"i"riomhe "e" ach e deidh "c" ach seall air a facal "weird". I am pulling your legs pal.
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"i"riomhe "e" ach e deidh "c" ach seall air a facal "weird". I am pulling your legs pal.
I was brought up speaking a language with VERY regular spelling.
If it come to phonetics, polish is very difficult for almost every foreigner. Most of consonant clusters are real nightmare for learners. So, I think that English isn`t so bad:)
I tried to learn Japanese, and I have to concur, the syntax was murder on my brain.
Hi,
Why do we say that English is a difficult language?
Although I am Arabic and was born in Arabic land and the origin of my parents is indeed Arabic, and no one of my grandfathers had married with a foreign woman, but I find the English language is easier hundred times than Arabic language due to the Arabic grammar is very difficult and often I would like to answer with English not to answer by Arabic..
Arabic language contains words if you slightly changed the position of the diacritical mark the meaning will be upset up to down, the object may be changed to subject or vise versa, thus you need to be very careful against of that you will commit an awful mistake…
I myself the talker till now although I have learned many years in school and after school yet I fear from the Arabic language lest not to fall in committing mistakes and the matter lastly will be frustrated and perplexing to me….
Why not hire someone to correct your English? Or find someone interested in perfecting your first language, and correct each other for free. Just make sure to find a native speaker of the language. There are many Indian people I know who have been in England for decades but still speak English "in an Indian way". Your use of *being* in "The great problem I’m being facing is ..." is typical of the "faulty" English I hear used by Indian people. If you re-read your posts carefully then you may spot elements like this that are obviously redundant to a native speaker. I mean, doesn't "The great problem I'm facing is..." sound correct to you? Another way to proceed is simply to read lots of English novels and listen to broadcasts on the BBC World Service.Quote:
Originally Posted by muhsin
As a native speaker I'm always spotting small errors in the way that foreign people speak English, even if they have much acquaintance with the language. Your English is very good but there are subtle errors, which I hope you will excuse me pointing out, given the nature of this thread.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mohammad Ahmad
That's a subtle "error", an English native would say, "I was born in an Arabic land," or more likely specify the country, "I was born in Egypt."Quote:
Although I am Arabic and was born in Arabic land...
Although an English person would understand this perfectly, and would normally be too polite to correct your English, this is an incorrect way of speaking. A native speaker would say, "is a hundred times easier". My knowledge of grammar is pitiful, so I would hesitate to say that your grammar is wrong here, English (in theory!) allows great flexibility in grammar. I think this reveals the main problem that good non-native speakers of English have. It's little "turns of phrase" that give them away.Quote:
but I find the English language is easier hundred times than Arabic language due to the Arabic grammar
The "with" is redundant, a native speaker would say, "had married a foreign woman". I can see why you added the "with". English is not always logical!Quote:
no one of my grandfathers had married with a foreign woman
Interesting. English has the opposite problem. If you put words in the wrong place the meaning will still, usually, be easy to ascertain, which makes it difficult for learners to learn the right word order, especially if they learn from teachers who "don't care". Many English people who go into "teaching English as a foreign language" know that their pupils will be understood if they don't quite get things quite right, so, for an easy life, don't bother make sure that their pupils get everything absolutely correct.Quote:
Arabic language contains words if you slightly changed the position of the diacritical mark the meaning will be upset up to down, the object may be changed to subject or vise versa, thus you need to be very careful against of that you will commit an awful mistake…
Ok! Dear Sir I find some interests in what you said for example you said English speaker would say :
A hundred times is better….. sorry for this mistake because the phrase ( hundred times) is considered as a singular .. Ok that's right, again I would say and I would recognize that my language although many teachers and many people would admire and say that your language is good, but perfectly I know that my language yet is not the same native Englishman language, however it can be understood ,and by the all means of , it is not a weak language.
Otherwise, under any consideration it is not weak …..
I know my friend , I know! Thank you for your delighting correction. But let me say I am proud enough In what I wrote!
The topic you brought or others brought is dealing with a question that the English language is difficult, for this reason I put my comments and if not I consider the English is the easy one in the entire world languages,I should not write any letter.
Still I remember the day when I am small student in the second class of the secondary school and when our teacher in English did such mistake in answering the grammar exercises , spontaneously I stood raising my hand and said to him" your are wrong my teacher!"
Can you correct it? I said yes!….. And from that time I am who answered all the exercises on the blackboard and no less than 90% I had gained in all years of my study…
However, I would like to thank you again and I would receive any correction whether from you or from any member else with great delight
2- No one or ( none) of my grandfathers had married ( with) with is awkward here, that's right, but in the manner of our quickly writing sometimes we forget the subtle principles as you said exactly….
Best regards and wishes
I would be pleasureful to hear any correction
The grammar was wrong, because the word order was faulty. Although I don't want to be pedantic ;). I think you've got a problem with articles (I don't think you have any in Arabic, do you?) and a slight problem with the tenses. It's 'When I was a boy/little', because you're not a boy anymore. Everything that's in the past (even this morning) is strictly past, so this morning you were in town too. In fact a few minutes ago you were upstairs, if you've come down the stairs in the meantime.
