Is English A Difficult Language?

[metal134]

No, not every language is. It's been so long since I took Spanish and I forgot much of it, but in studying it, I found that it most certainly wasn't erratic.

[Etienne]

Yes, yes, spanish is rather straightforward, but that doesn't make every language so. And, of course, if you only know the basics you might find it's easy, but once you get more in depth that's when you learn the complexities.

[mmanuelap]

And, of course, if you only know the basics you might find it's easy, but once you get more in depth that's when you learn the complexities.

exactly!

[muhsin]

English Language is PERFECT.

Those who find it difficult is not fault of the Language itself but themselves

Themselves, Lote? But some are always on trial to perfect it and yet you'll see almost always making apparent blunders. What then is the matter?

Though I have already read it means to be ironic then...does it target to people like ***??? Explain...pls.

[Annamariah]

I've studied English for ten years, but I have never been taught any particular rules about spelling. The only thing I remember my teachers have said is that Y changes into I in some cases, like in "cry" and "cries". Otherwise we've just learned the spelling at the same time when we've learned new words at all, so we know how words are written, but not why they are written like that.

I don't think there are so many difficult exceptions in English. I think Swedish was much more difficult to learn. Now I'm studying Russian, and it seems to have quite straightforward rules

My Russian teacher says that Finnish was extremely difficult to learn. I'm glad it's my mother tongue, so I don't have to try to learn it as a second language I like Russian now that I've learned the Cyrillic alphabet, but I'm still having trouble with the seven different "S":s They are so hard to pronounce, I'm glad we only have one "S" in Finnish

"Water" is "vesi" in Finnish. These are all the different forms of the word (both singular and plural) and some examples to show what they mean.

vesi, vedet (water)
veden, vesien (water's)
vettä, vesiä (juon vettä - I'm drinking water)
vedeksi, vesiksi (se muuttui vedeksi - it transformed into water)
vetenä, vesinä (as water)
vedessä, vesissä (in water)
vedestä, vesistä (from water)
veteen, vesiin (to water)
vedellä, vesillä (on water, by water)
vedeltä, vesiltä (from water, also in "it tastes like water")
vedelle, vesille (to water)
vedettä, vesittä (without water)
vesineen (with someone's water)
vesin (with/by water)

So that's how many forms of each noun, adjective and pronoun we have

[Etienne]

I've studied English for ten years, but I have never been taught any particular rules about spelling. The only thing I remember my teachers have said is that Y changes into I in some cases, like in "cry" and "cries". Otherwise we've just learned the spelling at the same time when we've learned new words at all, so we know how words are written, but not why they are written like that.

I don't think there are so many difficult exceptions in English. I think Swedish was much more difficult to learn. Now I'm studying Russian, and it seems to have quite straightforward rules

My Russian teacher says that Finnish was extremely difficult to learn. I'm glad it's my mother tongue, so I don't have to try to learn it as a second language I like Russian now that I've learned the Cyrillic alphabet, but I'm still having trouble with the seven different "S":s They are so hard to pronounce, I'm glad we only have one "S" in Finnish

"Water" is "vesi" in Finnish. These are all the different forms of the word (both singular and plural) and some examples to show what they mean.

vesi, vedet (water)
veden, vesien (water's)
vettä, vesiä (juon vettä - I'm drinking water)
vedeksi, vesiksi (se muuttui vedeksi - it transformed into water)
vetenä, vesinä (as water)
vedessä, vesissä (in water)
vedestä, vesistä (from water)
veteen, vesiin (to water)
vedellä, vesillä (on water, by water)
vedeltä, vesiltä (from water, also in "it tastes like water")
vedelle, vesille (to water)
vedettä, vesittä (without water)
vesineen (with someone's water)
vesin (with/by water)

So that's how many forms of each noun, adjective and pronoun we have

Yes, but... but...

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

soo hard!

By the way I'll be starting to learn russian nice to have some feedback from someone who is learning it. Is there a lot of similarities between russian and finnish?

