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Underwaterbob@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

I teach ESL, and this kinda shit in the English language drives me nuts. It’s impossible to explain. Just gotta know it. The worst is when you’re asking questions. “What’s this?” for single things. “What are these?” for multiples. HTF do you explain that you have to know to ask “What are these?” when you’re asking about pants or scissors. They’re literally asking what those things are. It’s bizarre.

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Bluewing@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Just blame the French for things like this. Your students will be like “Oh that explains it” and move on to the next nonsensical thing they need to learn.

Every language has it’s “you just gotta know” moments. Like German. Not too hard until you start getting into technical reading and speech. Just how many words can you glue together? And why?

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- SavinDWhales@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  What do you mean why?
  
  So we can have games named like this
  
  spoiler
  PVKK: Planetenverteidigungskanonenkommandant
  
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qarbone@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
It is impossible to intuit, but you just introduce “pair of pants” as the singular article. Thus, two pants are “two pairs of pants.”

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- Underwaterbob@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Which is fine for more advanced students, but for kids whose vocabulary and grammar are already very limited, it confuses things a lot.
  
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AA5B@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Bring a pair of kitchen scissors, and awe them by separating the halves

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- calcopiritus@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Why is a pair of scissors separated in halves? Shouldn’t a pair of scissors be separated into 2 unit scissor?
  
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  - AA5B@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Apparently this oddity has a term
    
    pants is an example of a plurale tantum—a word only ever used in its plural form
    
    But I don’t see anything makings sense of it
    
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