Dave Allen on the Vagaries of the English Language

Search Tags:

Categories:

Dave Allen on the Vagaries of the English Language

Uploaded by: raggedclown
Video Description:
From Dave's 1990 series on the BBC. I made some movie titles to explain the context.

Tags for this video: Allen BBC Dave English funny standup swearing

Find more videos in the "Comedy" category
See more videos uploaded by raggedclown

Related Videos

Parkinson BBC Dave Allen 80s	Dave Allen on...BANKS	Dave Allen - Giving up smoking

Dave Allen on...PARENTING & BOYFRIENDS	Dave Allen - I'm NOT reliant to Alcohol !	Dave Allen on...FARTS BOOBS & LIPOSUCTION

Share This Video:

Comments for this video: Show || Hide

Comments for this video on YouTube

OMG! I FORGET C AND ... ( 3 weeks ago by Popskullgamer199)

OMG! I FORGET C AND NOW I AM RETARD, THE IRONY OF THAT. Yeah ok, that proves nothing. English isn't my first language dipshit and yes I know how to spell "Accept" This is the internet, I didn't come here to use perfect grammar and spelling.

Why does his ... ( 3 weeks ago by jci10)

Why does his American accent sound like Tony Soprano?

"OMG! I FORGET C ... ( 2 weeks ago by GCBiggles)

"OMG! I FORGET C AND NOW I AM RETARD, THE IRONY OF THAT."
No. The irony is in your insistence that English is easy, prior to making the mistake. I guess you missed the bit where I said I normally don't correct people.
You've proven my point better than I ever could that English is NOT easy.
Q.E.D.

Because I made a ... ( 2 weeks ago by Popskullgamer199)

Because I made a spelling mistake? No offense or anything, that doesn't prove anything. If I was typing spanish and I wrote, "Estudiantte" does that mean Spanish is hard? It's a simple spelling mistake. And no offense, but isn't english your native language? Well for me it isn't, I actually learned it as a 2nd language.

Popskull, yes, and ... ( 2 weeks ago by GCBiggles)

Popskull, yes, and I make mistakes too. That's because (ta-daaa!!!) English is HARD.
There are reasons why some languages are hard and some are easy. Spanish is easy, because it's main source is Latin.
The source of English is Germanic Anglo-Saxon, Norman-French, Latin. That's why it is such a pig's breakfast of a language, with rules that make no internal sense.
Your original statement that it is "easy" is a denial of comparitive linguistic history.

He's Irish. It is ... ( 1 week ago by nejuw)

He's Irish. It is a Dublin accent (a posh one)

You're a native ... ( 1 week ago by Popskullgamer199)

You're a native speaker of English, yes? Your looking at the English language from a completely different angle than a non-native speaker would. EVERYONE wants to think that their native language is hard, English is no exception. I live in France, near the Spanish border, I have many Spaniards as friends. And they all say, SPANISH IS HARD! And yet people like you say it's easy, I am curious, do you speak Spanish fluently? Everyone likes to think their language is hard, but in reality, NEGATIVE!

I forgot to say ... ( 1 week ago by Popskullgamer199)

I forgot to say that many English speakers are also monolingual. Some of the countries with the biggest percentages? USA,UK,Australia, etc. And the few that aren't monolingual only speak other languages because there probably immigrants. You guys like to think that your language is so hard because in reality, you know no other languages and want to think that since your language is so "important" you don't need to learn any other language.

what the hell does ... ( 1 week ago by sabo2490)

what the hell does me thinking my language is hard have to do with its popularity (or lack there of, either way)
english is my first, yeah sure i grew up with it but since i've started learning 5 others... with another 2/3 on the ropes... english is hard to learn... 13 years of school and i still suck at it... i started learning because i was the only one of my friends that couldn't speak more that 2 languages... oh, and i live in Australia... i've also lived in USA, i was one of 3 who couldn't

i'll give u this ... ( 1 week ago by sabo2490)

i'll give u this tho... English does have the most versatility :)
dexterity, flexibility, variation, diversity, etc.
its also the most poetic... that is again an opinion... i hear ppl argue french for that title...

You're still having ... ( 1 week ago by Popskullgamer199)

You're still having trouble with it? Hell, people say that about their native language all the time, trying to do the whole, "HAHA! I don't even know the difference between their,they're, and there! And English is my native language! It must have been really hard for you!" That was from a girl I met on the plane ride to the USA from France. Just because you have trouble with your native language and don't know some simple grammar concepts doesn't mean the rest of us don't know.

did i say anything ... ( 1 week ago by sabo2490)

did i say anything about there, their or they're...

Did I ever say you ... ( 1 week ago by Popskullgamer199)

Did I ever say you did? Obviously you didn't get the point. I was trying to explain how everyone thinks their native language is the hardest and try to bring up their short comings to prove it.

bringing up short ... ( 1 week ago by sabo2490)

bringing up short comings is pretty easy in English... i'll agree there :P

Haha, yeah. You ... ( 1 week ago by Popskullgamer199)

Haha, yeah. You should hear some other languages, you'd be surprised how their shortcomings come a lot "easier" :P

"guys like to think ... ( 1 week ago by GCBiggles)

"guys like to think that your language is so hard"
Popskull, as I pointed out, the difficulty and lack of cohesive rules in English it is not a matter of personal opinion. It has a basis in historical fact. Learn the HISTORY of the English language. There is nothing "monolingual" about it. It's a pig's breakfast of multiple old languages, as a result of multiple conquests. THAT is where its difficulty stems from.

Array ( 1 week ago by GCBiggles)

(continued)
Spanish, French, Portugese, Italian, Romanian all have similar rules, especially with regard to inflection. Once you learn one (especially Latin), you are half-way to home-plate at learning all the others.
English is the odd-man out in that. It stands alone in its difficulty, because of the overlapping historical migrations and conquests.

Array ( 1 week ago by EndCredulity)

(3rd & final)
All the others have dialect and regional differences. But, for example, the French roots of English and the Anglo-Saxon roots of English have NOTHING in common with each other. Learning one "source" of English doesn't help you at all in learning the others.

Have you learned ... ( 1 week ago by Popskullgamer199)

Have you learned English as a 2nd language? No, I don't think so. I am not dissing the language, I love English and I love talking it in. And I love how it's simple and poetic. It's one of my favorite languages.

We weren't bringing ... ( 1 week ago by Popskullgamer199)

We weren't bringing in the subject of all those languages, English is a mix, but it has many words borrowed from German and French. Just because it's a mix of languages doesn't make it hard. English has simple grammar, medium-difficulty spelling, and slightly hard pronunciation.

And also, I have ... ( 1 week ago by Popskullgamer199)

And also, I have studied Italian for two years now by myself(I love languages and love learning snippets of other languages) And I can say Italian is about the same, maybe a bit harder than English. And what do you know? It's a romance language and my mother tongue is a romance language! It's spelling and pronunciation is pretty easy(nothing really you wouldn't find in English) But Italian grammar is a lot harder than English.

No shit? ( 1 week ago by santajimi)

No shit?

What? ( 1 week ago by Popskullgamer199)

What?

No shit? ( 3 days ago by santajimi)

No shit?

Tell a friend:

URL
Embed Code