English is hard to understand for many people whose primary language is English.

I blame the lack of accents. Nice for writing, hard for reading (I would guess, I'm a native English speaker).

Well, there may be a monstrous ammount of homonyms and homophones in English, but I still say French is worse, especially with all their conjugations (they have like 10 ways to spell every verb in various tenses, not to mention the irregular verbs that don't follow the normal conjugations -_-). At least English only tacks on an "ed" and perhaps a "had" to the ends and beginnings of verbs.

Flap Jack452:
what about that crazy clicking language that people speak in the jungles?

"clicking" is a phoneme, not a language.

A phoneme is a unit of spoken language structure. We are essentially born with all of them built in and "forget" the ones that aren't used around us. Learning a new phoneme is a monumentally difficult thing to do.

Those are not hard to understand, they can be tricky to read but that's the point of "tongue twisters". English is easy.

Yay, someone else knows linguistics :)

Japanese is really not that hard. Unless you're reading material JLPT level 2 and up, Kanji usually has furigana/is recognizable, and Hira and Kata are really easy once you learn the alphabet. Chinese is a beyotch, though.

As for English: From my experience working with people, the hardest part usually isn't the basic acquisition: it's refinement. A lot of people I know can piece together a sentence, but have trouble expressing themselves at a semi-fluent level.

Anonymouse:

the monopoly guy:
English is hard to understand for many people whose primary language is Enlgish.

Intentional? XD

Anyway I would learn Norwegian if I had this sort of talent.

I would say "yes" and go along with it, as though nothing ever happened, but no, not it was not.

I'd imagine if you weren't raised learning a language or around the language that it would be particularly difficult. I mean, I'm a born-and-raised bona fide Chicagoan, but I know Spanish like another language because I was taught that too by my Spanish mother.

Also, most languages, especially the Romantic ones, provide conventions(sentence structures, verb formulas) with irregularities and follow formulas while English is pretty dynamic and full of special situations, compared to most other languages, with tons of rules, not to mention homophones.

Homophones that even dick around with people whose first language is English.

Dkozza:
or maybe because we have a word that is spelt "Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoniosis".

Sad thing is that i can spell and pronounce it perfectly

The problem with words like that is that they're based in Latin. I do realize that English is basically the kleptomaniac of the linguistic world though.

Something that annoys the hell out of me is people not knowing how to use 'their' 'they're' and 'there' properly. They're eating their dinner over there. So many people use there instead of they're and it drives me crazy. Too many people also have trouble with 'you're' and 'your'. Every time I read these misuses I want to punch my monitor, but then I don't because it would be expensive and painful.

English is so messed up because it is a mutated amalgamation of so many other languages it is useless to try and separate all of it out again. It is a mess and it us getting worse every day thanks to America mainly. I guess we can also thank some so called people called "Chavs" in England from what I have been told.

See? Evidence bush really did know what he was talking about most of the time, we just didn't get it because we didn't speak texan english.

Here is an amusing example of one of English's most atrocious sentences:

http://buffaloremix.ytmnd.com/

However, I believe English is a simple language; it just has the habit of assimilating everything it comes into contact with. Therefore, you end up with an overly large vocabulary and several ridiculous instances where nothing can be put to "rule". BUT, these exceptions are not needed to be competent in speaking the language.

felltablet:
Here is an amusing example of one of English's most atrocious sentences:

http://buffaloremix.ytmnd.com/

That gave me a migraine.

Nigh Invulnerable:

Something that annoys the hell out of me is people not knowing how to use 'their' 'they're' and 'there' properly. They're eating their dinner over there. So many people use there instead of they're and it drives me crazy. Too many people also have trouble with 'you're' and 'your'. Every time I read these misuses I want to punch my monitor, but then I don't because it would be expensive and painful.

I fully agree with you're points.

