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I spoke German and Italian before learning English, and English didn't seem that terribly hard. Most words have the same stem as latin or germanic languages so

I spoke German and Italian before learning English, and English didn't seem that terribly hard. Most words have the same stem as latin or germanic languages so it's easy to remember the vocabulary. The grammar isn't very complex. And there aren't special letters in the alphabet. Only the pronounciation is complex, because things are often spoken differently than how they are written.

StavrosK 8y ago
You basically spoke the two languages English is made of, so naturally it was easy to remember the vocabulary for you. Special letters in the alphabet is only hard when you're trying to write the words, but English spelling being mostly unrelated to pronunciation is a major source of pain for learners. Tenses are formed irregularly, much of the language is phrasal verbs which there's no way around learning, and since English is basically two languages you have double the difficulty because words only relate to their half.
- JetSetWilly 8y ago
  On the other hand you don't need to worry about cases, gender etc with English, as it jettisoned those features. No need to memorise what gender a table is, or wondering which one of 14 cases to use. Every language is irregular because humans are irregular, but I don't think it is justified to paint English as somehow more difficult than other languages. The difficulty of a language just depends on the languages you already know, prior exposure, available resources to learn it etc - and the last two of these are typically much better for English than most other languages.
  - StavrosK 8y ago
    I'm not saying English is more difficult than other languages, I'm saying it's not "very easy".
  - v_lisivka 8y ago
    > No need to memorise what gender a table is, Male > or wondering which one of 14 cases to use. 14 cases (rules) are much easier to remember that thousands of specific cases.

StavrosK 8y ago

You basically spoke the two languages English is made of, so naturally it was easy to remember the vocabulary for you. Special letters in the alphabet is only hard when you're trying to write the words, but English spelling being mostly unrelated to pronunciation is a major source of pain for learners. Tenses are formed irregularly, much of the language is phrasal verbs which there's no way around learning, and since English is basically two languages you have double the difficulty because words only relate to their half.

JetSetWilly 8y ago
On the other hand you don't need to worry about cases, gender etc with English, as it jettisoned those features. No need to memorise what gender a table is, or wondering which one of 14 cases to use. Every language is irregular because humans are irregular, but I don't think it is justified to paint English as somehow more difficult than other languages. The difficulty of a language just depends on the languages you already know, prior exposure, available resources to learn it etc - and the last two of these are typically much better for English than most other languages.
- StavrosK 8y ago
  I'm not saying English is more difficult than other languages, I'm saying it's not "very easy".
- v_lisivka 8y ago
  > No need to memorise what gender a table is, Male > or wondering which one of 14 cases to use. 14 cases (rules) are much easier to remember that thousands of specific cases.