this post was submitted on 18 Oct 2025
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A solution I have found useful with various languages has been figuring out what are the reasons some stuff is done in a very unusual manner. There's basically always something such a rule allows you to take shortcuts at in some whole other language situation. When you notice that the very weird structure is not used in some situation, you get much more precision in understanding what that means. All languages have things that are ambiguous because the grammar leaves things unsaid. "We are ugly" doesn't really tell whether you, trolske, are ugly or if it's only me and a couple other people who are. But there languages where you have a different word for "we" depending on whether it also includes the people being talked to, or not. (Finnish is not one of those languages, though :( )
That's a rule that is a bit annoying to learn because instead of "I, you, she, we, youse, they" you need to learn "I, you she, we, wo, youse, they". One extra word. But damn it's satisfying when you hear "we are ugly" said in that language and know precisely that you are not included! Or "Wo are ugly", meaning that yes, "wo are indeed ugly, including you."
When you find out why the complexity exists, your brain stops rebelling against the rule and you will learn what needs to be learned!