Why is Learning English So Hard?

 

 

It’s not rocket science, right? Is it because rocket science has so many rules and formulas? So does English. What’s the problem? Because English has so many “exceptions” to its rules that make learning it a nightmare.

 

It’s often said that English is one of the hardest languages to learn. Given the fact that many of the words we use in English stem from Latin and Ancient Greek words – in common with many other European languages – what is it about English that has attracted this reputation for being so fearsomely difficult? And is it really even that difficult when so many other countries adopt it as their second language and speak it a lot more fluently than we speak other languages? We’ll leave you to make your own mind up…

It just makes no sense!

One of the reasons why English is known for being difficult is because it’s full of contradictions. There are innumerable examples of conundrums such as:

There is no ham in hamburger.
Neither is there any apple nor pine in pineapple.
If teachers taught, why didn’t preachers praught?
If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
“Overlook” and “oversee” have opposite meanings, while “look” and “see” mean the same thing.

As native speakers, we rarely stop to think how illogical many of the things we say really are – we’re just used to them. Unless you’ve been brought up speaking English, how can you possibly begin to learn all these oddities? It’s little wonder that people trying to learn English end up feeling confused. But it gets worse.

Exceptions to rules

One of the hardest things about English is that although there are rules, there are lots of exceptions to those rules.  So just when you think you’ve got the rule, something comes along to shatter what you thought you knew by contradicting it. A good example is the rule for remembering whether a word is spelled “ie” or “ei”: “I before E except after C”. Thus “believe” and “receipt”. But this is English – it’s not as simple as that. What about “science”? Or “weird”? Or “seize”?

There are loads of irregular verbs, too, such as “fought”, which is the past tense of “fight”, while the past tense of “light” is “lit”. So, learning English isn’t just a question of learning the rules.   It’s also about learning the many exceptions to the rules. The numerous exceptions make it difficult to apply existing knowledge and use the same principle with a new word.  Hence, it’s harder to make quick progress.

The order of the words

Native English-speakers intuitively know what order to put words in, but this is hard to teach to those learning the language. It’s hard to explain the difference between the right and wrong order because it’s so subtle.  We simply say that it “just sounds right”. For example, we often use more than one adjective to describe a noun, but which order should they go in? We would say “an interesting little book” not “a little interesting book”. Both are technically grammatically correct, but the first “just sounds right”. It’s a bit of a nightmare for those who are trying to learn, and it may prove one nuance too much. 

Pronunciation

As if the spelling wasn’t hard enough, English pronunciation is another cause of much confusion.   Some words are very low on vowels, such as the word “strengths”.  It’s hard to say when you’re not accustomed to English pronunciation. What’s more, words that end in the same combination of letters aren’t necessarily pronounced in the same way. Take “trough” pronounced “troff” and “rough” pronounced “ruff”.  Also, “bough” pronounced “bow” (to rhyme with cow) and “through” pronounced “throo”. It’s almost crazy!

Then, there are silent letters at the start of words. Why are there so many words that begin with a silent “K”, such as “knife”? Or even a silent “G”, such as “gnome”? If it’s not pronounced, what’s the point of including that letter in the first place?   Consequently, it only adds to the confusion of both native speakers and learners.  And the number of hapless tourists who don’t know where to begin with pronouncing a town name such as “Worcester”. Sadly, many English learners have to learn the hard way when it comes to our confusing pronunciation. Albeit, if you pronounce something incorrectly, most natives will demonstrate the correct way to you.  But not without a little chuckle at your expense.

Emphasis

To make matters even more complex, the way in which you emphasize certain words in a sentence can subtly change its meaning. For example, consider the different ways of emphasizing the sentence below:
– I sent him a letter – a plain statement.
–I sent him a letter – used to imply that you sent him the letter. Someone else didn’t send it (or “you didn’t send it, I did”).
– I sent him a letter – this could imply “I sent him a letter, but I’m not sure he received it”.
– I sent him a letter – used to imply that you sent him the letter.  You didn’t send it to someone else (perhaps even “you weren’t meant to read it”).
– I sent him a letter– you sent him a letter, not anything else.

When you’re not used to speaking English, these may all sound the same to you. It’s only by constantly being exposed to English that you start to pick up on these subtleties.

Homophones

Confused yet? If not, you will be after this next point. English is absolutely full of homophones, words that sound the same but have different meanings or spellings.

Here are a few examples…

A bandage is wound around a wound (“wound”, pronounced “wowned” is the past tense of “wind”, as well as an injury when pronounced “woond”). 

The door was too close to the table to close (the first “close” is pronounced with a soft “S” and means “near”. While the second is pronounced with a hard “S” and means “shut”).

 I decided to desert my dessert in the desert (the first “desert” means “abandon” and has the emphasis placed on the second syllable. “Dessert” is pronounced the same but means a pudding.  The second “desert” means the dry, sandy environment with camels, and is pronounced with the emphasis on the first syllable).

Homophones exist in the English language that has no fewer than seven different meanings. Namely words that sound like ‘course’ and ‘raise’. Most have only two or three meanings – such as “there”, “their” and “they’re”.  However, that’s still adds an extra level of complexity for those trying to master the English language.

Synonyms aren’t necessarily interchangeable

Flick through a thesaurus and you’ll see countless groups of words that supposedly mean the same thing. You’d think that this would mean that they were interchangeable.  But you’d be wrong because even words whose definitions are seemingly in the same ballpark differ subtly.   They may apply to something completely different, because of multiple meanings.

You can’t always swap words with the same meaning either.  Further, this means that it’s easy to end up using a word in completely the wrong way. For example, you “watch” television, and you can either “watch a film” or “see a film”.  But you don’t “see television”. You’re not a “watcher” when you’re doing this, you’re a “viewer”.  However, you don’t “view television” or “view a movie”.

Idioms

English is a very old language, and over the course of many centuries, interesting sayings have been incorporated into everyday language that make little sense if you haven’t grown up with them. “Barking up the wrong tree”, “the straw that broke the camel’s back” and “raining cats and dogs” are all examples of idioms that add colour to the English language. If you find yourself starting to use idioms when you speak English, well done: you’ve mastered it!

 

But of course it’s hard. If it were easy, would you want to learn it? Never mind. Please just keep on learning by stopping at my website because, “I love to learn and share what I’ve learned.” It’s all in your hands now!

Source:  oxford-royale.com©

Graphic:  Elearnin©