slightly dyslexic. :D My thoughts are much faster than my fingers, and it better stay that way. :eek:

You're really hysterical there, jaded.... sorry.......
watamess......

Yep, English is my second language too.

What about making a poll so we can see?
Oh, and my first is (obviously) Portuguese. :) I dabble in other langs too... but nothing special. And I can understand Spanish, French, Italian and whatnot... some Latin too, when it's written ;) mwhahaha that's fun.

Ta ta


Gosh, NEVER would I think that!! I thought you were one nifty native speaker of English. :)
But I sometimes watch a Brasilian soap opera (hehe) -- and these people are just so chatty and so ... I don't know, they just speak a lot all the time. It must be that Portugese, but also Spanish, are a good substrate to plant English on.

Anyhow, English is my third language.

Fraggle Rocker: Falas português? :) Podes me dizer qual é o proposito de saber Esperanto? Parece-me uma seca...


curioucity: I'm not hysterical, but people don't often realise that Portugal is not Spain, and is not Brazil.

RosaMagika: where are you from? Having "magic rose" as your screen name and watching Brazilian soaps hehe... Brazilians are a very happy group generally... at least all the 20 I know are jumpy and dancy and absolute party people... Portuguese tend to be grumpier.... hehe... and we have nothing to do with the Spanish :p

Okay, I have apologized, so.............
I read in my Geography books that while most SOuth-American Latin is quite Spanish-like, Brazilian's is somewhat Portugese, thus my comment.... if that's wrong, blame the writer, not me... I was just curious :D

South America is called Latin-America because the languages spoken all derive from Latin. No such thing as South American Latin. Latin is not spoken as anywhere's official language.

Brazil was colonized by the Portuguese, and we took the language over there (after mercilessly killing half the native population... but not as bad as Cortez <- Spanish who slaughtered the, I do believe it was, Incas).

Fraggle Rocker: Falas português?Eu posso ler e escrever português com ajuda dum dicionario. Não ha muitas oportunidades de fala-lo.Podes me dizer qual é o proposito de saber Esperanto? Parece-me uma seca...Esperanto era mais popular quando eu era jovem. Ha 40-50 anos, havía muitos jovens que creíam “um mundo, uma gente, uma lingua.” A lingua é muito fázil de aprender, um mes basta. Era posível corresponder com muitos novos amigos em países estrangeiros e isto era muito interessante. Hoje meus amigos esperantistas são velhos como eu, aínda alguns são mortos. Em verdade, agora a lingua não tem interesse para os jovens.

Onde vive vc, que se diz "tu" em vez de "você"? Os cariocas não dizem "tu" e "vos", eu não sei conjugar os verbos! Provavelmente são parecidos com os espanhois. "Tu diste", "vos disteis"?South America is called Latin-America because the languages spoken all derive from Latin.“Latin America” isn’t just South America. It customarily includes Central America as well as Mexico, which is part of North America. Most “Latin Americans” take it to mean the entire Western Hemisphere except the U.S. and Canada. The official language of most of the people in the Caribbean nations is either Spanish or French.

Português tem pouco haver com Espanhol, e diga-se de passagem que o Brazileiro também é completamente diferente. Confesso que não sei conjugar verbos, mas sei que quando perciso deles, eles saiem com facilidade.
Como é mais velho que eu, tenho que usar o "você", mas nunca o trataria por você porque é considerado falta de educação em Portugal. O Brazileiro não tem isso, porque basta tratar toda a gente por "vc" e não há faltas de educação. Portanto, eu o trataria por "o". 'Tou a fazer algum sentido?

Either way, congrats :) Great Portuguese. I like English because you treat everyone the same way, despite age :)

I like English because you treat everyone the same way, despite age


what do you mean by that, on the internet everybody is "anonymous" age/gender it all flowers in to 1 unless you "identify" your self.

Portuguese looks hard, i can only read very few key words, to little to gues what it says :)

Meeeen jeg kunne sikkert prop det igennem bablefish, og finde ud af hva fan det er i fabler om.

