Interesting Facts in Easy English: The Verb "Run" Has The Most Definitions
Discussion Questions: As a learner of English, how does it make you feel to know that there are over 600 ways to use a single English word? What does this say about the English language?
Considering that for me studying a second language it's simply a pleasure, don't worry me about how many hundreds of meanings a single word can convey. What really moves me is the wish to learn little by little the nuances of the language at issue that allows me to have a satisfactory understanding of the most common linguistic structures.
Of course, I won't be able to learn everything in a new language, but, I can learn what is the most seen and used in daily conversations so that I can put into practice the most important aspect of learning a second language in my opinion: the act of communicating with others, using that new linguistic code you learned. The ability of communicating is an irrecusable and precious gift given for all human beings, don't matter what's its nationality or language that should be practiced as many times we can.
I think as a good English student you have to worry first about what's is really spoken by the native speaker's mouths, worry yourself about what is seen and effectively used by them in daily situations, in normal conditions. Because many of the meanings in a dictionary entry have a formal, literay or even archaic usage that we hardly ever see in a normal dialogue.
The multiple significance of some words, show us that English is basically an economic language that tries to put in just one word as many meanings as it can in order to short the vocabulary. Maybe English be one of the languages that have the most economic vocabulary in the world. And this is good for us learners, because we don't need to remember so many words for writting or speak.
So, even though the verb "to run" can have over 600 ways of using, I conclude that English is a good communicating channel since it's economic, and with an easy and fast grammar to learn in comparison with other languages.
Comments
@Daniel Thanks for commenting on this interesting fact! You are such a keen learner! It's obvious that you really love languages. I loved this part: "Because many of the meanings in a dictionary entry have a formal, literary or even archaic usage that we hardly ever see in a normal dialogue."
Let's see if we can improve your first sentence. Can anyone help Daniel with this?
"Considering that for me studying a second language it's simply a pleasure, don't worry me about how many hundreds of meanings a single word can convey."
@Abootty I guess it depends which source you check. A number of sources suggest that "run" recently overtook "set". Check out this interesting post.