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Why does English have 4-5x more words than other languages?
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Date: May 7th, 2025 8:05 AM Author: Aquamarine Talented Orchestra Pit Obvious answer seems to be Anglos are more intelligent and the most adept and nuanced communicators, but Im open to other possibilities
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Date: October 30th, 2025 2:08 AM Author: House-broken Spot Coffee Pot england america and australia are the top 3 PISA scoring nations in the world for sure bro (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5721451&forum_id=2:#49386972) |
Date: May 7th, 2025 8:06 AM Author: Geriatric windowlicker More loan words (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5721451&forum_id=2:#48910393) |
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Date: May 7th, 2025 8:08 AM Author: Aquamarine Talented Orchestra Pit well yes I didnt imagine most of them were invented wholesale ("lets call it, idk, a FROG!").
But each language has a similar opportunity to take loaners. |
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Date: May 7th, 2025 8:07 AM Author: Thriller Organic Girlfriend Some of these words I only hear occasionally and they’re barely in the dictionary imo (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5721451&forum_id=2:#48910399) |
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Date: May 7th, 2025 8:08 AM Author: Wonderful factory reset button Because due to the Norman invasion we have all the Germanic and all the French words. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5721451&forum_id=2:#48910405) |
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Date: May 7th, 2025 8:08 AM Author: Thriller Organic Girlfriend Yes, “we,” Xiang. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5721451&forum_id=2:#48910407) |
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Date: May 7th, 2025 8:10 AM Author: Aquamarine Talented Orchestra Pit we have 10x french words and 5x german words (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5721451&forum_id=2:#48910415) |
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Date: May 7th, 2025 8:09 AM Author: electric avocado station black woman long, varied literary history and over a century as the lingua franca. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5721451&forum_id=2:#48910412) |
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Date: May 7th, 2025 8:53 AM Author: peach pungent deer antler (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5721451&forum_id=2:#48910476) |
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Date: May 7th, 2025 8:56 AM Author: Mauve territorial wagecucks theatre what counts as a "word"? are "dog" and "dogs" two words, or just one word that can be modified? it's all flame and no one ever asks these questions imo. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5721451&forum_id=2:#48910480) |
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Date: May 7th, 2025 9:04 AM Author: titillating clear area mad cow disease sup Chang! (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5721451&forum_id=2:#48910490) |
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Date: May 7th, 2025 9:29 AM Author: Aquamarine Talented Orchestra Pit but where do we draw the line (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5721451&forum_id=2:#48910530) |
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Date: May 7th, 2025 10:06 AM Author: Vigorous translucent stage (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5721451&forum_id=2:#48910601) |
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Date: May 7th, 2025 11:00 AM Author: Gold Corner (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5721451&forum_id=2:#48910751) |
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Date: May 7th, 2025 1:31 PM Author: sepia whorehouse associate and at what cost! (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5721451&forum_id=2:#48911169) |
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Date: November 4th, 2025 10:07 AM Author: Judgmental office think of the children (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5721451&forum_id=2:#49400640) |
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Date: May 7th, 2025 4:09 PM Author: violet alcoholic shrine dog, canine, hound, all more or less mean the same thing. minor nuances if you want.
more synonyms as well, but those have more nuances |
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Date: October 30th, 2025 2:53 AM Author: Wonderful factory reset button You're the man now, dog! (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5721451&forum_id=2:#49387014) |
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Date: May 7th, 2025 10:08 AM Author: diverse flesh space Because Britain was invaded and occupied by so many different peoples while the language was developing. Roman's, Vikings, French, German pretty much whoever we want (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5721451&forum_id=2:#48910604) |
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Date: May 7th, 2025 10:10 AM Author: Appetizing hominid parlor Because indians are mentally retarded (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5721451&forum_id=2:#48910608) |
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Date: May 7th, 2025 10:20 AM Author: aromatic half-breed We’ve dominated new ideas, cultural trends, and inventions for a while now and that’s where all the new words come from. Other languages borrow the English words for these discoveries. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5721451&forum_id=2:#48910649) |
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Date: May 7th, 2025 11:07 AM Author: Cobalt Meetinghouse Elastic Band lack of any internal rules or external authority that tries to guide its development
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Date: May 7th, 2025 11:09 AM Author: frum passionate dragon English is often said to have more words than most other major languages—but this comes with some important caveats. Why English Has So Many Words
Multiple Source Languages: English is a hybrid language, with roots in:
Germanic (Old English from Anglo-Saxons)
Latin (via the Church and later scientific/academic vocabulary)
French (especially Norman French after 1066)
Plus contributions from Greek, Norse, Dutch, Arabic, Hindi, etc.
