Why it has this rule?

[Suthipong]

The rule: add S after verb(s) of third person singular.
Why it has this rule in English? It's so complicate.
If there is no such rule, English would be more simple.

 

[SoothingDave]

English barely has any conjugation of verbs at all. I think you can learn one rule.

I play
you play
he, she, it plays
We play
you play
they play

Contrast with Spanish:

yo juego
tú juegas
él/ella/ello/uno juega
nosotros jugamos
vosotros jugáis
ellos/ellas juegan

and that's not including the formal "you" forms.

 

[Suthipong]

That right, Spanish has more conjugations than that of English.
But what useful the rule is?
What happen if they did not creat this rule?
Thai Language has only one word for "eat" which is written "gin" and we use it for every subjects.

I gin.= I eat.
She gin. = She eat.
You gin. = You eat.
They gin. = They eat.
I gin yesterday.
I will gin tomorrow.

 

[SoothingDave]

You realize languages are not designed, don't you? Nobody suggested this rule and we didn't vote on it.

If you want to learn a language with all the exact features of Thai, why not study Thai? If you want to learn English, you will have to learn new rules.

My point was that there are many things which learners of English can reasonably complain about. The use of prepositions and articles, for instance. Complaining about the minimal conjugation of verbs in English is not reasonable.

 

[Suthipong]

English itself has not much basic messages to use in daily communication. We can simply say some easy sentences to our friends or colleagues. And that we can understand each other. But on our way of studying English, we must face with too many rules and exceptions. We can notice this from any exercise, it has a lot of pitfalls waiting for us. That make learners (not me) get bored and give up studying English.

 

[philo2009]

Try learning another Indo-european language, such as German or Latin, and you'll quickly realize how wonderfully simple English morphology actually is (even if, admittedly, its syntax can be rather tricky...)!

 

[emsr2d2]

English itself has not much basic messages to use in daily communication. We can simply say some easy sentences to our friends or colleagues. And that we can understand each other. But on our way of studying English, we must face with too many rules and exceptions. We can notice this from any exercise, it has a lot of pitfalls waiting for us. That make learners (not me) get bored and give up studying English.

Are you being forced to learn English or was it your choice?

If it was your choice and you decide that you have made a poor choice, then you are free to give up.

If you are required to learn English, my advice is to make yourself be more enthusiastic about it. Become interested in the language, the grammar, the form, the rhythm, everything about it. See it as a challenge that you really want to win. Prove to yourself and to others that, even though you see English as very difficult to learn, you can do it.

You said "our way of studying English". Can you find different classes? Do you have a native English speaker somewhere nearby who you can talk to for an hour or so twice a week? Do you read English websites and newspapers? Trying to learn English just from a book is difficult, that's true. You need to surround yourself with the real language whenever possible.

In answer to your original question, yes, it's necessary to add "s" to third person singular present tense verb forms. No, we don't know why. That's just how it is. As Soothing Dave pointed out, conjugating of English verbs is actually very simple compared to many other languages where the verb form is different for every person in every tense. There are far more complicated things to learn about English.

We understand your frustration but this website can be your friend. We are here to help you with specific questions and problems that you have with your English study. To be honest, though, if you don't post questions that we can answer and you simply post messages complaining about the language etc, there is little we will be able to do for you.

I hope you will be able to change your way of thinking about English - learn to enjoy studying it!

 

[Tdol]

English itself has not much basic messages to use in daily communication. We can simply say some easy sentences to our friends or colleagues. And that we can understand each other. But on our way of studying English, we must face with too many rules and exceptions. We can notice this from any exercise, it has a lot of pitfalls waiting for us. That make learners (not me) get bored and give up studying English.

Each language has its difficulties. Thai will be governed by its rules and they may be as difficult for non-native learners as you find English.

 

[sumon.]

conjugating of English verbs is actually very simple compared to many other languages where the verb form is different for every person in every tense.

Yes, the verb forms are different for persons in tenses in Bengali(bangla) language(but not for every person in every tense). It makes the senses easier and more understandable to us. Almost all of the verbs have two parts. The second part changes according to persons and tenses.

 

[TheParser]

CAUTION: NOT A TEACHER

Suthipong,


Congratulations! You are an excellent student, for you have asked a very

thoughtful question that has been asked by many people, native speakers included.

(1) Here in the United States, there are millions (yes, millions) of people who do not

use the third-person "s." (Of course, when I hear them speak, I go crazy. It sounds so

horrible to my ears.)

(a) Do you listen to American pop music? Well, some of those singers are people

who do not use the third-person "s."

(b) The government has told those people: It's fine if you speak that way in your

private lives, but -- please ! -- speak standard English at your jobs.

(2) Why do those people not use the "s"? Well, here may be one reason:

(a) In the 15th century, people who lived in the middle part of England stopped using

any ending for the third person.

(i) "John Dam kno" instead of "knows."

(ii) Shakespeare had one of his characters say: "the town is beseech'd, and the trumpet call (instead of calls) us to the breach."

(3) Some of those people came to the American colonies (as you know England used

to rule part of what we now call the United States of America) and spoke that way.

Well, over the years, educated people continued to insist on the use of the "s," but

some people, including those who did not attend school, continued to drop the -s and

this practice has continued (in some families) right down to 2012.

(4) Believe it or not, some people think that maybe in the future, English speakers will

decide to simplify the language even more and drop the third-person "s."

(5) BUT we are living in 2012. Please, please, use the third-person "s." If you do not,

people will think that you are ignorant and lose respect for what you have to say.

*****

P.S. I got all this historical information from the first volume (Syntax) of A Grammar of

the English Language (1931) written by (IMHO, of course!) the greatest grammarian

who has ever lived (and who will ever live): Professor George Oliver Curme.

 

[Barb_D]

Regarding point 1b, the government has said no such thing. Societal norms determine what is acceptable and what is not, and in which situations, not the government!

 

[sumon.]

I would like to give some examples of verb forms of Bengali language.(Because I feel(ing) very interested)
As I said most of the verbs have two parts. We only change the second part.
Suppose 'simple' is a noun , we will make it verbs adding a verb('do', it is the second part). ( proper example would be 'addition do' as 'simple' is an adjective)
So the verb will be "simple do" in Bengali but 'simplify' in English.
We also make verbs adding the verb 'do' with adjectives. For example, make something nice
= nice do.
Ha ha.. isn't it interesting?
We like our verb forms. So I think languages are really interesting and complicated systems of communicating with each other. :-D

 

[5jj]

(ii) Shakespeare had one of his characters say: "the town is beseech'd, and the trumpet call (instead of calls) us to the breach."

Indeed, but Shakespeare was presenting an Irish character, (one who possibly spoke English as a foreign language) whose speech was non-standard in many ways, as we see in the rest of the speech, here

 

[bhaisahab]

For an Irish person in the 17th century, English would have almost certainly been a foreign language.

 

[5jj]

y(IMHO, of course!) the greatest grammarian who has ever lived (and who will ever live): Professor George Oliver Curme.

Hmmm. There have been a lot of grammarians over the last three thousand years, including, to name but a tiny handful, Aristotle, Dionysius Thrax, Jacob Grimm, Otto Jespersen, Kamta Prasad Guru, Kātyāyana, Lancelot & Arnauld, Priscian, Randolph Quirk, Henry Sweet, Ali Taramakhi, not to mention Chomsky, Halliday, Quirk, ...

 

[Suthipong]

Thank you to all. I never give up studying English.