Take for example, the verb "to run".
English: I run ~ you run ~ (s)he/one runs ~ we run ~ they run
Swedish: jag kör ~ du kör ~ han/hon kör ~ vi kör ~ ni kör ~ de kör
French: je cours ~ tu cours ~ il/elle/on court ~ nous courons ~ vous courez ~ ils/elles courent
Spanish: yo corro ~ tú corres ~ él/ella/Usted corre ~ nosotros corremos ~ vosotros corréis ~ ellos/ellas/Ustedes corren
Italian: io corro ~ tu corri ~ lui/lei/lei/egli corre ~ noi corriamo ~ voi correte ~ loro/Loro/essi corrono
German: ich renne ~ du rennst ~ er/sie/es rennt ~ wir rennen ~ ihr rennt ~ sie/Sie rennen
Now, I've always said Russian was the hardest language I've ever tried learning... but I think the reason why it's so hard is because of grammar. I just don't get it. I understand verb conjugation, the tenses, most of the cases, etc.... but some things are still beyond my level of comprehension.
For example, they have the "Imperfective Indefinite" for which the verb "to run" is бегать and is conjugated in the present tense:
я бегаю ~ ты бегаешь ~ он/она/оно бегает ~ мы бегаём ~ вы бегаете ~ они бегают
But then there's the "Imperfective Definite" for which the verb "to run" is бежать and is conjugated in the present tense as:
я бегу ~ ты бежишь ~ он/она/оно бежит ~ мы бежим ~ вы бежите ~ они бегут
I'm not sure if I understood these correctly... but is it similar to "I run" vs. "I am running"? So that's my bone to pick with Russian. As for French, I've been reviewing all the literary tenses that are used only in writing and rarely (more likely never) in spoken language. I feel like if I want to read Victor Hugo in French before I die, I should be familiar with such antiquated cases like Past Anterior (j'eus couru), Future Anterior (j'aurai couru), Imperfect Subjunctive (je courusse), Past Subjunctive (j'aie couru), subjonctif plus-que-parfait (j'eusse couru), conditionnel passé 2ème (j'eusse couru) and a new tense I had never learned before "impératif passé" (j'aie couru !).
Now that I think about it, I can't think of how to use the latter tense... when the hell would I used a past-tense imperative????? In total, there are 17 tenses in French, and if you include the present participle as a tense (courant), there are 18, just like the 18 tenses in Spanish. I can't even think of 10 tenses in English... I'm surprised. I actually thought that French was rather easy to learn and was an overall simple language. Maybe it's not as simple and maybe the only reason it was easier for me was because I'd already studied Spanish. Seriously, I always complain about German or Russian but rarely about the Romance languages. Upon counting, I think in terms of tenses, there are "only" 15 tenses in German while there are perhaps 8 tenses in Russian (don't quote me on that). I guess the only issue with German and Russian then, are the cases. German has 4 and all four cases can be somehow related to English. Russian has 6 cases... and not all 6 can be related to English. I mean, what the hell is an instrumental case?
Ok, I'm done ranting. I had to get that out there. Sometimes, I wish I had a simpler, easier obsession instead of languages. Sometimes, learning languages is really discouraging and it seem really fruitless... until I get to speak the language with someone who speaks it and then I feel like it's worth all the time and energy.
Today's Random Picture:
Oh, what is the world coming to? I mean, that kid looks like he's 8! Children these days, they're maturing too fast.
