What makes English so difficult to learn?

Hello, I am an English teacher who never thought he would post a message on the internet, but it just seemed so appropriate. Basically, English is so difficult because of its innumerable exceptions to rules. A student told me the other day, "at least when you see a new word in Spanish, you know exactly how to say it." After spellings, modal verbs, pronunciation, etc. you realize that there is no easy way to learn English. Practice, practice, practice. Granted, some have a greater capacity for language acquisition than others, but even they know how to say or use many of the words. According to Websters English language dictionary ( or so I have heard so feel free to research) there are like 150,000 words in the English language and only 75,000 in French. The good news is . . . if English speakers continue to talk the way they do now and watch E! Entertainment television there will only be about 4,000, which will be considerably easier to master.

That seems pretty harsh. Perhaps you think this because the American ways are so different that you can't really understand them--and you don't even know it. And I'm sure this is pretty true for all "versions" in English. I don't know about comparing British English to Australian English, but when comparing American English to either of them, I notice that people word things differently. But why is American English the one that is considered "butchered"?

I think this is not our language

           English is so difficult to learn because there are so many words that sound alike but then have different spellings and meanings, such as "there","their" and "they're", also other words such as: "clothes", "close"," "weather", "wheather".  Or how about "tear" such as tear drop, or ''tear me apart". Also the word "close" has two different ways of pronouncing it, such as "close the door" or "close to my heart".    Another tough one is saying "loose" as in my shoe strings are loose or don't "lose" your shirt.

HaffiezMike wrote:

Hi there! Im not sure if I can answer your question correctly but i can tell you that MAYBE it is because of the PRONUNCIATION itself and because of the complexity in English. 21 Reasons Why The English Language Is Hard To Learn: 1) The bandage was wound around the wound. 2) The farm was used to produce produce. 3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse. 4) We must polish the Polish furniture. 5) He could lead if he would get the lead out. 6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert. 7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present. 8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum. 9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes. 10) I did not object to the object. 11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid. 12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row. 13) They were too close to the door to close it. 14) The buck does funny things when the does are present. 15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line. 16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow. 17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail. 18) After a number of injections my jaw got number. 19) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear. 20) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests. 21) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend? Funny but TRUE

many languages have homonyms. Many of those languages; i.e. Japanese or Chinese, have many more than english does.