[Niamh]

Annamariah, that looks really difficult.
I thought i'd show you something to do with my native language Gaeilge.
This is the many ways to say "i, you" etc

Me tu Se si muid/sinn siad sibh
ag agam agat aige aici againn agaibh acu
ar orm ort air uirthi orainn oraibh orthu
as asam asat as aisti asainn asaibh astu
chun,
chuig chugam chugat chuige chuici chugainn chugaibh chucu
de díom díot de di dínn díbh díobh
do domh duit dó di dúinn daoibh dóibh
faoi fúm fút faoi fúithi fúinn fúibh fúthu
i ionam ionat ann inti ionainn ionaibh iontu
idir - - - - eadrainn eadraibh eatarthu
le liom leat leis léi linn libh leo, leofa
ó uaim uait uaidh uaithi uainn uaibh uathu
roimh romham romhat roimhe roimpi romhainn romhaibh rompu
thar tharam tharat thairis thairsti tharainn tharaibh tharstu
trí tríom tríot tríd tríthi trínn tríbh tríothu
um umam umat uime uimpi umainn umaibh umpu

Me can also be mise.
Is Mise Niamh (i am Niamh)
Niamh is Anim Domh (my name is Niamh)
Bhi ocras orm (I am hungry)
Ta Si go dti on Siopadoireachta (shes going to the shop)
Is maith libh milseog (they like sweets)

[Etienne]

I have this question about gaelic. Does everyone in Ireland learns it? Schooling is in english, right? And do you also learn gaelic at school? Does people at home speak gaelic or just some of them?

[Annamariah]

Yes, but... but...

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

soo hard!

By the way I'll be starting to learn russian nice to have some feedback from someone who is learning it. Is there a lot of similarities between russian and finnish?

Okay, in Finnish:
saari - sääri (island - leg)
savi - saavi (clay - bucket/tub)
tuli - tuuli - tyyli (fire - wind - style)
sata - setä - sitä - sota (hundred - uncle - it - war)
kuka - kukka - suka - sukka - tukka - nukka - rukka - hukka (who - flower - comb - sock - hair -fluff - poor someone - lost/wolf)

... or just try to say "yksikseskös yskiskelet yksiössäsi" (are you coughing all alone in your studio apartment?) So hard!

About Russian: I think it isn't as difficult as I thought it to be. There are some similarities between Finnish and Russian, for example both use inflections, but in Russian there are much less and more simple inflections than in Finnish. Russian words have genders that affect adjectives, verbs and inflections, but those rules are quite easy to learn and they don't have much exceptions. After you learn to read and write the Cyrillic alphabet, it isn't so hard any more Okay, there are the notorious seven "S":s... С (s), З (z), Ш (š), Ж (ž), Щ (štš), Ч (tš) and Ц (ts), but they are not impossible to learn. Though I must admit that at first I got a sore throat whenever I spoke Russian, because some sounds were just so difficult

[Niamh]

I have this question about gaelic. Does everyone in Ireland learns it? Schooling is in english, right? And do you also learn gaelic at school? Does people at home speak gaelic or just some of them?

Everyone learns it from the moment they enter school. Some families speak it at home, and some schools you are thought all your education through irish. There are still parts of Ireland that Irish is the primary language. We call those areas the Gaeltacht. Most people forget most of the language after they leave school because they dont use it on a daily bases. But it is a beautiful language to learn. I'm very rusty and would love to go back to Irish classes to improve.

[Annamariah]

Everyone learns it from the moment they enter school. Some families speak it at home, and some schools you are thought all your education through irish. There are still parts of Ireland that Irish is the primary language. We call those areas the Gaeltacht. Most people forget most of the language after they leave school because they dont use it on a daily bases. But it is a beautiful language to learn. I'm very rusty and would love to go back to Irish classes to improve.

Gaelic sounds interesting and difficult Are there many books written in or translated to Gaelic, so would reading be an easy way to prevent forgetting the language? I use English on a daily basis so I'm not going to forget it that easily and I study Russian 11 hours a week, so it's not a problem either, but I haven't had any Swedish lessons for over a year now so I'm already starting to forget it. I try to read a book in Swedish every now and then so that I won't forget it totally, and it really helps Once I open the book I can understand all the words that I would never have remembered if someone just asked me "What is XXX in Swedish?". Just last night I started "Den hemlighetsfulla trädgården", "The Secret Garden" by F. H. Burnett.

[Niamh]

Yhere are plenty of books in the Irish language. You can get Harry potter and the Philosophers Stone As Gaeilge. And a lot of poetry.
Here is a poem by Brendan Behan that was originally written in Irish. Heres the Irish and the English translation

Blas sméara dubh'
tréis báisteach
ar bharr an tsléibhe.

