Thanks for all your explanations, but the funny thing is that I am German. :D I just didn't know about the two different meanings of the word "decline", what is rather embarassing due to the fact that I learned (or had to lean) Latin. Every word starting with "de(c/k)la..." should make me remember declanations immediately.
Latin has the four cases Nominative, Genitive, Dative, Accusative and additionally the Vocative and the Ablative. I haven't seen any other languages with six cases. As you can imagine, it's quite tiring to learn Latin. :-\ Another quick case study: ["magnus" large] Male base form singular Nominative magnus Genitive magni Dative magno Accusative magnum Vocative mange Ablative mango Male base form plural Nominative magni Genitive magnorum Dative magnis Accusative magnos Vocative mangi Ablative mangis There are, as in German, three genders: male, female and neutral. What makes declining latin adjectives more difficuilt is imho the number of different declanations. Have a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_declension if you wanna get overwhelmed by complexity. :-) Hehe.. this might become a flamewar of languages instead of programming languages. :D @Uwe Thiem Are you also German? You name sounds quite as if you're. On Friday 15 December 2006 17:02, Uwe Thiem wrote: > On 15 December 2006 15:38, Alan McKinnon wrote: > > According to German friends of mine, it not only does, but tries to > > handle every possible case that could ever come up anywhere, anytime. > > A quick case study. The adjective is "mager" (thin or skinny). > > Male base form comparative > Nominative der magere Mann der magerere Mann > Genitive des mageren Mannes des magereren Mannes > Dative dem mageren Manne dem magereren Mann > Accusative den mageren Mann den magereren Mann > > Female > Nominative die magere Frau die magerere Frau > Genitive der mageren Frau der magereren Frau > Dative der mageren Frau der magereren Frau > Accusative die magere Frau die magerere Frau > > Neuter > Nominative das magere Kind das magerere Kind > Genetive des mageren Kindes des magereren Kindes > Dative dem mageren Kind dem magereren Kind > Accusative das magere Kind das magerere Kind > > Well, it isn't all that bad, actually. But then again, imagine you have to > do that in real time in speech. It can be very hard on your brain if you > haven't grown up with it. > > All in all, there are things in German that are far worse than adjective. > Like capitalising or verbs - regular verbs, that is. Maybe, I should change > my signature soon. ;-) In his book "A Tramp Abroad", Mark Twain wrote a > whole chapter about how difficult German was - and he went into much detail > about verbs. Unfortunately, there isn't a single sentence with a good pun > about it that qualifies for a signature. > > > If you look at the rules of German grammar, you get a distinct feeling > > that the designers of C++ tried their very best to emulate German in a > > programming language. > > Alan, my South African brother, you are not talking about C++ but about > Ada. C++ wasn't invented by a committee but by a single person. It's rather > easy. If you stick to a couple of conventions (*not* rules) it's very > readable even without comments. Ada, on the other hand,... > > Yes yes yes. Let's start a flamewar about programming languages. I love > them. Better than SciFi. ;-) > > Uwe > (who avoids perl and does almost everything either in C++ or bash > scripting) > > -- > Mark Twain: I rather decline two drinks than a German adjective. > http://www.SysEx.com.na -- [email protected] mailing list
