Reasons Why The English Language Is Hard To Learn

[TexasStooge]

- The bandage was wound around the wound.

- The farm was used to produce produce.

- The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.

- We must polish the Polish furniture.

- He could lead if he would get the lead out.

- The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

- Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.

- A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

- When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

- I did not object to the object.

- The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

- There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.

- They were too close to the door to close it.

- The buck does funny things when the does are present.

- A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

- To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

- The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

- After a number of injections my jaw got number.

- Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.

- I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

- How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

[Windswept]

and ... ghoti ...spells fish

GH as in enouGH (f)
O as in women (i)
TI as in naTIon (sh)

[Ptarmigan]

That's one thing I don't like about the English language. So inconsistent.

[Yarrah]

It's easier to learn the my own language though...

[vbhoutex]

It's easier to learn the my own language though...

It is? I had heard that English was the most complicated to learn. Of course to those of us that have it as our native language we find that hard to believe, as would anyone in the same situation.

[Yarrah]

It is? I had heard that English was the most complicated to learn. Of course to those of us that have it as our native language we find that hard to believe, as would anyone in the same situation.

Believe me, it is. Verbs are still a pain in the backside I find it very logical and easy to learn compared to my own language. It's hard to explain the exact difference though. But for someone who's native language if from a different language family, for example the Roman one (French and Spanish), English might be a lot harder to learn, since there are fundamental differences. That's why I had almost no problem with learning English and German, while French, Spanish and Latin were a bit harder for me to learn.

[lurkey]

It is? I had heard that English was the most complicated to learn. Of course to those of us that have it as our native language we find that hard to believe, as would anyone in the same situation.

Believe me, it is. Verbs are still a pain in the backside I find it very logical and easy to learn compared to my own language. It's hard to explain the exact difference though. But for someone who's native language if from a different language family, for example the Roman one (French and Spanish), English might be a lot harder to learn, since there are fundamental differences. That's why I had almost no problem with learning English and German, while French, Spanish and Latin were a bit harder for me to learn.

English and German were probably easier because they belong to the same language family as Dutch. Spanish was pretty easy for me, but then again, there are many English words with Latin roots (it helps in spelling bees to know where a word originated). I had trouble with adjective and noun placememt in Spanish.

One thing about English that TexasStooge forgot about was homophones -- words that sound alike, but are spelt different; lose and loose (my #1 pet peeve), hear and here, hare and hair, there and their (my #2 pet peeve), to, too, and two, etc . ..

[kevin]

No language is inherently harder than any other. Babies manage quite fine with all of them. Of course languages develop in language families which share vocabulary and certain grammatical aspects. For instance German is easier to learn than Spanish because ours is a Germanic language. Spanish belongs to the Romance language of families, based off of Latin. But all three of these languages come from Indo-European, which is the large language family that includes languages as far afield as some Indian languages. But Chinese is a difficult language to learn (forgetting for a while writing systems and sticking to verbal fluency), because it does not belong to the Indo-European family.

Then there are matters of word order etc.

[Hybridstorm_November2001]

Well if you come from an area that speaks an Indo-European language (eg Western Asia, North Africa or Europe) which are mostly non-tonal, you should be able to learn English with out to many problems. Now if you come from a tonal language tradition like in parts of East Asia, it will be a bit trickier. Though it is claimed that it is much harder for an Indo-European to learn a tonal language, than for a tonal language speaker to learn Indo-European non-tonal.