21 Reasons why the English language is so hard to learn

by Larry 24 Replies latest jw friends

  • Larry
    Larry

    21 Reasons why the English language is so hard to learn:

    1) The bandage was wound around the wound.

    2) The farm was used to produce produce.

    3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.

    4) We must polish the Polish furniture.

    5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.

    6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

    7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was

    time to present the present.

    8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

    9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

    10) I did not object to the object.

    11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

    12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.

    13) They were too close to the door to close it.

    14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.

    15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

    16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

    17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

    18) After a number of injections my jaw got number.

    19) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.

    20) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

    21) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

  • frenchbabyface
    frenchbabyface

    If only I could understand 50 % of what's written here

    Editted to add : sounds like word game

  • gumby
    gumby

    Larry......excellent! The English language sucks big time for sure! I feel sorry for foreigners who have to learn it.

    Gumby

  • LittleToe
    LittleToe

    Excellent thread!
    Allegedly it's one of the hardest languages to learn. I'm glad it was my first, rather than second or third.
    That being the case, it's a shameful thing that more English speakers don't often learn other languages.

    Frenchy:
    So many words are spelt the same but sound different, and the context is the only way to tell which it is

  • sleepy
    sleepy

    Apparently though it is the most expresive language in the world ,so that makes it worthwhile.As for me I'm still learning.

  • Princess
    Princess
    So many words are spelt the same but sound different, and the context is the only way to tell which it is

    In addition, many words are spelled differently but are actually the same words...just from different countries.

    Little Toe doesn't have any more posts left so he can't say anything...

  • Frannie Banannie
    Frannie Banannie

    Yup....and that could be why "sick son dread 66 (could be) the numb-er of the beest"

  • LittleToe
    LittleToe

    Rachel:You'll get yours...

  • Princess
    Princess
    Rachel:You'll get yours...

    Oh I'm scared Mr Ran Out Of Posts Again.

  • seattleniceguy
    seattleniceguy

    Yikes! Yeah, English spelling is notoriously inconsistent and arbitrary.

    Actually, complexities related to spelling are different from the matter of homonyms (words that sound the same but have different meanings). All languages have homonyms, and in fact, many languages have far more homonyms than English. For example, there are about 8000 one-syllable building blocks from which all words can be constructed in English. By contrast, Japanese has an extremely rigid phonetic structure, and has only 113 syllables comprising the whole of the language. Obviously, fewer components will result in more homonyms, and Japanese does indeed make puns pretty easy.

    What makes English such a pain in the butt is that the spelling is totally arbitrary. Contrast to Spanish, wherein a written word has only one possible pronunciation. If you know the decoding rules, it is impossible to pronounce it incorrectly. (Going the other way is prone to slight error because of the existence of silent letters, but is otherwise trouble-free as well. For example, if one were to hear the word hablar, it would not be possible to know that it starts with an h. But a person seeing the word written for the first time would be able to pronounce it correctly without incident.)

    I believe that languages with very complex writing systems (such as English and Chinese) are difficult to learn primarily because of that fact. Gramatically, English and Chinese are both fairly simple. (Chinese is quite simple.) If we could develop a new writing system that matched the phonetics accurately, we could make the language much easier to learn and use. (Korea did this when it switched to a home-grown perfectly regular character set in the 1600s. It's a beautifully simple and elegant system.)

    But people are very attached to their writing systems. Nobody wants to see the word "was" spelled "wuz," even if it is more phonetically accurate ("It's tradition, dammit!"). If China were to move to a phonetically regular writing system, it is estimated that they could save at least 3 billion person-years per generation, while increasing literacy and education across the board. They may get there in the next 50 years or so.

    Interesting stuff. For any language nuts out there who are interested in studying this further, check out The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy, by John Defrancis.

    Word-nerdily,
    SNG

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