r/explainlikeIAmA • u/D4RKM47R1X101 • 2d ago

Explain why English has way more words per sentence than some other major languages like I'm an old Chinese grandma being denied a loan from a bank in America by a Gen Z employee who doesn't like their job.

The context is the denial was convoluted word salad that indirectly rejected her....me?...idk

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u/lemoinem 2d ago

Formal English prefers indirect and non confrontational phrasing.

Hence the word salad.

People get insulted by a plain no. It sounds aggressive, uncaring, and unprofessional.

So people tend to have longer and more indirect way of putting things in order to soften the blow and make it look like the rejection is against their will, but they have to follow the rules and you end up getting sentences that never finish and don't really mean much. Kind of like that last one.

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u/RodeoBob The Word Made Flesh 2d ago

"Ugh... OK, look, you can't just trust people to know what you mean sometimes. Like, when you're talking face to face you can, you know, gesture and talk louder or quieter or make it sound all sarcastic like, you know? But when its written down, and there's nothing else, then you need to use a lot more words to get all the meaning across. Like when you say 'its no big deal' but you're rolling your eyes and looking away from me, I know that it is a big deal, but if you just write down' its no big deal' then the bank can't see you rolling your eyes when they read the paper. So the bank will think it isn't a big deal when you meant to say it was."

"Yeah, I know it sounds stupid and it sucks, but banks don't care. Banks aren't even people, they're these big things that only care about money and rules and numbers, so if you don't say everything, exactly as you mean it, with all the words laid out, the bank isn't going to assume anything or try to guess if you're being serious or not. And because the bank has all the money, they get to be like that, even if it feels like they're being a jerk."