And may I suggest getting a monitor lizard to punch for whenever you get aggravated?

fedpayne:

Nigh Invulnerable:

Something that annoys the hell out of me is people not knowing how to use 'their' 'they're' and 'there' properly. They're eating their dinner over there. So many people use there instead of they're and it drives me crazy. Too many people also have trouble with 'you're' and 'your'. Every time I read these misuses I want to punch my monitor, but then I don't because it would be expensive and painful.

I fully agree with you're points.

And may I suggest getting a monitor lizard to punch for whenever you get aggravated?

Your just being mean their :p

Guinea Pigs are neither Pigs nor from Guinea.
Naked Mole Rats... Are none of the three.
When the stars are out, they are visible. When the light is out, it can't be seen.
There's a lot more I read somewhere else, but it really shows how difficult English can be to learn. Even having known it for 15 years, I still find myself getting confused. Though then there's the alternative of modern youth having no knowledge of English's nuances at all.
Oh, and am I the only one who finds English a beautiful language?

Graustein:
Chad and Shad both sat an English test. One of the questions was regarding the usage of "had" versus "had had". Chad, where Shad had had "had", had had "had had". "Had had" had had the approval of the teacher.
It's grammatically correct, as far as I know. Now try saying it out loud, without the benefit of quotation marks.

Nasty! Once, in Britain, when I was rather tipsy (borderline drunk, but I'd like to deny it) someone made me say "The sick sixth sheik's sixth sick sheep's sick."

to keep the reds out

Wicky_42:

fedpayne:

Nigh Invulnerable:

Something that annoys the hell out of me is people not knowing how to use 'their' 'they're' and 'there' properly. They're eating their dinner over there. So many people use there instead of they're and it drives me crazy. Too many people also have trouble with 'you're' and 'your'. Every time I read these misuses I want to punch my monitor, but then I don't because it would be expensive and painful.

I fully agree with you're points.

And may I suggest getting a monitor lizard to punch for whenever you get aggravated?

Your just being mean their :p

Ugh, I even felt annoyed as I wrote it.

I usually stutter when speaking in English. Then again, I stutter when speaking in our native tongue. That's a speech impediment, methinks.

If you haven't already, try watching the documentary Mad About English. Even if it is hard for some people to learn, it's a world standard (meaning your life is better if you know it, because it can be used in most situations).

All these words end with the same four letters, and none of them rhyme:

Bough
Rough
Cough
Through
Though

The last two are bad enough by themselves. Adding one completely unrelated letter changes how the OTHER letters in the word are pronounced.

How many of those sentances will actually ever be used in real life?

Jonnie Wilkinson had to try to score a try to win the rugby match.

I had to watch the time on my watch.

felltablet:
Here is an amusing example of one of English's most atrocious sentences:

http://buffaloremix.ytmnd.com/

already posted

However, I believe English is a simple language; it just has the habit of assimilating everything it comes into contact with. Therefore, you end up with an overly large vocabulary and several ridiculous instances where nothing can be put to "rule". BUT, these exceptions are not needed to be competent in speaking the language.

yes it's true that english assimilates a lot of words, however it's one of the most difficult languages to learn in the world due to the complexity of it's grammar and also the amount of words in it

You know, I was so sure I'd nailed this language, but I appear to be wrong.

i like to wind twine in the wind

fedpayne:

Nigh Invulnerable:

Something that annoys the hell out of me is people not knowing how to use 'their' 'they're' and 'there' properly. They're eating their dinner over there. So many people use there instead of they're and it drives me crazy. Too many people also have trouble with 'you're' and 'your'. Every time I read these misuses I want to punch my monitor, but then I don't because it would be expensive and painful.

I fully agree with you're points.

And may I suggest getting a monitor lizard to punch for whenever you get aggravated?

Hmmmm...that too may become expensive and painful. Perhaps I shall have to content myself with punching a bag of marshmallows instead. Stress relief plus sugary sweet pillows!

An intelligent man/ a smart man.
English is hard because it's basically a melting pot. Everything has been taken and stuffed together to form it.
When you think about it, it's a good first language to have under your belt, because even though Japanese and Chinese are hard, their structure actually has some reason to it.