Is English A Difficult Language?

Just get this one from an email by a freind. He calls it 21 Reasons Why The English Is So Hard To Learn and feel sharing it with you here.

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

Of course it is one of the most difficult, language and is very difficult and despite the fact that I write lot in this I find it really a hard one. Even now I lack confidence in this.

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Originally Posted by muhsin

Just get this one from an email by a freind. He calls it 21 Reasons Why The English Is So Hard To Learn and feel sharing it with you here.

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

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Many of the words in these sentences are confusing and superfluous. In most cases you can replace a word with a different, less confusing word (ie. The bandage was wrapped around the wound). But I see your point.

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Originally Posted by blazeofglory

Of course it is one of the most difficult, language and is very difficult and despite the fact that I write lot in this I find it really a hard one. Even now I lack confidence in this.

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Actually, English is far from being "one of the most difficult language".

Yes English can be a very difficult language for those who havent learned it as a first language.

I think it's a hard language. It was my first language and speaking it for sixteen years I have realized no one can speak it completely properly because no one knows all the rules. I'm learning Spanish and everything seems to make so much more sense. Not as many double meaning words and the like. Other languages (except Japanese and Chinese) seem likewise easier then English. I mean in what other country do you have to learn your native language from preschool all the way to collage, where if you choose you can learn about all the things you thought you knew about but really didn't?

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Originally Posted by AdoreroDio

I think it's a hard language. It was my first language and speaking it for sixteen years I have realized no one can speak it completely properly because no one knows all the rules. I'm learning Spanish and everything seems to make so much more sense. Not as many double meaning words and the like. Other languages (except Japanese and Chinese) seem likewise easier then English. I mean in what other country do you have to learn your native language from preschool all the way to collage, where if you choose you can learn about all the things you thought you knew about but really didn't?

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Concerning your second statement, teenagers don't know the rules because they are, in many cases, so accustomed to speaking incorrectly that it is hard for them to learn how to speak properly. Do u c wut Im sayin?

The many influences, I think, are what made the English language so confusing. If you ever get a chance, look in your dictionary to see how many words originate from Old English. You won't find many, I can tell you that without even looking.


My opinion of the English language: it ay be difficult to learn, but it is by no means the hardest language to learn, for such a statement can never be proved. What is hard for some may be easy for others and vice-versa.

I have never thought English was a difficult language. I have always taken great pleasure in learning it, I am in love with this language and I go on learning more everyday when I see where I make mistakes.
I think the English language is a lot easier to learn than the French one. Even though French is my native language, I certainly make more spelling mistakes in French than in English. I have always thought that for some reason, it is easier to learn a foreign language than my native one, because I don't learn it the same way. And now that I've done English phonetics, I have learnt rules which explain why this or that word is pronounced this or that way, it's interesting.
But anyway, I think that about the verbal forms for instance, English is very simple, a lot more simple than French.

Indeed languages like french (gender), german (declensions), hebrew, arabic (gender, and these last two, when you read there's no vowels in the words, you read only with the consonants, as for arabic, it's almost two different language, the everyday arabic and the literary arabic, also for hebrew there's two different writings), or let's say chinese (this is only heard-of however) are much harder than english. People probably say english is very hard to learn but only because it's the only other language they know other than their native tongue. Well let it be known, your native tongue is probably an harder language than english.

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Originally Posted by Etienne

Indeed languages like french (gender), german (declensions), hebrew, arabic (gender, and these last two, when you read there's no vowels in the words, you read only with the consonants, as for arabic, it's almost two different language, the everyday arabic and the literary arabic, also for hebrew there's two different writings), or let's say chinese (this is only heard-of however) are much harder than english. People probably say english is very hard to learn but only because it's the only other language they know other than their native tongue. Well let it be known, your native tongue is probably an harder language than english.

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Yes I think the verbal forms in French must be quite complicated for a foreign person!
I only speak a few words of Yiddish and Hebrew, so I cannot say anything about these languages.

Personally i think Irish is a very hard language to learn. Although it is my native language, its not my primary language, which is english. Like English i've studied it since preschool, but my fluency of the language is very poor.

I can speak greek, german, french and english. Many of you were perhaps exposed to ancient greek so you may understand why I consider my mother tonque more difficult than the rest of the languages i can speak (greek has many irregularities in everyhting, you have to conjugate everything -nouns, verbs, adjectives-...). German are pretty hard too (grammar, syntax and very rich vocabulary with endless compound words;) ). French is relatively easier (i learned french after having learned english, and the fact that they share so many words - which were originally french of course and were borrowed by english-made french easier for me. English is the easiest of the four (which doesn't mean that it is easy ;) )

Does modern greek share many similarities with ancient greek? When I was in Greece I studied a bit of vocabulary to know how to say the basic things, and it seemed very different from ancient greek. So is it mostly the vocabulary that is different?

