5 ms·
> Word length - At least in English and French (the languages I know best), longer words are generally considered harder. I think in a language with a lot of s
by ragazzina 1y ago
> Word length - At least in English and French (the languages I know best), longer words are generally considered harder.
I think in a language with a lot of similar sounds or even homophones, longer words are easier. For a beginner Chinese speaker that knows both words, hearing "chē" will probably be ambiguous, but "chūzūchē" will be parsed immediately.
- joshdavham 1y agoThat’s a good point. I don’t think the ‘longer equals harder’ pattern holds for every language. I actually reached out to the head teacher at CIJ when I first made this analysis and she said the same.
- kazinator 1y agoThis is mainly resolved by context. "Penultimate" is a harder word than "pen". Now that could also mean "penitentiary" in North American vernacular, or a box in which a pig is kept, but not in a sentence like "Can I borrow your pen?"