Why English is hard to learn

D

Davepick

Well-known member
We'll begin with 'box', the plural is 'boxes,
But the plural of 'ox' is 'oxen' not 'oxes'.
One 'fowl' is a 'goose', and two are called 'geese',
Yet the plural of 'moose' is never called 'meese'.

You may find a lone 'mouse' or a houseful of 'mice'.
But the plural of 'House' is 'houses, not 'hice'.
The plural of .'man' is always 'men',
But the plural of 'pan' is never 'pen'.

If I speak of a 'foot', and you show me two 'feet',
And I give you a 'book', would a pair be a 'beek?
If one is a 'tooth' and a whole set are 'teeth',
Why shouldn't two 'booths' be called 'beeth'?

If the singular's 'this' and the plural is 'these',
Should the plural of 'kiss' be ever called 'keese'?

We speak of a 'brother' and also of 'brethren',
But though we say 'mother', we never say 'methren'.
Then the masculine pronouns are 'he' 'his' and him,
But imagine the feminine.... 'she', 'shis' & 'shim'.

Anonymous.
 
Matesrates said:
Well most people around the world seem to be able to master it, it’s the language of the world
Click to expand...
There are English that cannot master the English language.
Basically, your version is to just about be understood.
Talking to Mrs Wizz the other day how bad the pronunciation of television presenters is.

But as long as the person gets the rough idea across then who's bothered eh?

Me😕
 
Wizzerboy said:
There are English that cannot master the English language.
Basically, your version is to just about be understood.
Talking to Mrs Wizz the other day how bad the pronunciation of television presenters is.

But as long as the person gets the rough idea across then who's bothered eh?

Me😕
Click to expand...
And me, I hate the likes of Beth Rigby, who routinely drops the g off everythin.
 
Try explaining some of the multiple ‘ough’ endings of words in English pronunciation….

Through - ‘threw’
Bough - ‘bou’ (As in ‘bow down’, not as in ‘bow & arrow - see also ‘Plough’)
Though - ‘Tho’
Trough - ‘troff’
Enough - ‘e-nuff’
Thought - ‘Thort’

Etc….

🤯
 
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Ever wonder what spoken English sounds like to a foreigner ? Always thought about how we sound to other nationalities. 🤔
 
Aye, whilst it’s feckin hard to learn as a second language, we also have subtleties and sub-meanings that other languages don’t have.
If Carlsberg did languages…👍
 
To get to the basics of English is much easier than most languages. It is suggested that most Latin based languages you need around 2000 words to get to a sufficiently competent level, English requires around 300. To be really articulate in English is supposed to be more more difficult than most, but I would say Russian and basque, from experience are much more difficult.
 
Davepick said:
We'll begin with 'box', the plural is 'boxes,
But the plural of 'ox' is 'oxen' not 'oxes'.
One 'fowl' is a 'goose', and two are called 'geese',
Yet the plural of 'moose' is never called 'meese'.

You may find a lone 'mouse' or a houseful of 'mice'.
But the plural of 'House' is 'houses, not 'hice'.
The plural of .'man' is always 'men',
But the plural of 'pan' is never 'pen'.

If I speak of a 'foot', and you show me two 'feet',
And I give you a 'book', would a pair be a 'beek?
If one is a 'tooth' and a whole set are 'teeth',
Why shouldn't two 'booths' be called 'beeth'?

If the singular's 'this' and the plural is 'these',
Should the plural of 'kiss' be ever called 'keese'?

We speak of a 'brother' and also of 'brethren',
But though we say 'mother', we never say 'methren'.
Then the masculine pronouns are 'he' 'his' and him,
But imagine the feminine.... 'she', 'shis' & 'shim'.

Anonymous.
Click to expand...
In a word, pronunciation. What you see is not always what you get, meaning English spelling sometimes bears no resemblance to how the word is pronounced. 5 vowels, 10(or 11,depending what you count as a vowel) different vowel sounds.
 
There are quite a few on here who don't know the difference between 'there' and 'their', even 'they're'.
I left school at 15 without taking the equivalent of A levels etc.
However, I always try to use proper English, which I have taught myself to use.
Also some of the spelling on here is awful. (waits for personal attack on 'why does it matter?')
 
There was a piece of research a couple of years ago that stated that the average standard of english for school leavers in the low countries was higher than the average english school leaver
 
Davepick said:
There are quite a few on here who don't know the difference between 'there' and 'their', even 'they're'.
I left school at 15 without taking the equivalent of A levels etc.
However, I always try to use proper English, which I have taught myself to use.
Also some of the spelling on here is awful. (waits for personal attack on 'why does it matter?')
Click to expand...
Unfortunately Dave it doesn't matter as computers have auto correct (if people bother to use it)
English language isn't even spoken correctly anymore.
 
Hungarian is the hardest european language to learn followed by Finnish. According to Google. I have noticed that Portugese when spoken sounds more like an eastern european language than a Latin one.
 
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