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Why English is hard to learn | ||
Tags: Difficulty | English | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| iieee Groupie United States dreaminginturkish.bl Joined 6588 days ago 78 posts - 80 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Turkish, German | Message 1 of 84 09 April 2007 at 7:21pm | IP Logged | ||
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edited to add: this post isn't trying to argue that English is an especially hard language! It's pointing out an interesting feature of the language that is part of the reason it's a challenge. Learning any language as an adult is a challenge, and each language is difficult in its own unique way-- some have easy grammar but a challenging writing system or vice versa. English is easy in some ways and challenging in other ways- homonyms are an interesting part of this equation in my opinion!
# The bandage was wound around the wound. # The farm was used to produce produce. # The rubbish 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? I don't know if you guys have seen this before; I hadn't and I thought it was pretty funny. It made me wonder, is there any other language that has nearly as many homonyms as English? Edited by iieee on 10 April 2007 at 12:39am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| ColdBlue Groupie Angola Joined 6574 days ago 40 posts - 41 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian | Message 2 of 84 09 April 2007 at 9:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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# The bandage was wound around the wound.
-- Who the hell speaks like this? ...more like "The bandage was wrapped around the wound." # The rubbish dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse. -- I can't even figure out how the pronounce the 2nd refuse, looked it up in the dictionary... I would of just said table scraps/food. # The insurance was invalid for the invalid. -- No one would ever say that... more like crippled/handicapped person. # A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line. -- I never heard of a seamstress or anyone using the word sewer other than its regular meaning. # To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow. -- OK, what the hell, sow is an adult female hog? Never heard of that. Well, no one talks like that! English is an easy language, people with English degrees just have nothing better to do then try to say English is hard, lol. I remember back in high school a teacher told the class that English was the hardest language to learn. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| orion Senior Member United States Joined 7022 days ago 622 posts - 678 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian | Message 3 of 84 09 April 2007 at 10:06pm | IP Logged | ||
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The point the OP was trying to make is that English has many homonyms. While most Americans might not speak in this manner, these are all valid words a learner of English may well encounter when reading. Perhaps you should broaden your own English vocabulary if you've never heard of a seamstress or a female pig being called a sow.
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| japkorengchi Senior Member Hong Kong Joined 6681 days ago 334 posts - 355 votes | Message 4 of 84 09 April 2007 at 11:02pm | IP Logged | ||
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I don't think English is hard at all. The grammar is much easier than most languages, especially those European ones. The reason why people think it's hard is because they are not the ones who invest in it and learn it with motivation.
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| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7157 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 5 of 84 09 April 2007 at 11:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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I can't think of any other language where that many words of the same spelling can take on different meanings or pronunciations. Perhaps Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian could present comparable problems as in those English examples.
ex. grad = "city" (long falling tone on 'a') vs. grad = "hail" (short falling tone on 'a') pravda = "truth" (long falling tone on first 'a') vs.pravda = "he/she/it justifies" (long falling tone on first 'a', lengthened final 'a') The maddening thing in Croatian and Serbian (and English) is that such distinctions in stress, length, pitch and accent aren't marked in spelling with diacritical marks. How about the words that are spelled differently but pronounced in the same way? tale vs. tail mail vs. male bear vs. bare seller vs. cellar I agree with Orion in that virtually all of those words are ones that someone learning English would likely encounter. To boot, I'm surprised at ColdBlue's ignorance of relatively common words. For example, "sow" is indeed used in the USA. Have you ever heard of barbequed sow bellies? I first heard of the idea/recipe in the good 'ol USA. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| iieee Groupie United States dreaminginturkish.bl Joined 6588 days ago 78 posts - 80 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Turkish, German | Message 6 of 84 10 April 2007 at 12:15am | IP Logged | ||
Um, yeah. Like someone else said, those sentences weren't intended to be examples of commonly used phrases, it was a humorous showcasing of how many homonyms show up in English. It's interesting because as a native of English I don't really notice these until they're pointed out. I don't necessarily think that English is that much harder than other languages, but each language is difficult in its own way, and this is one aspect of English that must be confusing for students. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| iieee Groupie United States dreaminginturkish.bl Joined 6588 days ago 78 posts - 80 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Turkish, German | Message 7 of 84 10 April 2007 at 12:19am | IP Logged | ||
Yeah, I forget the technical word for this at the moment but again, I can't imagine that could not be confusing as a beginning language student. What makes English like this? Is it the fact that it's a mongrel language? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tujiko Senior Member United States Joined 6534 days ago 140 posts - 144 votes Speaks: English* | Message 8 of 84 10 April 2007 at 12:26am | IP Logged | ||
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I've heard things on this forum about Korean having an impressive amount of homonyms. I love English - it's my language of choice for music, thinking, writing, and reading - but for an Indo-European language, it's "easy" to get the basics of, near as I can tell. Whenever I hear native English speakers talking about how hard it is to learn, I can't help but smile :^)
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