This layering allows for synonyms from different roots: e.g., ask (Germanic), question (French), inquire (Latin).
Global Borrowing: As a colonial and global trade language, English absorbed words from many other cultures. For example:
bungalow (Hindi)
safari (Swahili via Arabic)
sushi (Japanese)
Scientific and Technical Vocabulary: English dominates global science and academia, generating thousands of technical terms, often derived from Latin and Greek.
Flexible Word Formation: English easily creates new words through:
Compounding: laptop, brainstorm
Affixation: unhappiness, predetermined
Conversion: to Google (verb from noun)
Blending: brunch, smog
Caveats
Counting Words Is Tricky: Dictionaries vary on what they count. Do we include slang, scientific terms, regional dialects, obsolete words?
Inflection vs. Vocabulary: Languages like Russian or Arabic express meaning through inflection and root patterns rather than distinct word entries, so they may appear to have fewer words but aren't necessarily less expressive.
Active vs. Passive Vocabulary: English may have the largest total vocabulary, but the average speaker uses a much smaller subset. |
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Date: May 7th, 2025 11:12 AM Author: Cobalt Meetinghouse Elastic Band https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJYoqCDKoT4 (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5721451&forum_id=2:#48910776) |
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Date: May 7th, 2025 12:17 PM Author: magenta bespoke center It's a lot of different reasons, most of which other poasters have alluded to. Early in its history, England was dominated at different times by Norse, French, and German speaking people, so it picked up many words from these languages. More recently, the most powerful country in the world has been English speaking for several hundreds of years right now. (The USA took over that title from England some time in the late 19th/early 20th century, and England had it for at least several years before then.) As a result, English has become the de facto language of commerce and science worldwide and far and away the most common second language in the world, both of which led to English picking up even more words from other languages. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5721451&forum_id=2:#48911001) |
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Date: May 7th, 2025 12:39 PM Author: Shivering cream therapy Shakespeare (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5721451&forum_id=2:#48911061) |
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Date: May 7th, 2025 1:34 PM Author: electric avocado station black woman he's in no small part an effect, not a cause. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5721451&forum_id=2:#48911179) |
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Date: May 7th, 2025 4:23 PM Author: Judgmental office Operation Shakespeare was a Tudor propaganda machine but it did make contributions (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5721451&forum_id=2:#48911597) |
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Date: May 7th, 2025 10:53 PM Author: Shivering cream therapy That's the most believable theory tbh (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5721451&forum_id=2:#48912482) |
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Date: May 7th, 2025 4:10 PM Author: know-it-all clown Wtf kind of question is this it's the lingua franca for the entire world so ofc it has the most words (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5721451&forum_id=2:#48911572) |
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Date: May 7th, 2025 4:27 PM Author: Judgmental office English is an Imperial, business oriented creole or koine Welsh, Icelandic etc are real tongues |
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Date: May 7th, 2025 5:47 PM Author: hateful maroon abode rigor English has a vast vocabulary due to its historical interactions with numerous other languages, particularly Latin, French, and Greek. This borrowing and blending of words have resulted in a rich tapestry of vocabulary, where many words for the same concept exist with subtly different meanings.
Here's a more detailed explanation:
Historical Influence: English has a long history of being influenced by other languages, including Old English, French, Latin, and Greek. This has resulted in a large number of synonyms and words with overlapping meanings.
Loanwords: English has readily adopted words from other languages, including French, Latin, and Greek, adding to its vast vocabulary.
Borrowing and Blending: English has a history of borrowing words from other languages and blending them into its own vocabulary.
Nuance and Precision: English speakers often have a preference for using different words to convey subtle nuances of meaning, which contributes to the large vocabulary.
Global Influence: English's status as a global language has also contributed to its continuous evolution and borrowing of new words from various languages. |