Thread:User talk:Catsidhe/Das Deutsch/reply (2)

I have great sympathy for Mark Twain when he wrote
 * Surely there is not another language that is so slipshod and systemless, and so slippery and elusive to the grasp. One is washed about in it, hither and thither, in the most helpless way; and when at last he thinks he has captured a rule which offers firm ground to take a rest on amid the general rage and turmoil of the ten parts of speech, he turns over the page and reads, "Let the pupil make careful note of the following exceptions." He runs his eye down and finds that there are more exceptions to the rule than instances of it.

But then you take a look at Old Irish verb conjugations, and crawl back to German, everything forgiven.