On Thu, 17 Dec 2015 23:58:46 Tom Gardner wrote:

On 17/12/15 17:47, Phil L wrote:
Nick Maclaren wrote:
One of the things I intend to do in my retirement is to relearn to
read French - I shall never speak it, because I can't hear it, but
I used to be able to read up to Pierre Boulle (not Camus, though).
I can hear northern German, but my knowledge is very limited.

How can you hear German but you can't hear French?

Supposedly 70% of basic English is derived from the
teutonic languages, whereas French is derived from Latin.

If you have an electronic or computer background, the
RPN nature of German won't bother you. Exception:
German to English simultaneous translators can't begin
their translation until they've heard the verb at
the end of the sentence

But that happens only in subordinate clauses! ;-)

David

--
David Rance writing from Caversham, Reading, UK