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Originally Posted by Etienne

Does modern greek share many similarities with ancient greek? When I was in Greece I studied a bit of vocabulary to know how to say the basic things, and it seemed very different from ancient greek. So is it mostly the vocabulary that is different?

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Well yes, modern greek is the logical outcome of over than 3 millenia of processing of the greek language. You have to view it as a whole ;)
The vocabulary is the same (of course in sοme cases the endings have changed - the changes are kinda obvious for a greek person like me but perhaps not for a foreigner)..let's see..example:

carbon = "άνθραξ" in ancient greek, "άνθρακας" in modern greek
(notice that the root of the word is the same ;) ).
climax (a greek word)= "κλίμαξ" in ancient (note that the english language has taken the original form of the word) , "κλίμακα" in modern etc.

It is the grammar that has changed considerably (from ridiculously difficult now it is just very difficult :lol: ).

Ok, I don't very little ancient greek, but it seemed like there was a lot of different vocabulary, I remember the small book I had gave the example of "white wine" where both white and wine were different words.

Hehe in modern greek wine is both called "κρασί" or "οίνος" (ring any bells ;) ).
"Οίνος" is the ancient type of the word and "κρασί" is a more recent one. We use both words. For the word "white" we have two or three ways of saying it "λευκό", "άσπρο" and there is another one that slips my mind now.
In many cases we use both the ancient type or more recent ones ;) .

Of course this is a difficult language indeed, despite that it has international importance

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Originally Posted by manolia

Hehe in modern greek wine is both called "κρασί" or "οίνος" (ring any bells ;) ).
"Οίνος" is the ancient type of the word and "κρασί" is a more recent one. We use both words. For the word "white" we have two or three ways of saying it "λευκό", "άσπρο" and there is another one that slips my mind now.
In many cases we use both the ancient type or more recent ones ;) .

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Ohh... that's quite interesting actually! I'll probably end up learning modern greek someday as I plan to go back there, such an amazing country and there's so many things to see and do! I wish I could live there a bit someday...

I wish I could get some greek oranges here, all we get is Florida ones and they're so bad...

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Originally Posted by Etienne

Ohh... that's quite interesting actually! I'll probably end up learning modern greek someday as I plan to go back there, such an amazing country and there's so many things to see and do! I wish I could live there a bit someday...

I wish I could get some greek oranges here, all we get is Florida ones and they're so bad...

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Hehe i'll send you some oranges if you like..have so many of them, don't know what to do with them :lol:

One more thing, even the recent words i mentioned come from ancient greek roots. There is no such thing as a modern greek word ;) . If you ever need any help with it i'll be glad to assist you ;) Now let's stop since we are monopolisisng the thread and that isn't good ;) Feel free to pm me ;)

The English language itself is quite hard to learn, mainly because of the bizarre way we spell things =P. There are so many irregular plural forms and such, I know that if I was not a native speaker I would probably never be able to learn it.

Kudos to those of you who have learned it! It's no small feat.

As a person using English as a second language, I don't think English is a particluarly difficult language to learn, at least grammarwise.

Well, the verbs tend to be somewhat irregular but not that bad, and genders are simple. My one quibble is, however, the match between spelling and pronunciation. It's a torture...

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Originally Posted by Fowles27

Well, the verbs tend to be somewhat irregular but not that bad, and genders are simple. My one quibble is, however, the match between spelling and pronunciation. It's a torture...

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All spelling in English follows pronunciation of the word at some point in the history of the language. Unfortunately, there have been several sets of rules for spelling and the pronunciations have also changed. It isn't just people who learn English as a second language who have trouble with it.

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Originally Posted by PeterL

All spelling in English follows pronunciation of the word at some point in the history of the language. Unfortunately, there have been several sets of rules for spelling and the pronunciations have also changed. It isn't just people who learn English as a second language who have trouble with it.

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Well, as for the rules of pronounciation, I have seen some in my phonetics classes, but of course there are always exceptions. However, a lot of researchers are trying to find new rules which would include a larger amount of words.

English is a difficult language to learn depending of the native language of speaker. but comparing with other latin languages it's quite easy. I'm portuguese and it's easier to learn english than french and spanisf and last ones are very similar to my own but the verb terminations are all diferent from each other what doesn't happen in english.

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Originally Posted by PeterL

All spelling in English follows pronunciation of the word at some point in the history of the language. Unfortunately, there have been several sets of rules for spelling and the pronunciations have also changed. It isn't just people who learn English as a second language who have trouble with it.

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Agree. As a language with many origins, English was perhaps bound to be a "mess." Also I think English is particularly open when it comes to new words. So its flimsy barrier to entry has made English messier, as well as stronger and elastic.