I dtost an phriosuin
feadail fhuar na treanach.
Cogar gáire beirt leannán
don aonarán.

The blackberries' taste
after rainfall
on the hilltop.

In the silence of the prison
the train's cold whistle.
The whisper of laughing lovers
to the lonely.
http://www.poetsgraves.co.uk/forum/v...hp?f=27&t=5294

Edit*
Since its now after midnight can i just wish you all the following;
Nollaig mhaith chugat agus athbhliain faoi mhaise duit!

[Nossa]

I feel an urge to tell you about MY native language....it's just gonna look REALLY strang here..

[muhsin]

I feel an urge to tell you about MY native language....it's just gonna look REALLY strang here..

Isn't it Arabic, Nossa? How is it???

[aabbcc]

Pretty much every language is bound to have some of its odds.
I could write a bunch of examples similar to ones brought up earlier for English or Finnish some of my native languages (the one coming on my mind now is what we used to joke with as children back when I lived in Croatia - gore gore gore gore means "worse hills are burning up there , because "gore" can me up, then "gore" can be plural of "gora" which means hill, then "gore" can be 3rd person plural of the verb "gorjeti" which means "to burn", and "gore" can be comparative of "loše", which means "bad"...), and so could pretty much any person on here write about theirs, so we could all nicely stare at it, fascinated, and flatter to ourselves how smart we are for speaking such complicated languages.

The issue of hard/easy is relative to the point in which it is pointless to discuss it, and I cannot take seriously anyone who claims certain language to be the hardest/easiest around (even if they spoke all the languages there are, there would still be a lot of discussion left over what "hard" and "easy" means in which of the aspects of the language), nor I ever understood the need to boast with one's native language - a little thing you had no effect on, it was not your choice to be born into the language and culture you were - and its odds, for babies of all over the world master their native tongues well, and start to speak at approximately same time. I suppose that you simply cannot claim any language to be a priori harder than any other; besides, hard things in one aspect of the language (e.g. morphology, or extremely complex phonology, very extended vocabulary, hell of a syntax, you name it) are usually 'annihilated' by easy things in another aspect of the language (e.g. phonetic script, or not very large vocabulary, or significant lack of irregularities in some aspects). I have met linguists who, using that argument, suggest that all natural languages would 'weight' around the same on the scale of their difficulty, due to this effect. I cannot say anything worthwhile about that because I am not a linguist, but... that view of things would make much more sense to me than an attempt of putting all existing languages in the order according to how difficult they are in absolute sense.

So the same goes for English, pretty much. I believe I have already given my response somewhere earlier in this thread (English was, indeed, to me the easiest foreign language to master - but at times I wonder whether I should even consider it foreign given how early I came in contact with it), but even despite my personal experiences, I cannot allow myself to simply detach 'my' English experience from the specific context (when I learnt it, which languages I spoke previously, what kind of exposure did I have, etc) and just 'transcend' it on general level, by saying that, thus, English is bound to be extremely easy language in absolute and no discussion about that. That would be equal to transcending anything I am bound to view subjectively onto the would-be objective level, and that would be utter stupidity and bias (not to mention discrimination).

Also, do not be taken into that "Italian is easy, Russian is hard"-alike stupidity. Some languages, to speakers of some other languages, tend to be rather easy at the beginning. Of course that when it is about ciao, come stai? or about mia sorella si chiama Antonia, Italian is bound to seem beautifully easy; however, when one reaches subjuncitve of the pluperfect, and all that nicely wrapped with concordanza dei tempi and infinite dialects which often natives do not get, re-think that "Italian is easy" statement. The opposite goes for Russian, which happens to be notorious amongst the speakers of English due to its "hard start"; however, once you figure there are like 3 tenses, no subjunctive and such complications, that despite Russia being a huge country, Russian language has got a continuum far greater than the one of Italian, whcih leads to significant lack of dialects... Then Russian does not seem that unbelieveably hard any more. Just as Italian or Spanish or French or your typical "easy language" can get incredibly complex at higher levels of studying. So, however you turn it, we end up on the same point I made above - easier aspects usually annihilate with the hard ones, but you cannot, absolutely cannot, claim a language to be "easy" or "hard" in absolute. (I mean, you can, of course, but nobody who knows anything of languages will take you seriously. )

And Merry Christmas to all.