Question:
I got a question related to english grammar.
I would like to know why there is an "s" on the third person singular of
present tense for all verbs ? For example:
I write, you write, he writes, we write, you write, they write.
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What is the reason for this ?
I've been asking to english speaking people around me and no one can
explain it to me.
Answer:
Well, can you tell me why it is je prends, tu prends, il _prend_ (no 's')
For that matter can you tell me why it is necessary to have 4 verb groups
(er, ir, dre, oir)?
And what about gender? How come it's 'la table', not 'le table'.
Seems to me that you French speaking guys have more questions to answer than
do we English speaking guys.
In answer to your question, English simplified its verbs over time. At one
point, it would have been
I write, thou writest (note archaic version of 'tu'), he/she/it writeth, we
write, you write, they write.
I'm no linguist, but I think the process of simplification stopped in all of
the European languages with the advent of printing
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