Speaking of which Kunax, I suddenly feel tickled to define that in the net everyone's either nonymous, semi-nonymous or pseudononymous......
Some nice fellows may just tell everyone "Hey, this is my name, then I'm here, you can call me at this number in case you wanna visit.." etc
Others may just say " well, you know I'm a teenager, so just treat me such."
While some wicked ones may... well, you know what I'm saying.....

For example, I'm rather a semi-nonymous, because I haven't told you all about me, though I've given some true info about myself:)

And about language, or in particluar, European, I actually took a german class once, but after finishing the basic, I lost interest and thus stopped, so now I can barely speak German as well.....

Well, Auf wiederschreiben for now:)

Interest is proberly 1 of the most importent think to have when learning new things, language included and added to that it decays fast if not used.

But german is not my cup of cocao eather so auf WinerSnitsel yourself.

Whoops, sorry if you're not interested in German.....:) But that expression's funny :D How did you make it up? :D

just word games, like yours :)

English is my second language. Dutch first, German third. I still have some regrets about learning German. I rarely use it, and at the time I selected it in favor of biology.

Having a rather exotic first language (if not by sound, then certainly measured by number of speakers) puts me in a strange position when I feel like writing. Should I focus on my native language in which I can obviously express myself better, or should I aim for a much larger audience and go for English?

Kunax, rofl :D
Well, my expression is only part word-play actually.... typically, German's 'see ya' expression is either auf wiedersehen (for face to face talk; sehen = to see) or auf wiedersprechen (for phone talk; sprechen = to speak)..... and considering that schreiben = to write... I twist it a bit :p
But hell..... I haven't seen german here too lol... what a pioneer hehehehe

and mouse, well, hmm, gee I don't have a comment :rolleyes:

We have the saying in Dutch:

Auf wiedersnitzel.

(a parody on the german: auf wiedersehen)

Dänisch ist eine extrem dämliche Sprache möchte ich an dieser Stelle einmal sagen.

Those who cannot read this, too bad. :D


But hell..... I haven't seen german here too lol... what a pioneer hehehehe

Hehe, you start I´ll follow.

with knowledge of English, German and Scandinavian its possible for me to gues my way true basic Dutch.

Am i wrong in saying Dutch was a old trading language peices together by Germans, Englishs and Scandinavians trying to understand eachother.

mouse go with Dutch, just to bug people with there lack of understanding of it


Dänisch ist eine extrem dämliche Sprache möchte ich an dieser Stelle einmal sagen.


lol compared to german, danish is a cake walk

Edit: i think i'm getting dämliche wrong :), damn my german sucks
Danish is a extrem X language, i have to say in the first place.

My bunny nowadays tends to say auf wiedersnitzel:

see the end of this page (http://bunny.spuriousmonkey.com/files2004_april/bunny010.html)

Ermm... Was die Hölle? :D

Try Babel Fish for translations... http://world.altavista.com/ - unfortunately, literal translations SUCK! mwahahahah... *sigh*

E.g: That danish statment: Meeeen i could certainly cork that through bablefish , and get straight hva buff it is to fabler about.

Makes no sense... and Danish isn't on the babel list!!! :eek:

Try: http://translation.langenberg.com/

Originally posted by Kunax: i think i'm getting dämliche wrong , damn my german sucks Danish is a extrem X language, i have to say in the first place.

Translated into English, the sentence means: Danish is an extreme dumb/stupid language...

Just in case you do not get the "dämlich" part right. :D

I have to faint _-_
And spurious...... ship O_o?
And I'm feeling so unfortunate here.... SOMEBODY FORK ME OVER TISSUE!!!!

^_^ EX _A_ XD

Not to worry...the dutch also made slavery profitable again and invented the word apartheid.

ROFL all i need to say is german gramma, and word position :).


Meeeen jeg kunne sikkert prop det igennem bablefish, og finde ud af hva fan det er i fabler om.


Buuuut i could proberly stuff it true bablefish, and find out what the hell it is your are babling about.

As you say bablefish sucks, it will always rearrange the word wrongly and there a many word it dosn't know or translater badly like, dämlich :)

spuriousmonkey that link was perfectly insane, i like.

spuriousmonkey that link was perfectly insane, i like.

Thank my bunny...

This thread hasn't lost its purpose yet I hope. Still time for uno mas?

ingleesh ees my secund langage. i know a smatter of other languages.