I agree that English is easy to start with. It's straightforward and you can express yourself in a matter of months. No-one will be pedantic (unlike the French sometimes) and start correcting you. HOWEVER, changing the word order can have slight differences of meaning (mainly emphasis). You can 'I go to town sometimes' or 'I sometimes go to town.' It depends whether 'sometimes' is important.
A lot is possible in English and sometimes what is possible isn't necessarily right.
I can say, 'Only one time did he try.' but it sounds too lyrical and so we would rather say 'He tried only one time/once.' But you can still say the first, provided you do it in the right context.
And so it goes with word choice. There is a difference between 'liberate' and 'free', but you need to know it.
And there is a difference between 'I will do it' and 'I'm going to do it.'
I think there is the great pitfall of English. It looks easy, because you can explain it in five minutes, but when you get down to the nitty gritty of it, you just need to have an awful lot of material and make sense of it in terms of how it feels.
That's probably because the dialect you grew up speaking (presumably Iraqi Arabic) is far removed from the official language of the Arabic world, Modern Standard Arabic. I'll bet you are completely comfortable with your native dialect, and it is only MSA that gives you headaches.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mohammad Ahmad
kiki1982 - Ihr Englisch ist viel besser als mein Deutsch - und vielleicht besser als mein Englisch!
Mohammad Ahmad - One of the easiest ways in which to learn English structure is to begin by "diagramming" sentences, since understanding subjects, predicates, modifiers and the parts of speech - and visualising their relationship(s) to one another - can be a boon to English-as-a-second-language students. Sadly, diagramming has fallen by the wayside these days, but the internet is omniscient, and a Google search for "diagramming sentences" will yield several very good sites.
To whom mentioned my name:
Firstly I would thank the moment that I was guided voluntary to come here, since until death the man needs to learn.
It is a forum never have I seen!
I would thank all members sharing the article without excluding anyone.....
I would like to thank the administration in accepting me to be member here...
My comments to all:
Is there anyone whose name is Mohammad Ahmad other than me?
Seemingly you considered me as someone didn't know the part of the speech! It is awful if you think that....
For me I have learned the British grammar, I think it is slightly differs from the American....
Dear Sir. Give me your pardon if I turn annoyed and will not share in any word.....
The matter you mentioned the boy in the fifth primary class has learned it as he learned his name....
But not to say he wants to flee, let me in brief answer tell you what is the part of the speech:
1- The subject which started the sentence \ the clause ( the sentence can be composed of one clause, two, more)
2- The verb which it comes past the subject and it is the item which carries the meaning although there are verbless clauses especially in the non- finite clauses - the adverbial one, moreover the verb itself can be divided for five form: the basic, the S form, the past ( V-ed 1), the (ing form), and the V-ed 2 the participle\ passive
3- The complement .So the order of the English sentence basically is: S V C...
Some verbs are dynamic others are static, the static one needs not for object as I say, He is a teacher. ( teacher is subject complement Sc) it is always is considered as adjective, the dynamic verb needs object, some dynamic verbs took two objects.
e.g. He gave me the book ( two objects in the complement)...direct object\ indirect object
The pronoun ( he, she, they, we, etc..) can be either subject or object....
The modifier is the the item which precedes the subject such as ( The dirty boy...) His graceful hand, This river. Both of them..all of the rocky road.etc...
The modifier belongs to a main basic group, the group we called it generally the modification and this divided to premodification( the modifier) and post modification i.e. it comes after the head noun ...
example for the verbless clause :
While at England, he was active in drama. Seeing the large crowd, he went on his way....
There is something in grammar we called the predeterminer and the post determiner, but I haven't waste of time to discuss , I want to sleep...
MMA - Iraqi translator
Und ich hoffe, meines ist auch viel besser als mein Deutsch, denn Deutsch ist nicht meine Muttersprache, sondern meine dritte. Englisch ist meine zweite und Niederländisch meine erste, aber das hättest du nicht wissen können ;).Quote:
Originally Posted by Eman Resu
Diagramming sentences is helpful, you are right, but I'm not sure if English students can benefit much from that. Schools teach things like 'always' goes between subject and verb, but sometimes it doesn't work that way. In German and Dutch it can help, because it's often more or less the same.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kiki1982
Ik kan lezen Nederlands, maar wanneer ik spreek Nederlands ik klinken als Elmer Fudd.
You might be correct; I was suggesting only that diagramming might help Mohammad Ahmad to better visualise the structure of English. My first language is French, and I was taught diagramming English sentences at an early age (dinosaurs still roamed free then). I found it very helpful because the noun / verb; subject / predicate relationship between French and English is at odds in so many cases.
I don't think English is difficult, but I think that people often are unaware of how much work and time they need to learn a foreign language. The problem is the lack of perseverance more than difficulty. Most people want it to be an easy and quick task, but when they find the process of learning being slow and demanding, they give up.
I wonder how much influence on this state of affairs has our consumer society, where you can get almost everything easily and quickly or the slogans like ‘learn language in 3 months.’ I sometimes encounter people who really believe it and get disappointed when they are not fluent after this period of time. Usually they later explain that they have no talent as if talent were so necessary.