Wish I had written this thread in form of poll thread. Why...because I almost count the number of those saying it's difficult are about out-number those saying it is not.

I take the same opinion with mushin.What troubling me now is that, there seems to be much more new things when I learn English longer. every time thinking about this,I almost collapse.I even wonder whether English is worth keeping me learning or not.It my be easy for those to be a fluent English speaker, who have many opportunities to use it.However,it is really hard for others who have few chances to use it.Unfortunately,I am one of the latter.Please,please,tell me what can I do?Should I give up?

For me English isn't hard that much...Inculcate "practice" in your mind. Try to practice and practice orally or by writting. It needs more concentration and eagerness to be an efficient speaker...Develop an earnest heart..

To chose a Languaje it is to chose a world...
some one said.I think English it is quite English...I mean.THey are straight to the point, reasoning,utilitarist, realistic.
The English has short words, and verbs, and not to many ambiguity.Like a formula, most of the words seem protocolar...once you learn the formula you learn the idiom.
I like it.I like English English and Scotish English sounds funny.
Latin idioms as Italian, spanish or French sounds more expressive.
Chosing a languaje is chosing a world!

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Originally Posted by Tsingtao

I take the same opinion with mushin.What troubling me now is that, there seems to be much more new things when I learn English longer. every time thinking about this,I almost collapse.I even wonder whether English is worth keeping me learning or not.It my be easy for those to be a fluent English speaker, who have many opportunities to use it.However,it is really hard for others who have few chances to use it.Unfortunately,I am one of the latter.Please,please,tell me what can I do?Should I give up?

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Is that really my opinion? Hmm....

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Originally Posted by Etienne

Actually, English is far from being "one of the most difficult language".

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Then describe how it is.

English is very easy language.

Without saying it's very easy, it's easy. People who say it's hard probably say it because it's the only other language they are learning. They're native tongue is probably much harder to learn.

I think English is grammatically quite simple. There are not so many different forms of one word like in some other languages, for example in Finnish.

One verb, "laulaa" (to sing)

laulan, lauloin, olen laulanut, olin laulanut (I sing, I sang, I have sung, I had sung)
laulat, lauloit, olet laulanut, olit laulanut (you sing...)
laulaa, lauloi, on laulanut, oli laulanut (she/he/it sings...)
laulamme, lauloimme, olemme laulaneet, olimme laulaneet (we sing...)
laulatte, lauloitte, olette laulaneet, olitte laulaneet (you sing...)
laulavat, lauloivat, ovat laulaneet, olivat laulaneet (they sing)
lauletaan, laulettiin, on laulettu, oli laulettu (is sung)

laulaisin, olisin laulanut ( I would sing, I would have sung)
laulaisit, olisit laulanut (you would sing...)
laulaisi, olisi laulanut (she/he/it would sing...)
laulaisimme, olisimme laulaneet (we would sing...)
laulaisitte, olisitte laulaneet (you would sing...)
laulaisivat, olisivat laulaneet (they would sing...)
laulettaisiin, olisi laulettu (would be sung...)

laula (sing!)
laulakoon
laulakaamme
laulakaa
laulakoot

laulanen (I may sing)
laulanet (you...)
laulanee
laulanemme
laulanette
laulanevat
laulettaneen

Those were just verbs. You can also turn verbs into nouns and adjectives, like "laulaminen" - "singing" (as in "I like singing"), or "laulava" - "singing" (as in "a singing bird") and so on.

"Laulaen" or "laulamalla" - "by singing", "laulamatta" - "without singing" etc.

the difficulty is the absence of the formal/informal forms of address.

english is very unique in this sense and because of it the language par excellance --in my view.

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Originally Posted by chasestalling

the difficulty is the absence of the formal/informal forms of address.

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There used to be one with thou/you I believe (at least in translations I've seen thou being used as the informal when a distinction had to be made)? Although I don't see why it's a difficulty? It doesn't really make the language any easier or harder actually, but actually gives somewhat less depth I believe. Better have the choice.

And that's a pretty weak criterion to make it "the language par excellence...", how can you judge? How many languages do you know?

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Originally Posted by Annamariah

I think English is grammatically quite simple. There are not so many different forms of one word like in some other languages, for example in Finnish.

