Why is English so hard to learn?

Answer 1

The main reason I hear that English is such a hard language is because the rules don't show a lot of consistancy. This is especially the case with phonetics. When we go to pre school everyone learns that "C" is pronounced like "kuh". But how do you explain words like ocean and cease to a non native speaker. Plus with English being so widely spoken we have borrowed from practically every other lanugae. Although English is a Germanic language about 40% of our language is Latin based this means that there are a ton of extra sounds that were originally non-existant in English. On top of all of that English has a high level of slang and idioms that are not found in other languages.
Hope this explains it.

Answer 2

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Answer 3

English Is Hard

Answer 4

On the surface, English seems pretty easy to learn when students of the language are learning grammar. For example, we don't need to make our adjectives agree in number or gender of the noun and our verbs are really easy to decline. As a teacher of English, students of English get obsessed with grammar, because their own languages tend to rely heavily on grammatical structure in order to be spoken and written correctly. Grammar is important, but when students reach beyond, say, upper-intermediate level, they begin to understand that English grammar makes up only a tiny part of the language. The real problem of learning English is our vocabulary. It's huge. And we use a lot of it. Grammar cannot help here. In fact, grammar may even impede learning, as English use at a high level is all about best fit for context. Our pronunciation is also fiendish, with very little relationship between how the word looks and how it sounds. For example, depending on who you ask, we have between 20 and 24 vowel sounds. That's why we all have a laugh when we here some speakers say, I put a **** on the table. It's sheet. Not ****. I could go on, but learning English can be a frustrating experience, because all the rules learned at lower levels of comprehension just fail at higher levels. It seems easy at first, but then becomes fiendishly difficult to reach an advanced level. All I can say is not to give up, because our literature is just wonderful and you'd miss out on a lot of pleasure.

Answer 5

Because of the "rules" in English and all of the exceptions. There are so many irregular verbs, English puts the adjective before a noun whereas most of the other languages of the world put it after the noun. English has so many idioms and expressions. However, the main reason is the first one- because all of the exceptions to the so-called "rules".

Myself, my first language is English, so I have no problem with it. I am learning Spanish and I realize how diffuclt it must be for someone of another language to learn English. I don't have too many difficulties with Spanish, but I have a few. Thus, the tremendous difficulty for a Spanish-speaker or a speaker of another language to learn English.

Answer 6

There are some consistant rules actually. Long vowels-
Usally a vowel and 1 consonant after it = long
Also in a 3 letter word c+v+c= short vowel
A word with one vowel and ending in an e= long vowel.
For ci or ce=ʃ rather than s is because it in the middle of a word
Ch=k when of greek origin
Ch=ʃ when of french origin however sometimes we change the sound of words like in machete. It is spanish but it is said ʃ in english. Same with the nut pastachios, it is italian, but it is not said pustækēōs, but pustæʃēōz.
G=hard when ga go gu always, and gi and ge=j when of spanish, french, or latin origin, ge or gi=hard when of english origin because we have german rules the german g is always as in go. But some english words are an acception like giant, gem, gil
Dge gy or dgi=j always(1acception gyser)
H is almost always pronounced with the acception of foreign words; hour, honest
S=z when between vowels ( loads of acceptions for this rule)
Tu in middle=ch
X- it is gzh, gz, ks and sh
Y is a greek letter like k and x, that is why spanish, french,etc. Do not use it
Gh is g at beggining, igh=long I and ending in gh=f, cause that used to be a different sound in old english which is still used in german.
Th=long when of greek origin and a few english words like in the greek word theory and many science terms.

I hope these rules help your buds learn english, my parents learned it with a 1st language of spanish, so it was very hard, but they did not have a choice, plus only a few words look the same.

Answer 7

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My students tell me that English is very hard to learn. I teach ESL to adult immigrants from many countries. I have been asked if English is easier for people who speak Spanish or for people who speak Chinese, and the answer is that any language is easier when you are younger, and that it is usually harder to learn a language when you are older. It might be easier to learn English for people who use the same alphabet, but it is also true that it is easier when you are younger. Regards, Lady Morgana English language teacher

Answer 8

PK 27 is right. I have been in England for eight years and I am still amazed how fast I have learned English without even having a teacher. I have learned English by watching Americans films, and reading books and talking to people. I think myself that Chinese and other Asian languages because the type of tones and if you make a little mistake the meaning of the sentence changes very fast.

Answer 9

RE:
Why is English so hard to learn?

Answer 10

Depending on what language you come from, English has a different pace, or speed. Also tends to "cut" short words like prepositions, articles, personal pronouns, therefore understanding is linked to hooking to that pace, and most of all, start thinking in English.