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I’m a native Spanish speaker—all forms of written Spanish are more verbose than English, but the formal form is even more verbose. I remember notifications my school used to send my parents were hilariously wordy by English standards.

> notifications my school used to send my parents were hilariously wordy

There might be something else at play there. Public sector workers are notorious for wooden language.

The example I hate the most is how they always say "number of" before every number like "we'll buy 10 new busses" becomes "we will commence the procurement of a number of 10 new buses".

Public sector workers? No, this was a private school.

I can speak 4 EU languages besides english. All 4 have special forms which are “formal” all 4 more verbose in the formal form. So if you ask me: “no”

This is what the argument I read claimed, I haven't verified it.