I'm starting to learn Portuguese, and it's coming very easy to me, so I'm thinking that English is harder because I have (Brazilian) penpals that have been learning English for years and they still make many mistakes.
2007-08-09 08:24:00 · 8 answers · asked by rfiskt 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
English is by far harder, especially pronunciation-wise. Portuguese is a romance language, of the same family as are Italian and Spanish, another two very easy to learn phonetic languages (Phonetic=what you see written is what you say, as opposed to English). Romance languages don't have the truckload of "idiomatic uses" English has (idiomatic in practical terms means an irrational and illogical use of a word or phrase, as if it were correct, derived from its popular use, not from clear and exact grammatical rules, as happens on the contrary in romance languages).
Check out the following page, so you can compare how easy are romance languages to learn, compared to other more complicated languages:
http://www.micheloud.com/FXM/LA/LA/
Good luck and happy learning!!
2007-08-09 08:37:03 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 4⤋
If you are a native Spanish speaker, then Portuguese is going to be very easy - once you learn to pronounce Spanish with a Russian accent☺. English will be harder because, although Indo-European, like Spanish, it's from the West Germanic branch (German, Dutch, Frisian, English...) and still retains many relics of spelling that was more aposite pre-1600s. However, it's more useful as a second language than Portuguese, which is limited to Portugal, Brazil and Goa (I.m sure there are a few more...)
Your written English is extremely good, so why not learn another language? I'm sure you are capable.
2007-08-09 08:45:49 · answer #2 · answered by JJ 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The romance languages, like portuguese, spanish, french, and others are connected, so it kinda depends on what language you learned first.
But REALLY I think English is more difficult. Haha, in alot of ways some ppl say that alot of "english-speakers" do not even speak english, and with all the slang steadily eating away at it, English will be really different in the future, I imagine.
Even though a lot of languages are like this, English has many irregularities, and in a lot of ways it is not very systematic. English is a pretty difficult adjustments.
By the Way, props to you on learning Portuguese; I am absolutely IN LOVE with this language and I want to learn it some day too.
2007-08-09 08:34:07 · answer #3 · answered by Be 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
If English is your native language Portuguese is harder. If Portuguese is your native language English is harder.
And it depends really on how often you speak it and your connections. And people have different strengths I always put the words in the correct order and form when using spanish but spelling ad accents is another matter...
2007-08-09 08:31:17 · answer #4 · answered by Laster 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋
After 9 months living in Brazil, Brazilians asked me if I was Brazilian. I think Portuguese is MUCH easier than English for those that speak another language. Portuguese is the most poetic language plus it has beautiful sounds.
Be prepared to make mistakes when learning a language! It is all part of learning.
2007-08-09 09:31:38 · answer #5 · answered by Robert R 1 · 0⤊ 5⤋
I think people who have english as their first language are unbelievably lucky. It's so hard to learn!!
I learnt spanish from scratch and it's amazing how simple it is to conjugate verbs compared to english.
2007-08-09 09:46:04 · answer #6 · answered by Meg 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
portuguese.
i say that cz i can speak the both, but portuguese is harder.
2007-08-09 08:34:22 · answer #7 · answered by Suzye 4 · 5⤊ 0⤋
for sure, portuguese is harder.
2007-08-10 15:04:27 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 6⤊ 0⤋