English sure must be tough to learn as a 2nd language ?...

[Doug]

http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2001/JohnnyLing.shtml

There are like 500,000 words in the language, ( a million if you include scientific words) vs. like 100,000 in Spanish.

My numbers may be off, BTW.

A fairly well educated American knows like 20,000 words of 500,000 +.

So you know 4% of the words in English, and you're fluent ?

I'd hate to try to learn this language, if I just escaped Mexico !

I'd sure have a hard time learning another language, I don't remember much of the French I took in HS, learned a bit of Spanish in my time around Calif, Nev, Colo.

I sure couldn't learn that chinese/jap stuff , ain't no way !

[Willie Bee]

It's tough enough for some (many?) as a first language.

[odusmykal]

When you toss in all the slang words people use everyday, its gotta be very tough.. Just think of money as an example: cash, paper, bank, cheese, notes, coinage, loot, roll, moolah, dough, greenbacks, bucks, bread, bacon, clams, cabbage, cheddar, smackeroo's, duckets, stacks.. Lots more..

[Powderguy]

hundo = 100's
benjamins

[Doug]

When you toss in all the slang words people use everyday, its gotta be very tough.. Just think of money as an example: cash, paper, bank, cheese, notes, coinage, loot, roll, moolah, dough, greenbacks, bucks, bread, bacon, clams, cabbage, cheddar, smackeroo's, duckets, stacks.. Lots more..

I'm sure there is slang in any language.

There are possibly ( ?) more words in English than any other language ?

I think we have too many words with almost the same meaning, perhaps, as the money example illustrates ?

You know 20k of 500k words, and you're educated !

[MilfDriller]

Bullshit.

Comes down to laziness. Used to work with a French woman who has been in the US for 10 years. Graduated from French university and came here. Here English was flawless. Reading her emails I never found one error. Not one. You could hear a slight accent in her voice. That was it. Anyways, she always understood everything... never even a question.