Features English is missing - but most other languages have

I had a german friend tell me that english is perfect for constructing jokes because it doesn't give away the punchline until the end of the sentence

This whole comment section reminds me of a story. "An english teacher said to his class, 'in many languages there is an equivalent to a double negative, in which two negatives make a positive. But there are no languages where a double positive makes a negative.' From the back of the class a student said, 'yeah right."

A clear detriment I’ve noticed in English is only one word for “love.” Greek (see the New Testament) has 6 different words for love, depending on whether you mean self-love, long-standing love, deep friendship, playful love, love for people in the world in general, or sexual love. You can get in big trouble in English if you mean one of those but someone else who speaks only English thinks you mean another.

In Indonesian, we use reduplication for several things: - as plural indicator - as “ish” in english (e.g childish, reddish etc) - imitation of something (e.g mobil = car, mobil-mobilan=car toy) - or completely different meaning (irregular) e.g langit = sky langit-langit = ceiling. We use “-“ for the repeated words to indicate they are one word. Anyway I don’t think saya-saya is Indonesian word tho but reduplication is indeed a thing in our language

The correct way to address short people: "You don't tall."

"You can't repeat a word twice to create a new meaning." Yeah, yeah.

5:45 yes, when it rains, we should point out the window and yell “RAINING”

I think the majority of Austronesian languages have different words for inclusive and exclusive "we". This avoids awkward conversations.

Native lang: we need reduplication My sixth grade self: Do you like her? Like, like like her?

This must be why Google sucks at translating to English.

“I like him, but I don’t like like him” we have repeating words (and sounds too!) but they’re mostly used informally and speaking so you wouldn’t see them in a book. In addition you can use adjectives as verbs but, again, you don’t verbify nouns and adjectives in formal writing, just informal :)

in danish (and i think other scandinavian langauages too) we have different words for grandparents based on whether they're your father or mothers parents it's really simple tbh, the words are: mormor: mom mom (mom's mom) morfar: mom dad (mom's dad) farmor: dad mom (dad's mom) farfar: dad dad (dad's dad)

So you think English doesn’t have question particles at the end of phrases, eh?

Reduplication: "So, do you like her, or do you like like her?

In our Cebuano (Central Philippine) language, which is a Malayo-Polynesian language, reduplication is a prominent feature, the implications of which often refers to a second-rate version of the original word, regardless whether a noun, an adjective, or a verb is reduplicated. 1. NOUNS: refers to second-rate versions of things. asáwa = wife asawa-asawa = common-law wife anák = child anák-ának = adopted child; child in a role-play arrangement baláy = house baláy-bálay = makeshift house With nouns, reduplication could also imply multiplicity of the nouns: baláy = house baláy-baláy = houses; neighbourhood 2. VERBS: refers to less-serious versions of the actions being done. túlog = sleep túlog-túlog = pretending to be asleep kaón = eat kaón-kaón = leisurely eating, or eating not quite seriously 3. ADJECTIVES: refer to descriptions which are just second-rate to the original adjective from where it came from. dakû = big dakû-dakû = biggish; quite big ulán = rainy (usu refers to the noun “rain”, but could also be used as adjective, like in this example) ulán-úlan = drizzling; light showers

5:56 In Russian, the Instrumental is formed just by using the Instrumental form of a noun. A comitative case is formed when you add the preposition с to the instrumental noun.

I'm surprised grammatical gender wasn't mentioned. I never knew it was a thing until I took a foreign language class and realized my door was in fact a girl.

Australian english has reduplication. Yeah = tell me more Yeah yeah = I've heard enough yeah nah = no nah yeah = yes na na = bannana

There are three you's in Marathi: तू (tu) तुम्ही (tumhi) आपण (aapan) The first one is used for someone your age, like a friend. The second one is used for people elder than you, your parents and your teachers. And the third one is used for strangers or someone you do not know very well.

One observation about a slight deficiency in the language that no-one's mentioned (although it's not really a missing feature). The difficulty in differentiating in speech between "thirteen/thirty", "fourteen/forty", "fifteen/fifty" etc. This happens with native speakers all the time, where we commonly find ourselves either saying the number very slowly an emphasizing the final syllable very carefully, or spelling out the individual digits (e.g. "one-three" or "three-oh"). It's a genuine inconvenience. This is a pecularity of English because during the Saxon period it lost the distinctive "-g" endings which German and Dutch have. For example, you'd never get confused between "vierzehn" and "vierzig".