Some Other Language Differences

Greek (Greece)

Sentence structure and word order

• O-S-V
• Adverb comes before direct object

Nouns and pronouns

• It pronoun omitted
• Subject pronoun repeats subject
• No distinction between human and nonhuman relative pronoun

Verbs and verbals

• No equivalent of do
• No progressive aspects of tenses
• No -ing gerund

Adjectives and adverbs

• Adjectives show number

Articles

• Definite article used with a generalization
• No indefinite article before subject complement
• Definite article with proper noun

Hebrew (Israel)

Sentence structure and word order

• V-S-O

Nouns and pronouns

• No relative pronouns
• Object pronoun remains in relative clause

Hindi (India)

Sentence structure and word order

• That clause is used in place of infinitive

Nouns and pronouns

• No gender distinction in pronouns

Verbs and verbals

• No equivalent of do
• No progressive aspects of tenses
• Simple present formed with -ing leads to more extensive use of present progressive in English

Adjectives and adverbs

• No distinction between too and very

Articles

• No equivalent of definite article

Portuguese (Portugal, Azores, Cape Verde, and Brazil)

Sentence structure and word order

• Indirect question retains question word order
• Adverb comes before direct object
• No impersonal it subject
• Have used in place of there is/there are

Verbs and verbals

• No equivalent of do
• No -ing gerund
• No present perfect progressive
• Infinitive form is used after modal verbs

Adjectives and adverbs

• Double negative common

Articles* Definite article used with a generalization

• Definite article with proper noun

Tagalog (The Philippines)

Sentence structure and word order

• V-S-O

Nouns and pronouns

• No relative pronouns
• Object pronoun remains in relative clause