What is the hardest part of learning English?

[True2marie]

:nerd: What is hardest part of learning English?

What I have heard is the slang and different dialects of English make this language challenging to learn. Males and females I have met who immigrated to America often complain about this issue. It takes YEARS for them to truly understand English. 

[zcrooks322]

For someone new learning english, I think the illogical grammar rules are the most difficult thing.

English spelling is extremely counter-intuitive! Why is it that words like “through”, “trough”, and “though” sound so different? It seems like for virtually every “rule” a prescriptivist writes down to try and model English spelling, exceptions can be found.

[TheJamal]

I'd say the slang aspect is one of the most, if not the most difficult to learn in English. So many words have different meanings at different times. For instance, a popular phrase is "that's sick", can also mean something is "awesome" or "disgusting." I really can't imagine jow difficult learning English as a 2nd language must be.

[sidney]

Well I think the hardest part when you're trying to learn English is that some words sound the same but have different meanings like "lose" and "loose" or "threw" and "through". Plus the slang words can confuse the student even more if used in a sentence.

[lllllllllllllllllllllllll]

I still think preposition is the part of English language that is difficult to learn. There are just so many rules for applying which preposition should goes with the sentence or phrase. I mean, in some situations they are interchangeable and in others they aren't. Oh I just remembered I made a thread about it and I actually have a good question in mind, you guys might want to check the thread for those interested in offering their insights.  :grin:

[Rosa]

I think the rules of English Language in general is just too much and that would definitely set back a non native of English in learning it. In my opinion, the hardest part of learning English is homophones. For example, where, wear and ware. These words always give even natives of English a bit of problem.

[Trellum]

The hardest part of learning English was and still is the pronunciation!  I started learning English on my own when I was just 16 years old, I'm currently 27 (turning 27 today) and so far I haven't truly mastered the English pronunciation.  I still have a strong accent and I hate it. I wish my accent could be more neutral, just like it is in Spanish.

I think the pronunciation will always be the hardest part of learning a new language.  I know it is for me now that I'm trying really hard to learn dutch!

[dorannmwin]

I think that English is a very difficult language to learn because there are a lot of different rules that are used in the language. In addition to that, there are also a lot of words that sound the same but are very different. Some examples of that which I can think of right off the top of my head are to and two, see and sea, witch and which, etc.

[Daimashin]

For me, the hardest to learning English has got to be the grammar. As long as I've used English, I can never get the grammar right sometimes. It's just too confusing for me to determine how to write a sentence. Grammar is something that I can never get perfect at.

[Baburra]

Majority of my problems with learning English stemmed from pronunciation, since English words sometimes tend to not be spelled out the way they are pronounced and vice versa and there are usually some silent letters in a good number of the words, so it does get a bit confusing.

[Litnax]

Definitely grammar. I don't think I'll ever master it 100%.

[Dora M]

I didn't have many problems when I started learning English. I thought it was all very clear and straight forward, unlike my native German, which has endless grammar deviations and eccentricities.

What I struggled with in the beginning was the correct pronunciation of "th". For a long time I only managed a soft "zzz". This drove my teacher crazy. He would often point at his mouth and show me where I had to position my tongue in order to produce that particular sound.

[fredkawig]

Since we studied the English language starting on our elementary days, for me, I guess the hardest part in learning English are the subject verb agreements, tenses, and punctuations. I find vocabulary a tad bit easier when you understand the basics of the English language. The usage of words also goes hand in hand with vocabulary and you can always visit the dictionary for help which is very convenient nowadays specially since we have it online.