What languages have the least amount of "you just have to memorize it"? (Noun gender,verb forms,plurals, etc.)

[Dtmont]

What languages have the least amount of memorizing little parts? Like in German where there are no patterns for word gender or Romanian where words have different plural endings. What languages come closest to having most of the work having to be done on memorizing vocabulary? I am not including conlangs like Esperanto in this.

[Djedida]

Turkish grammar is supposedly extremely regular, as a result of the reformations made on the language during the time that the nation of Turkey was being created. However, coming from English there's still a lot to digest, even with the ease of grammar. Word order is different for one.

I'm finding Italian really easy to pick up, but that's from my previous experience with Spanish. It has most of the same quirks as Spanish, then some (elisions, non-sigmatic plurals, etc).

[Deinonysus]

I would have to say Indonesian:

• No grammatical gender
• No cases
• No conjugation
• No verb tenses
• No default distinction between singular and plural - can be made explicit by repeating the noun (for plural) or specifying "one" (for singular)

In general, if you know a word, you can use it in a sentence.

I recently spent a few months studying Indonesian and I'd say that most of the work was learning vocabulary. The grammar was very intuitive.

[Cavesa]

Esperanto. This was one of the goals for which it was created.

[cathrynm]

Hah, Japanese. No gender, no plurals, verbs are very regular. There are other aspects of this that are difficult, but forming correct simple sentences is simple.

[Querneus]

Some languages of course have more complicated systems of word forms with irregular noun plurals and irregular verb conjugations, but there are two information items I don't think it's possible to escape from memorizing in *any* natural language:

1. Noun countability: whether a noun *can* be plural in some sense or not at all (many languages have some nouns that can't be singular too, but can only be plural)
2. Verbal argument structure: how a sentence is actually built around a verb (do you need a preposition? what word orders are allowed? must the verb be passive or reflexive etc. for the meaning you want?)

I have never even heard of a language that is not difficult with regard to these two items. Even in Indonesian, a language somewhat famous for its simple grammar, it sometimes happens that a noun can only be plural in a specific meaning, and furthermore you need to memorize the argument structure of lots of derived verbs (with men- di- memper- ter- etc.). Also, sometimes you get the meaning you'd expect in a derived verb but sometimes it's idiomatic!

Even Esperanto doesn't get away from this. One of the common criticisms of that language is that the verbal argument structures are unpredictable from the dictionary form: is a random simple -i verb transitive or intransitive, and if it is both is the intransitive labile? No way to tell! The creator of Esperanto also assumed that the noun countability of European languages is an obvious and natural category, but looking at the English or Esperanto produced by many Chinese speakers should convince anyone this was a wrong thing to assume.

[devilyoudont]

I imagine most creole languages fit the bill-- and some of those like Sranan Tongo don't have a ton of vocabulary to memorize either.

[Ezra]

Hah, Japanese. No gender, no plurals, verbs are very regular. There are other aspects of this that are difficult, but forming correct simple sentences is simple.

I have to disagree . While regular, verb conjugation is still pretty extensive. A lot of grammar points are not easy to put within some system, but just something to be memorized. Politeness level affects not only verb conjugation but the choice of word (a proper synonym). There no "normal" adjectives one could easily map to Indo-European grammar. Those are either defective verbs (and can be conjugated) or Chinese-style two-three-four kanji-combinations which can be used kinda like adjective but not really as such. And often as nouns as well. There are also tari-adjectives, which you just have to memorize. Numerous personal pronouns (well, actually they are not really pronouns )

Vocabulary is very different, you just have to memorize it. On the top of it, there is a kajillion of kanji. You just have to memorize all of them .

There is a lot, lot, lot of memory work involved while studying Japanese.

[iguanamon]

I imagine most creole languages fit the bill-- and some of those like Sranan Tongo don't have a ton of vocabulary to memorize either.

As one who has learned some Creole languages, it is a myth to say that Creole languages don't have a lot of vocabulary, as I am reminded of every day in my reading and listening (the same is in my other advanced languages). I have a bilingual Haitian Creole/English dictionary with over a thousand pages and over 35,000 entries. Yes, as compared to French, Haitian Creole (and it's related French Creole languages as well) has simplified grammar. There is no separate word for "he", "she" or "it"- the word "li" works just fine for male, female and neuter. Conjugation is taken care of with a particle followed by the verb for tenses. Plurals are taken care of with "yo" (cognate to French "eux") or understood with context. Spelling is phonetic, there are very few instances of gender and gender agreement between nouns and adjectives- they can almost be counted on one hand for common speech.

A language with simplified grammar is still a language used for communication and Haitian Creole can be complex. The present tense can sometimes be used for past and future. Mastering reduplication is an art form in HC. There is more than enough vocabulary that can be used to discuss any subject or discipline and to rise to any occasion needed in Haitian Creole, including- science, physics, biology, medicine, philosophy.

I have yet to learn Sranan Tongo, but I have a sufficient amount of resources for learning it when I do decide to take it on, including a not insubstantial dictionary. I expect it will present it's own set of unique challenges just as the others have.

[devilyoudont]

@iguanamon, I named Sranan Tongo specifically as it is somewhat famous for not having many words. Counts of words for Sranan are usually in the 4 digit range, so an order of magnitude less than Haitian Creole. Linguistically many creole languages also lack inflectional morphology which ties into the OP's original question.

Edit to add: None of this is to say I think that creole languages are less than other languages or anything like that. I don't believe a language's value is determined by how many words it has or how complicated it's grammar is. I tend to believe that difficulty of a language is more or less based on how closely a language is related to one's native language, so learning any major creole spoken around me might be a difficult task for me as I speak none of the languages that Haitian Creole takes words from. I have also heard descriptions of the Tense/Aspect/Mood system that is present in many creole languages, and it is a little hard for me, having never studied such a language, to wrap my head around it. Certainly mastering any language takes work and time, even if one aspect of one language might be easier than the same aspect of another.