What are obstacles in learning English language ?

Answer 1

Unlike most other languages English doesn't have a set phonetic pronunciation for every word. If you have ever seen the musical "My Fair Lady" or read the Book "Pygmalion" then you could easily see this concept.

Then there are things like phrasal verbs (which, I'll call a kind of slang for argument's sake). Phrasal verbs are those verb phrases that we know so well and use so often that most often consist of some basic verb plus a preposition or adverb that then changes the meaning of the verb. Take for example, the verb to MAKE. Then add some prepositions/adverbs to it:
to make OUT (= to kiss and smoosh faces with someone passionately) to make UP (=to do at a later time, as with a test; to get back on good terms with someone you might have been fighting with) to make OVER (=to complete redo, as with getting a whole new wardrobe, look, etc.)
See what I mean? :P These phrasal verbs are some of the hardest things for non-native English speaking to learn, and to be able to use correctly.


Spellings in english is hard...because so many words have extra letters that you don't need...like through...psycology.The fact that the spelling is far from phonetic - the same combinations of letters can stand for totally different words, like the "ough" in "tough", "though", "drought", etc.


Its pronunciation, and all the words that sound the same but arent, like see and sea, wander and wonder. it makes it hard to follow ppl sometimes, especially when accents are involved.
In most words that end in "e", the vowel is
long (says it's name) bake, take, fate, smite, home, phone.
The idioms are insanely difficult for others to understand. ("Rains cats and dogs," "see the light," etc.)
Because these languages are phonetic not English.Phonetic here means that you can predict the pronunciation from the spelling, and predict the spelling from the pronunciation ...


English is not as simple as it appears to be become it is a complicated admixture of several European languages, such as- Greek, Latin, French, German, English etc. Thus it possesses approximately 1000 000 words.
There is no doubt about it - English is objectively much harder than Spanish, particularly because of the way it "overworks" its core vocabulary. Look at common verbs like "to take" and "to put" - they can assume a huge number of different meanings. Learning these "phrasal verbs" is a nightmare for all foreign students of English.

One might also say it's the complex verb system, though - it seems obvious to native speakers, of course, but for non-native speakers it takes a long time to figure out which tense to use when, and many never quite master it.
Its pronunciation, and all the words that sound the same but arent, like see and sea, wander and wonder. it makes it hard to follow ppl sometimes, especially when accents are involved.

There is no doubt about it - English is objectively much harder than Spanish, particularly because of the way it "overworks" its core vocabulary. Look at common verbs like "to take" and "to put" - they can assume a huge number of different meanings. Learning these "phrasal verbs" is a nightmare for all foreign students of English.

quite simply all those irregular verbs - it's like we don't have a standard verb . It's most definitely the biggest stumbling block to learning good English.



English was "screwed up" long before the modern generation got its grubby paws on it, and jargon and slang have been injected into it for centuries. And in truth, English (and most other languages) has never been exact enough for truly good technical use. Its conjunctions do not reflect any sort of consistent logic system, such as Boolean logic. And its nouns are fuzzy in definition at best. Often times, such as in Law, a special set of rules and definitions must be created for a language to be used in a technical manner, and this set of rules and definitions doesn't always (or even usually) completely line up with the accepted or common definition or use of the word, which creates confusion (and allows politicians to play the public, and allows laws to be redefined without any sort of action by a legislative body).

Answer 2

All languages would present some obstacles for a second-language learner, but English presents some special ones. English is a Germanic language, but we have borrowed from so many different languages in our vocabulary that our spelling and pronunciation rules are rather a nightmare for those learning English as a second language, and then when they have learned all of those spelling and pronunciation rules, they learn that there are a tremendous number of exceptions because of the huge number of words in our vocabulary that come from other languages. Next, all languages are changing entities with new vocabulary being added all of the time, but English, especially American English, is the most rapidly changing language. Two reasons that this is true are that this country often is the source of new technology, and with that comes new terminology, and we are also often the source of new fads or trends, and this is also a source of slang or jargon. I spent time overseas as an exchange student at the high school and college levels. Both times I found that when I returned to this country, my friends were using slang terms that I did not understand. Within a year, phrases had taken on meaning that had become widely understood and entrenched in our "common" vocabulary". Actually, all of us could have this experience if we slept several years and then awakened. Our friends would be talking about blogging, wifi, telecommuting and texting, and we would be wondering what was going on and why they were using strange words. By the way, one more difficulty in mastering English occurs to me. I hope you won't mind my picking on your example, Aunty, but the use of the definite article (the) or the indefinite article (a/an) must be quite different in a number of languages. Your English is fabulous, and the true measure is whether you are successful in communicating, which you always are, but your question, if written by a native speaker of English would read: "What are the obstacles in learning the English language?" As a person who has devoted her life to mastering another language and to helping others to do so, I can only say, identify one problem area and keep working on that. Ask to be corrected by trusted friends. Thank you for your question.

Answer 3

weird spelling and complicated grammar.

to a native english speaker, this doesn't seem much. But like say spelling... other languages have words that are pronounced exactly the way they're spelt. That's not always the case in english. Why do you think they have spelling bees? I know we don't have one in my native tongue.

as for grammar, that involves tenses, use of words, and forming words, etc. Like say, tooth is teeth but booth can't be beeth.

Of course these are obstacles that we can overcome. but they are obstacles nonetheless.

Answer 4

English has developed over the years from several different languages. There are many, many words that mean the same thing (synonyms) but they have extremely subtle differences in useage. Also, there are many different ways to construct sentences, and many different ways to spell words (depending on language of origin). There is no "rule" that goes unbroken in grammar or spelling, and that confuses even native English speakers! I think English is difficult to learn, but it is easier than Mandarin or Russian, in my opinion. Good luck with your studies.

Answer 5

No obstacles in learning English, provided one has bent of mind towards learning.

Answer 6

If you want to be logical , we will have to use Hindi alphabets.

Because Hindi language is phonetic not English.Phonetic here means that you can predict the pronunciation from the spelling, and predict the spelling from the pronunciation ...

Answer 7

The spanish Telenovelas. I teach English to adults and I try, and try to get them to watch at least one English show, but they are always watching Spanish soap operas.

Answer 8

There, their and they're. Are and our. Too, to and two. Your and you're. You also have to watch out for instant messaging; people who use instant messaging very rarely use proper grammar, so it's easy to learn your friends' bad habits while chatting with them online.