So pardon me for any incoherency in future posts, because conciseness is not a quality I've acquired in english. But it's my best attribute in my own native tongue as there's only so many words, ya know?

so what's your first? Spanish?

baigi jokainais temats. tas nozīmē, ka es te latviski varu rakstīt? :) ok: Latviešu valoda ir otra senākā* valoda Eiropā!
*aiz lietuviešu

lol give us a broadside Avatar, its something about latvia and europe.
first part im guesing on you say "its good subject/topic"

Noi pes du arrimoeter, hich har har poetamorda.

zhoua

:D
a very funny thread. that means I can write latvian here? :) ok: Latvian language is the second most ancient language* in Europe.
*after the lithuanian

p.s. only because our's was later spoiled by german influence :(

Englisch be mine sekond langage.

une bière s'il vous plaît

Bobs barn bendes before bennys bunker burried back behind billys...

anyway....

Bob's = Bob is, and Bobs is for ownership, yes?

so what's your first? Spanish?

Nah, origin lies in SE asia.

SE Asia? Which part?

Am I wrong in saying Dutch was an old trading language pieced together by Germans, English and Scandinavians trying to understand each other?Dutch is a distinct language that evolved from Old German just as English, Frisian, and Modern German did.

When the Romans conquered the Germanic Franks and made Gaul a Latin-speaking region, the Germanic tribes in what is now Holland were suddenly separated from the Germanic tribes in what is now Germany and Austria. So Dutch evolved independently of German.

When the Roman Empire began to disintegrate and they abandoned their colonies in Britannia, the Angles and the Saxons, Germanic tribes from what is now Germany, sailed to Britannia, took it over, and ran the Celtic Britons out of their own country. Their Anglo-Saxon language "Old Anglisc" thus also evolved independently of both German and Dutch. When the Norman French invaded "Angle Land" in 1066 they brought hundreds of French words. Later on English scholars borrowed hundreds of words from Greek and Latin. That is why English has a very similar grammatical structure to German and Dutch but so many of the words are different.

I don't know very much about the Frisians. Linguists say that Modern Frisian is more closely related to English than Dutch or German is.

Many Scandinavians (the oldest Germanic tribes -- the later Germans migrated down into the European mainland from the north through Denmark) settled in England during the Anglo-Saxon period. Our language has a number of words that were borrowed from Old Norse, but I don't think Dutch has very many. Dutch is very much like German, with very few words borrowed from other languages -- compared to, say, English, Spanish, or Japanese.

SE Asia? Which part?

I thought SE Asia was a part of a part of a larger part...just kidding, Vietnam.

Português tem pouco haver com EspanholSó os espanhois e os portuguêses dizem isto. Nos, os estrangeiros, pensamos que o português e o espanhol são muito semelhantes, como o dinamarquês e o norueguês, ou o tcheco e o polonês. Tendo aprendido o espanhol, o português é muito fázil. No Novo Mundo, não ha muralha entre as pessoas que falam português e as que falam espanhol, como ha em Iberia. A tv toca videos musicais em ambas linguas. Quando eu viajava em Catalunha, meus amigos em Valencia me dizeram que em Portugal era muito fázil comunicar com a gente: no catalano! Aquela lingua é uma ponte entre o espanhol e o português. Eu compreendei cada palavra que eles falaram en catalano.E diga-se de passagem que o Brazileiro também é completamente diferente.Isto é verdade. Vcs dizen set, grand, estadz, alts. Os brasileiros dizem setchi, grandji, echtaduj, altuch. A sua pronunciacião de "R" é imposível.Como é mais velho que eu, tenho que usar o "você", mas nunca o trataria por você porque é considerado falta de educação em Portugal. O Brazileiro não tem isso, porque basta tratar toda a gente por "vc" e não há faltas de educação. Portanto, eu o trataria por "o". 'Tou a fazer algum sentido? Either way, congrats :) Great Portuguese. I like English because you treat everyone the same way, despite age :)Como você diz, a mim não me importa isso. Eu aprendei chamar "o senhor" ou "a senhora" as pessoas mais velhas, mas hoje todo mundo é "você". Se diz "tu" somente na igreja. É interessante, que em México "usted" (vuestra merced) é formal. Mas em Brasil a misma palavra "você" (vossa mercê) é intimo.

