Need Help On Terror Incorprated, 5th Edition.

[Smeazel]

Originally posted by Rechan

Look at the tenses. First, Second, Third (singular), Third (Plural) and We. The endings all match with the other words involved.

 

Whoa. If you want to give an example of simplicity in Spanish, verb tenses are about the worst possible example to pick. Verb tenses are one of the aspects in which Spanish is most complex - far, far more complex than English.

 

First of all, First, Second, and Third are persons, not tenses. Tenses are as in past, present, future, etc. English has exactly two basic tenses, plus two participles and various compound tenses that are produced in perfectly regular fashion with helping verbs (future tense = will + infinitive, conditional = would + infinitive, etc.) Spanish has nine different non-compound tenses - present indicative, present subjunctive, preterite, imperfect, imperfect subjunctive, future, future subjunctive, imperative, and conditional - plus two participles and various compound tenses. (Ten tenses, actually, if you consider there are two different ways of forming the imperfect subjunctive.) The tenses are far, far more complex. (Technically, English grammar has some of these same tenses, but the verbs don't have different forms in them (for example, the English indicative is the same as the infinitive). In Spanish, all these tenses do have different verb forms!)

 

And as far as person (first, second, and third), Spanish is way more complex than English there too. Spanish has six different combinations of person and number: first, second, and third person singular and plural. Each of these gives a different ending, which isn't necessarily the same for every tense. English has two combinations of person and number leading to different verb forms for most verbs - the only exception, the present tense of to be, has three forms, still half of those in Spanish.

 

To get an idea of how very much more complex Spanish verbs are than English, compare the following:

 

Here are all the forms of to be, the English verb with the most different forms: be, being, been, is, are, am, was, were. That's it. Eight different forms of the verb. (That's not counting compound forms like "has been" and "will be", of course, but those are formed in a regular fashion, and Spanish has at least as many different compound forms as English.)

 

Okay, now let's look at the Spanish verb ser, one of the two Spanish verbs for to be. How many different forms does ser have (again not counting compounds)? Let's see: ser, siendo, sido, es, eres, soy, son, sois, somos, sea, seas, sean, seais, séamos, fue, fuiste, fui, fueron, fuisteis, fuimos, era, eras, eran, erais, éramos, fuera, fueras, fueran, fuerais, fuéramos, fuese, fueses, fuesen, fueseis, fuesen, fuésemos, será, serás, seré, serán, seráis, seramos, fuere, fueres, fueren, fuereis, fuéremos, sé, sed, sería, serías, serían, seríais, seríamos. That's fifty-four different forms of the verb, as opposed to eight forms for "to be" in English. And before you start talking about irregular verbs - Spanish is loaded with irregular verbs, too, and if you think remembering the irregularities for verbs that take eight different forms like in English try learning irregularities for verbs that can take fifty-something different forms. Then add on the fact that the pronouns in Spanish can be joined to the verbs, and in some cases the verbs change to accomodate them, giving rise to still more forms. Verbs in Spanish are far, far more complex than in English.

 

I think the reason you seem so convinced that Spanish is simpler than English is because you've only had high school Spanish, and they don't teach all the complications of the language because they couldn't fit it into one or two semesters. I'll bet in your high school Spanish classes they didn't mention the subjunctive tenses, or conditional, maybe not even the difference between preterite and imperfect, despite the fact that these are all important features of the language that a native speaker uses daily without thinking about it. Along the same lines, a native Spanish speaker who only learned the basics of English (and didn't learn the subtleties and exceptions) might think English is a very simple language. Only one word for to be, instead of the two verbs ser and estar and having to figure out which one is appropriate? No imperfect tense? No subjunctives (or at least very rarely used subjunctives)? No genders for nouns, articles, and adjectives? No accents? Wow! English is much simpler than Spanish!

 

Actually, if either language has a more complex grammar than the other, I'd say it's Spanish. Unlike English, in Spanish you have to worry about agreement of genders between nouns, adjectives, and articles (in English, an adjective or article has only one form, in Spanish it has four); you have all these different verb tenses and persons to worry about; and yes, there are at least as many irregularities and exceptions to the rules in Spanish as in English. But then, as I said, Spanish has much simpler spelling, so I guess it balances out...

[Rechan]

Dude. I'm not looking for a debate here; all I know is what I learned in two years worth of high school Spanish. It seemed very simple to me. Far simplier then English.

[Smeazel]

Originally posted by Rechan

Dude. I'm not looking for a debate here; all I know is what I learned in two years worth of high school Spanish. It seemed very simple to me. Far simplier then English.

 

And what I'm saying is that's probably because in high school Spanish they only told you the simple part - the very basics. The very basics of English are pretty simple too. But taken as a whole, Spanish grammar is, if anything, more complex than English grammar. It has way more verb tenses, it has different forms of adjectives and articles for different gender and number, and so forth. It's probably just that in your high school Spanish class, they left out the complications. You're a native English speaker (I assume), so you know all the complications and exceptions in English - but you only know the basics of Spanish, so you're not familiar with how complex it is.

[Rechan]

Right. Not to mention that you Hear that English is such a hodgepodge of different things, and conflicting in many areas, and is often confusing for non-native english speakers to learn.

 

It's hard to imagine, then, that something that seemed so simple is actually so much more challanging in comparison.

[steriaca]

Update!

 

Basicly, Spider Monkey is the only charater from the Asasinos to make the cut into Terror Incorprated. I have decided to create two mercnary members, who are husban and wife. The wife, Bombshell, wears an armor created by The Warlord, and tosses bombs. Crosshairs, another person who wears Warlord armor, shoots things with his "gauntlet gun". And, yes, he is the husban.

 

It's nice to see villians who play together, stay together.