People who say English is the hardest language to learn.

I went to all-Irish school and I've also studied Spanish, Portuguese, German and Czech.

I'm confident in my ability in Irish, Spanish and Portuguese with a smattering of the other two.

I can only ever remember studying an tuiseal ginideach and an modh conniolloch in Irish. Everything else about it I just picked up from hearing it all the time. There's plenty of words I know in Irish that I don't know in English.

Czech was the most difficult to get a grip on because they have some concepts that don't exist in English and then they don't have equivalents of important stuff in English (there's no word for 'the' and they only have three verb tenses whereas English has about nine) so just figuring out how to use that when you have nothing to relate it to is a pain. They also have some tricky pronunciations to get used to (there's one letter that is a mix between an r, a z and a h).

Spanish is by far the easiest of that lot to get far in quickly. Pronunciation is consistent and grammar is fairly straightforward to start with. As you move on, it gets more complicated but I still reckon it's not difficult. Portuguese is very similar but depending on the variation you learn, it can be a lot more difficult. Brazilian Portuguese has some insane pronunciation and the grammar works a bit differently.

I can't really remember studying German but I can remember enough of it to remember that I found it tricky enough. The vocabulary was a big sticking point for me and I found the pronunciation tough going.

I work as an English teacher and I've worked in Spain, the Czech Republic and Brazil. Just by going on the most common mistakes that students make gives you an idea of how hard or easy English is.

Czechs have no idea about articles (words like the and a/an), perfect tenses (I have done) and continuous tenses (I am doing). Vocabulary is also hard for them. The main problem is that they have nothing to relate it to as Czech is so different.

Spaniards do better. Vocabulary isn't a big problem as there's a lot of very similar words. Grammar is a bit tricky as again they have concepts which don't exist in English (the subjunctive) and translating them into English is tough. Pronunciation is a struggle because Spanish is pronounced as it is written and is always the same. They can't get their head around the idea that English pronunciation changes so much. They tend to overuse articles, too.

Brazilians have similar problems to Spaniards as the languages are very similar but have a major problem with overusing he and she as the word for you is used very infrequently in Brazilian Portuguese.

I think English is difficult to learn.

Pronunciation is a ****. Apart from Brazilian Portuguese, every other language I've studied has a much more simplified and standardised approach to pronunciation. With Brazilian Portuguese, pronunciation is difficult because of the accent, not the rules, whereas English pronunciation has stricter rules, regardless of accent.

English grammar is unnecessarily complicated.

Auxiliary verbs are a major problem. In most other languages, questions and negatives are almost identical to positive statements i.e. you eat - you no eat - you eat? but English has to throw in do, unless it's a word like to be, can, will, etc. In other languages, the questions and negatives follow the same structure, regardless of the verb being used.

Then there's stuff like modal verbs, words like can, must, could, would, should. In Spanish and Portuguese, verbs have their own special conjugations for these situations so you don't need to add more words to make a sentence, you just change the verb a little.

Most other languages I've studied have conjugations for different pronouns (I, you, he, we) but English only has two or three. It may sound easier to remember but it actually gets more complicated when it comes time to use. Put it this way, if you have a word that only means I do (hago in Spanish, for example), you know that you only ever need to use that in that situation. Hago only ever means I do, nothing else. However, in English do can be used to mean I do, we do, you do, etc. In Spanish, these all have there own forms (hago, hacemos, haces). So you always know when to use each word but in English there's more room for doubt.

In general, other languages are much more simplistic in their approach. English tends to complicate things much more than is needed.

I could go on and on about how difficult and illogical English can be but this post along has already taken a lot longer than I wanted. Don't even get me started on you plural and you singular!

English is a difficult language to learn and more so than others I have studied but to say it's the hardest is a big stretch. Languages like Chinese and Japanese scare the crap out of me and I've never even studied them.

But the most important point is that it's all relative. I'd imagine that Spaniards and Czechs would find it easier to learn their respective languages than learn English as they have a lot more in common with each other than English. The vocabulary is a lot different but because the basic grammar structures and concepts are very similar, I don't think it'd be so hard.

Anyway, I really need to stop now.

HansHolzel wrote: »

"Can you call a person 'it'"?
"Not if you have any respect for the person, no."

This occurs because Hungarian nouns are gender-less. Everything is 'it'.

That reminds me of native english speakers talking in my own native language and using the incorrect gender on nouns, articles and adjectives.

It's so funny, it sounds like they are speaking about a transvestite and are never too sure which gender to use :P

HansHolzel wrote: »

What's your native language?

Portuguese. I can give you a quick example of what I meant before:

A menino é bonita.

Shenshen wrote: »

Really? I always found the grammar to be very different between the two languages.

Are we talking about mastering the language, now, or the accent?

It's a Germanic language so I'd say speaking German is a pretty solid start.

humbert wrote: »

It's a Germanic language so I'd say speaking German is a pretty solid start.

Let's see... German has no "th" sounds (θ and ð in Eglish), no equivalent for the English "w", the Germans pronounce their "r"s guttural rather than rhotic, their "l"s are pronounced on a flat tongue rather than as a voiced retroflex lateral... and that's just consonants.
The differences in vowels are even greater.

So if we're talking about pronounciation, German and English are very different indeed. Germans would find French easier to pronounce than Engilsh.

But as for the language itself - no gendered pronouns, no need to get adjectives into the right gender, let alone case, compulsory grammatical structures to sentences - it's very easy to learn indeed.

HansHolzel wrote: »

Word order (syntax) in German:

The simplest rule is
(1) Time (2) Manner (3) Place

Wir fahren nächste Woche mit dem Auto nach Berlin.
We’re driving next week by car to Berlin.

Can be re-arranged, though, depending on which aspect you want to emphasise:

Nach Berlin fahren wir naechste Woche mit dem Auto (as opposed to Mainz, where we took the train, for example)

Mit dem Auto fahren wir naechte Woche nach Berlin (if you're showing off the car)

In general, German has three features of syntax that do not apply in English:

(1) The main verb must be the second element in the main clause. This often requires a subject and verb to switch places (here it’s “komme ich”).

Manchmal komme ich mit dem Bus zur Schule.
Sometimes I come to school by bus.

(2) The past participle, when it is used, is always the last element in the main clause.

Ich habe ihn nicht gesehen.
I have not seen him.

(3) The main verb (even if it’s auxiliary or modal) must be the last element in the dependent clause.

Ich fühle mich den Krank, weil ich zuviel Bier getrunken habe.
I feel sick because I have drunk too much beer.

That one's going out of fashion, though. People would still write it like this, but when talking they'd be much more likely to say "Ich fuehle mich krank, weil ich hab gestern zu viel getrunken"
I blame Fred Feuerstein, personally.

CatLou wrote: »

That reminds me of native english speakers talking in my own native language and using the incorrect gender on nouns, articles and adjectives.

It's so funny, it sounds like they are speaking about a transvestite and are never too sure which gender to use :P

I think I could live in a Portuguese speaking country for years and never get used to it. I always have to consciously think of which gender to use for each word, or else just guess!

Seriously, why do objects like table and chair need to be masculine or feminine? How can getting the gender wrong of an inanimate object sound like they are speaking about a transvestite?

Shenshen wrote: »

As a German speaker, I can assure you English pronounciation is ridiculously tricky.

English grammar, on the other hand, could barely be simpler.

Do you mean that English grammar could barely be simpler regardless of what language you're coming from? Nobody is contesting that English pronunciation is difficult but of course being familiar with the alphabet is an advantage.