They say English is hard . . .

I think the issue with English, as I understand it, is the rules change.

We don’t have the issues with grammar and “male” and “female” that some languages have like French, or the issues around a completely different alphabet.

From what little I know, English is not a hard language. Except for the spellings.

I found Welsh is not an easy language to learn because of mutations where the first letter of a word can change depending on the context for example c becomes g and there are lots more.

fancythat

From what little I know, English is not a hard language. Except for the spellings.

Did you like the cartoon? So many spellings for the same sound and such a funny sentence to demonstrate it.
English spellings are difficult because of pronunciations like cough and rough and bough, but it’s our verantwoordelijkheid to learn them if we want to speak the language, as I’m finding out with Dutch.

I couldn't get to grips with the male/female rules of other languages. Love the cartoon,

AGAA4

I found Welsh is not an easy language to learn because of mutations where the first letter of a word can change depending on the context for example c becomes g and there are lots more.

I definitely agree, Welsh is really hard to learn.

I find French with all its silent letters in almost every word very difficult, particularly if I have to read it out loud in French conversation group.
In German every letter is pronounced but they too have the der die das, le la les situation, always awkward.
I am glad we just use ‘ the’ for anything other than an obvious male or female noun. Much less complicated but as has been said there are anomalies in spelling of similar sounding words.
I wish my Italian was better, it’s a beautiful language to speak.

While it’s true that (except for the 3rd person singular) English doesn’t have conjugations/declensions/genders to cope with, it does have a vast vocabulary, and having taught EFL, I realised that some aspects were quite difficult for early learners.

E.g. in English we say ‘Did you go?’ whereas in many other lingos they just turn it around - ‘Went you?’ and what are called ‘question tags’ - didn’t you? - aren't they? - ‘wasn’t she? etc. very complicated for them to get their heads around, whereas in e.g. French and German you just have n’est-ce pas?, night wahr? etc. - the same every time. Ditto in other European languages, e.g. Russian and Greek, AFAIK.

Mollygo

fancythat

From what little I know, English is not a hard language. Except for the spellings.

Did you like the cartoon? So many spellings for the same sound and such a funny sentence to demonstrate it.
English spellings are difficult because of pronunciations like cough and rough and bough, but it’s our verantwoordelijkheid to learn them if we want to speak the language, as I’m finding out with Dutch.

I am not on Facebook , and I am wary of opening some links.

I am surprised I could see some of it, but I cant hear it so dont really know what the cartoons are like.

Managed to unmute.
It is funny!

Was just talking about this with my half Spanish DGS. He says English is easy compared with Spanish and French!

Witzend you’re right about didn’t it / wasn’t it. My eldest daughter as a young child persistently said bettern’t I, as in I’d better put my shoes on bettern’t I. Neither of her sisters did it and I never came across it anywhere else.

"English is a difficult language. It can be understood through tough thorough thought, though."

I agree with you Witzend. I'm a former German/French teacher and did EFL training as another string to my bow (not bough ). English is much harder for foreigners than most native English speakers realise.

silverlining48

I find French with all its silent letters in almost every word very difficult, particularly if I have to read it out loud in French conversation group.
In German every letter is pronounced but they too have the der die das, le la les situation, always awkward.
I am glad we just use ‘ the’ for anything other than an obvious male or female noun. Much less complicated but as has been said there are anomalies in spelling of similar sounding words.
I wish my Italian was better, it’s a beautiful language to speak.

I find French an impossible language, not just the silent letters and even silent syllables but all those letters all pronounced the same et, est, e, ee ait, etc etc etc.

Despite having a holiday home in Normandy for 33 years, my French is still appalling. Yet I started German again, after not studying it for over 40 years. I did a level 2 course,missed the first class, was late for the second (not a habit) and walked into a listening exercise and understood nearly everything.

Nandalot

Was just talking about this with my half Spanish DGS. He says English is easy compared with Spanish and French!

French is quite easy for most Spanish speakers because vocabulary and syntax is quite similar.

Casdon

AGAA4

I found Welsh is not an easy language to learn because of mutations where the first letter of a word can change depending on the context for example c becomes g and there are lots more.

I definitely agree, Welsh is really hard to learn.

Agreed! I am good at languages on the whole, but really struggled with Welsh. I gave up in the end.

M0nica

silverlining48

I find French with all its silent letters in almost every word very difficult, particularly if I have to read it out loud in French conversation group.
In German every letter is pronounced but they too have the der die das, le la les situation, always awkward.
I am glad we just use ‘ the’ for anything other than an obvious male or female noun. Much less complicated but as has been said there are anomalies in spelling of similar sounding words.
I wish my Italian was better, it’s a beautiful language to speak.

I find French an impossible language, not just the silent letters and even silent syllables but all those letters all pronounced the same et, est, e, ee ait, etc etc etc.

Despite having a holiday home in Normandy for 33 years, my French is still appalling. Yet I started German again, after not studying it for over 40 years. I did a level 2 course,missed the first class, was late for the second (not a habit) and walked into a listening exercise and understood nearly everything.

I wish more people realised that German isn't that hard.

growstuff

I agree with you Witzend. I'm a former German/French teacher and did EFL training as another string to my bow (not bough ). English is much harder for foreigners than most native English speakers realise.

Yes, just chatting to DD and she said the same thing. She showed me some other videos showing examples of the vagaries of the English language.

Is this because it's an amalgam of other languages?

Grandma70s

Casdon

AGAA4

I found Welsh is not an easy language to learn because of mutations where the first letter of a word can change depending on the context for example c becomes g and there are lots more.

I definitely agree, Welsh is really hard to learn.

Agreed! I am good at languages on the whole, but really struggled with Welsh. I gave up in the end.

When you see Gymru and Cymru it becomes very confusing, especially when the signs say Croeso i Cymru when apparently it should be Croeso i Gymru!

At least I know what Araf means 😀

growstuff I love German, always have done, the language, its poetry and how it sounds when sung.

When other girls were sticking photos of Adam Faith and Cliff Richards on their walls. My friend and I opted for Dietrich Fischer-Diskau, his seductive voice and the seductive sound of German when sung.

To, Too, and Two can be a problem for foreigners learning English, along with others, Bough and Bow. Bow and Bow, etc, according to our Dutch friends who speak English fairly fluently.

What I find amusing about mutations in the Welsh language is that the word for a fear of mutations is treiglaphobia, however if you want to say ‘I have a fear of mutations’ this mutates to ‘my gen i dreiglaphobia’.
Perhaps the ph is ff, not sure, but you get my drift.

Laura when I started learning Welsh and didn't understand mutations I would look up a mutated word in the dictionary and of course it wasn't there. Very confusing for learners.