:O
I'm sick of having this conversation. (Okay, it's only happened twice. I don't talk about this all the time. Really!)
Me: ...so, yeah, I can't believe [so-and-so] didn't know English wasn't a Romance language!
Person I Thought Knew This: English isn't a Romance language?
ENGLISH IS NOT A ROMANCE LANGUAGE. ENGLISH IS A GERMANIC LANGUAGE. Romance languages are Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, and Romanian. English and German are more related than English is to any of those languages! (To see how they're related, check this shit out. It's like an evolutionary table! Here's the one for the Romance languages.)
Poll
If you didn't know that... why did you think it was? Because we're always hearing sooo much about the Latin roots? But we didn't borrow the GRAMMAR. It just boggles my mind. For most people who start studying Spanish or French, they have to spend a lot of time getting used to the whole verb system which is so alien to English. IT'S ALIEN BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT RELATED STRUCTURALLY.
All that aside, I do honestly want to know why you thought that though, if you did. And if you didn't, tell me so I can congratulate you! :D
[ETA: Results so far say that most people know that. woohoo!!! Do I just know really stupid people in person? XD]
Me: ...so, yeah, I can't believe [so-and-so] didn't know English wasn't a Romance language!
Person I Thought Knew This: English isn't a Romance language?
ENGLISH IS NOT A ROMANCE LANGUAGE. ENGLISH IS A GERMANIC LANGUAGE. Romance languages are Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, and Romanian. English and German are more related than English is to any of those languages! (To see how they're related, check this shit out. It's like an evolutionary table! Here's the one for the Romance languages.)
Poll
If you didn't know that... why did you think it was? Because we're always hearing sooo much about the Latin roots? But we didn't borrow the GRAMMAR. It just boggles my mind. For most people who start studying Spanish or French, they have to spend a lot of time getting used to the whole verb system which is so alien to English. IT'S ALIEN BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT RELATED STRUCTURALLY.
All that aside, I do honestly want to know why you thought that though, if you did. And if you didn't, tell me so I can congratulate you! :D
[ETA: Results so far say that most people know that. woohoo!!! Do I just know really stupid people in person? XD]