How come English has a million words?

Because we suck and created an unnecessarily complex language.

@JasonR86 said:

@Alexandruxx:

Why does it matter? I hate to be 'that guy' who just comes in to a thread to yell "so what!!!!" but really...man, really why does this matter to you or anyone else?

Because I am curios?

And yes, you are THAT guy.

Because people need to use them Scrabble letters.

@Alexandruxx:

English, German, Ukrainian (basically because it is very similar to russian) and Russian are the richest languages in the world, world literature relies on them and society too, they give you an ability to express your thoughts more precisely that's why almost every single scientific paper is written in or translated to this languages. No offence, but it is impossible to write something meaningful in Hebrew for example, because this language is not rich in synonyms and it restricts you from expressing your own thoughts accurately enough. And people may think: "Why, in the name of god, would you ever need so many words if you're not even using a half of them in your day to day life?", well, these words are in the dictionary not because you need them or not, but because someone might use them and it may be the right word they were looking for to finish a poem or a scientific work of their life.

As a linguist, let me just say that the more words you have the better it is, because when you're writing something significant and you run out of them, well, you're boned.

We still need more imo. I know a bit of Japanese and they have words that basically sum up what would be an entire sentence or phrase in English. I wish there were more English words like that.

@JasonR86 said:

@Alexandruxx:

Why does it matter? I hate to be 'that guy' who just comes in to a thread to yell "so what!!!!" but really...man, really why does this matter to you or anyone else?

I like how you've taken offense to the thread. People taking things that aren't aimed at them as personal insults or feeling the need to defend something that wasn't actually attacked.

Because the Brits have taken 500 000 from the French, 500 000 from the German and voilà.

@TheSeductiveMoose said:

Romance language.

That has to be gay.

You probably will match words with those in Romanian because while there are words that denote the same thing many English words have differing connotations. Take some synonyms for smart. Genius for example tends to mean someone who is creative with their intelligence, clever means someone who pulls off smart tricks, crafty has a somewhat nefarious meaning and apt almost always is used to describe a quick learner. But all basically mean smart.

Only a million words? That's disappointing.

@chocomuffling said:

English is one of the most easiest language to learn.

¬_¬

The english word count probably doubled when Scrabble accepted slang as words.

Profanity.

People that constantly call it British or American English are annoying. There's no need to say it, it's almost identical. Unless you are sitting an exam in an American or British country, only then should you really, really get hung up on the differences.

Man, when is someone going to come along and create a scientifically ideal language? That would be awesome.

@Titus said:

Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose!

Literate alliteration! a-lololol

@sickVisionz said:

We still need more imo. I know a bit of Japanese and they have words that basically sum up what would be an entire sentence or phrase in English. I wish there were more English words like that.

@JasonR86 said:

@Alexandruxx:

Why does it matter? I hate to be 'that guy' who just comes in to a thread to yell "so what!!!!" but really...man, really why does this matter to you or anyone else?

I like how you've taken offense to the thread. People taking things that aren't aimed at them as personal insults or feeling the need to defend something that wasn't actually attacked.

I'm not offended. I'm genuinely confused. Also, chill dude.

@Alexandruxx said:

@JasonR86 said:

@Alexandruxx:

Why does it matter? I hate to be 'that guy' who just comes in to a thread to yell "so what!!!!" but really...man, really why does this matter to you or anyone else?

Because I am curios?

And yes, you are THAT guy.

Nooooooo!!!!!!!!

So many words that mean the same thing, so much slang, stuff like that.

We have things called synonyms(multiple words meaning the same thing) and a whole crap load more people speaking the language and evolving it than people speaking Romanian.

@MysteriousBob said:

The real answer is because its a hybrid of Germanic languages with Latin and a whole load of different loan words from its lengthy history. Most languages only have one source like Latin and Germanic languages.

@jakob187 said:

It's the #1 second language in the world for a reason

Two reasons actually:

1) The British Empire

2) America's dominance over global media

So if the real world was a game of Civilization or Galactic Civilizations... CULTURAL VICTORY! Game over.

New words are seemingly made every day. Words like dubstep...and dub..step?

cause having 999,999 is for pussies!