I was born in Ingushetia.

Danish, Norse and Swedish is very simular, but we all have selective hearing and have difficulties understanding eachother, missunderstanding is also help along by..."word for how people talk in variues refoins" :).

Like Danish is simular to other scandinavian languages Is Vietnames simular to Cambodian, Chinese or Laos, perhaps even Thai.

Dutch is very much like German, with very few words borrowed from other languages -- compared to, say, English, Spanish, or Japanese.

I'm not sure about that. I thought we borrowed quite a lot of words actually. But I am not sure.

Tcheco = Checo, Polonês = Poláco...
Fázil = Facil
"Como há em Iberia" - não percebo...
Catalão é uma mistura das duas, e entende-se bem... os Portugueses não têm grandes dificuldades em perceber espanhol, mas para um espanhol entender-nos... é de loucos!

"Vcs dizen set, grand, estadz, alts." ?????

"Os brasileiros dizem setchi, grandji, echtaduj, altuch."
Aaah....

7 = sete, grand = grande, estadz = estado?, alts? = altos?

>Eu aprendei chamar "o senhor" ou "a senhora" as pessoas mais velhas, mas hoje todo mundo é "você
Não em portugal...

>Se diz "tu" somente na igreja.
Deus me liver de alguma vez usar "tu" numa igreja! Seria a maior falta de respeito!!!

>Mas em Brasil a mesma palavra "você" (vossa mercê) é intimo.
Em portugal, "você" é simplesmente bruto...

Tcheco = Checo, Polonês = Poláco...Hmm. O meu dicionario tem essas palavras na secão português-ingles, mas a secão ingles-português da so "polonês" para a palvara inglesa "Polish." mas para um espanhol entender-nos... é de loucos!Sim. Podem ler o português, mas não entender a lingua falada.7 = sete, grand = grande, estadz = estado?, alts? = altos?(estadz=estados) Quando eu ouvo (oigo?) os portugueses falar, a "e" ou "o" ao fim das palavras são silentes. "Sete" sona como "set". Contam, "cinc, seis, set, oit, nov." O nomem "Gomes" sona como "Gommz". Não dizem, "Com' vai você"? Ou isto e pronunciacão brasileria? Eles me dizem "Comu vai você".Deus me liver de alguma vez usar "tu" numa igreja! Seria a maior falta de respeito!!!Os cariocas me dizem que quando falam a Deus ou Jesus, o chama "tu", o mesmo como em espanhol.

In English we have the equivalent pronoun "thou," which is only used in church and in prayers. Extremely religious people only say "thou" to God or Jesus, never "you." And when God and Jesus talk back (I personally have never heard this :) they also say "thou."

Bom, pode acreditar em mim quando digo que Polish é Polaco.

polaco
1. Polish [adj]
2. Pole [n]

Nunca ouvi "polonês", suponho que seja Brazileirada... de qualquer forma, "secão" é "secção".
Há, bem, se nuestros hermanos lêem Português, não faço a mínima!

"Ouvo, Oigo" = Oiço ou Ouço.
Sona = soa.
Sona is Spanish.

Então, parece-me que o Português que ouve não é de nativos da língua... Eu digo-lhe que cá, Sete = Sete, Cinco = Cinco, Oit = Oito, e Nove = Nove.
Só no Norte é que Oito = Oit, ou na ilha da Madeira.
Também se diz Gomes como "Gomes" e nunca ouvi "Gommz" a não ser com pronuncias estranhas!

"Como" também se usa em Portugal... nunca se escreve "com'". 'Como' e 'Comu' têm o mesmo som.

No Brasil, "tu" é mais respeitoso. Em Portugal, "tu" é coisa de camaradas. "Ó Tu! Como te chamas?", "E tu queres isto, pá?".

"Thou" é 'Vós'.

Eu...
Tu...
Ele...
Nós...
Vós...
Eles...

O equivalente a "Vous" en Français.
Vós não é usado no dia-a-dia... é antiquado e excessivo. :)

English is really second here lolz

Claro!

(of course)