One verb, "laulaa" (to sing)

laulan, lauloin, olen laulanut, olin laulanut (I sing, I sang, I have sung, I had sung)
laulat, lauloit, olet laulanut, olit laulanut (you sing...)
laulaa, lauloi, on laulanut, oli laulanut (she/he/it sings...)
laulamme, lauloimme, olemme laulaneet, olimme laulaneet (we sing...)
laulatte, lauloitte, olette laulaneet, olitte laulaneet (you sing...)
laulavat, lauloivat, ovat laulaneet, olivat laulaneet (they sing)
lauletaan, laulettiin, on laulettu, oli laulettu (is sung)

laulaisin, olisin laulanut ( I would sing, I would have sung)
laulaisit, olisit laulanut (you would sing...)
laulaisi, olisi laulanut (she/he/it would sing...)
laulaisimme, olisimme laulaneet (we would sing...)
laulaisitte, olisitte laulaneet (you would sing...)
laulaisivat, olisivat laulaneet (they would sing...)
laulettaisiin, olisi laulettu (would be sung...)

laula (sing!)
laulakoon
laulakaamme
laulakaa
laulakoot

laulanen (I may sing)
laulanet (you...)
laulanee
laulanemme
laulanette
laulanevat
laulettaneen

Those were just verbs. You can also turn verbs into nouns and adjectives, like "laulaminen" - "singing" (as in "I like singing"), or "laulava" - "singing" (as in "a singing bird") and so on.

"Laulaen" or "laulamalla" - "by singing", "laulamatta" - "without singing" etc.

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I heard somewhere that Finnish is one of the hardest languages to learn. From what I've seen here, it certainly does look difficult.

It boggles my mind that everyone is saying English is easy. You want to know why it's hard? Here are some examples of why (and yes, I took the first part of this from Gallagher)>

Tomb Comb
Comb Home
Home Roam
Roam Dome
Dome Some
Some Dumb



i before e except after c
science
ancient
percieve
conscience
fancied
efficient

Use s to pluralize
child children
ox oxen
deer deer
hoof hooves
crisis crises


The English language is difficult because there are way more rules than any other language and so many exceptions that you could write a book on the excpetions alone. How can a lnguage be easy to learn when a good portion of the time, it doesn't even follow it's own rules? How can a language be easy to learn when there are literally thousands of exceptions to the rules?

english is easy to learn but its very hard to master IMO.

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Originally Posted by Annamariah

I think English is grammatically quite simple. There are not so many different forms of one word like in some other languages, for example in Finnish.

One verb, "laulaa" (to sing)

laulan, lauloin, olen laulanut, olin laulanut (I sing, I sang, I have sung, I had sung)
laulat, lauloit, olet laulanut, olit laulanut (you sing...)
laulaa, lauloi, on laulanut, oli laulanut (she/he/it sings...)
laulamme, lauloimme, olemme laulaneet, olimme laulaneet (we sing...)
laulatte, lauloitte, olette laulaneet, olitte laulaneet (you sing...)
laulavat, lauloivat, ovat laulaneet, olivat laulaneet (they sing)
lauletaan, laulettiin, on laulettu, oli laulettu (is sung)

laulaisin, olisin laulanut ( I would sing, I would have sung)
laulaisit, olisit laulanut (you would sing...)
laulaisi, olisi laulanut (she/he/it would sing...)
laulaisimme, olisimme laulaneet (we would sing...)
laulaisitte, olisitte laulaneet (you would sing...)
laulaisivat, olisivat laulaneet (they would sing...)
laulettaisiin, olisi laulettu (would be sung...)

laula (sing!)
laulakoon
laulakaamme
laulakaa
laulakoot

laulanen (I may sing)
laulanet (you...)
laulanee
laulanemme
laulanette
laulanevat
laulettaneen

Those were just verbs. You can also turn verbs into nouns and adjectives, like "laulaminen" - "singing" (as in "I like singing"), or "laulava" - "singing" (as in "a singing bird") and so on.

"Laulaen" or "laulamalla" - "by singing", "laulamatta" - "without singing" etc.

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It looks like spanish, if you think about it. I mean, not in the word but how they are used and such.

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I've found english a particularly easy language, you just have to memorize words and then perfect pronunciation.

I do like english in that there's no difference between male and female in the words. For example the word, um, Table. Here in the u.s you only say The table and it's just that, not male or female but back home is LA mesa, in the female tense and we have few words that are ambiguous in gender and can be applied to both. Everything is gender-ized.

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Originally Posted by Etienne

There used to be one with thou/you I believe (at least in translations I've seen thou being used as the informal when a distinction had to be made)? Although I don't see why it's a difficulty? It doesn't really make the language any easier or harder actually, but actually gives somewhat less depth I believe. Better have the choice.

And that's a pretty weak criterion to make it "the language par excellence...", how can you judge? How many languages do you know?

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when addressing a friend or a person of lesser social rank in spanish the word is tu. there's nothing like this in english although as u point out thou may serve as the english version of usted.

i maintain that english is the language par excellance because words are generally used to mask or divert our inner most thoughts; english with its absence of the formal/informal mode deprives its user (or abuser as the case may be) of an escape valve, i.e. silence is more often than not one's best option if he values his precious identity.

just one man's opinion.