Wonderful English from Around the World

[Kari]

Personally, prepositions are the most difficult part of English for me. I never know, or I think I know but I', not sure, if it's in or on, to or for etc.

For instance, take the first sentence of this post. To my ear it sounds correct to say it as I wrote it, but it sounds as correct if I end that sentence in English for me, in English to me or of English to me.

 

[noobvious]

Learning English first also handicaps a person trying to learn nearly any other language, simply because the grammar is backwards from most other languages.

That is an excellent point!

 

[DarkStar GT]

Through a tough thorough thought we slapped down the dough and bought the iPad.

Then noticing our mistake, promptly returned it.

*note the last ones dough matches thorough and bought matches thought so This has only 4 different pronunciations of ough

No, you're Ok - you've got 5. "Thorough" is generally pronounced "thuh-ruh" - with the "uh" sounding like Elvis' "uh uh"

 

[RST101]

There are also other difficulties but one of the main obstacles to overcome is homophones, words that sound alike but have completely different meaning ie their and there, where and wear, stair and stare, rein, rain and reign, weather and whether. There are many many more and for a foreign tongue these are the hardest to get your head around(or so I believe)

Thanks for that soundbite greatblessings, wonderful.

 

[mpcrsc562]

One thing I've long thought odd is how some words are transformed, but lose their original meaning.

Example:
horror and horrific - both word indicate fear
terror and terrific - terror indicates fear whereas terrific indicates something great or grand. Odd.

I've also thougth that the English alphabet needs to be revamped -- to a more phonetically based alphabet.

 

[Thorsen]

Personally, prepositions are the most difficult part of English for me
Personally, prepositions are the most difficult part in English for me
Personally, prepositions are the most difficult part in English to me
Personally, prepositions are the most difficult part of English to me

All good.


in some instances, it doesn't work right
Of some instances, it doesn't work right <<<< this doesn't sound right

 

[Kari]

One thing I've long thought odd is how some words are transformed, but lose their original meaning.

Example:
horror and horrific - both word indicate fear
terror and terrific - terror indicates fear whereas terrific indicates something great or grand. Odd.

I've also thougth that the English alphabet needs to be revamped -- to a more phonetically based alphabet.

Some compound words are interesting. A good example is breakfast. Is it because you are fasting when you sleep, when you wake up you break fast?

Personally, prepositions are the most difficult part of English for me
Personally, prepositions are the most difficult part in English for me
Personally, prepositions are the most difficult part in English to me
Personally, prepositions are the most difficult part of English to me

All good.


in some instances, it doesn't work right
Of some instances, it doesn't work right <<<< this doesn't sound right

Thanks for confusing me even more...

 

[Thorsen]

Personally, prepositions are the most difficult part of English for me
Personally, prepositions are the most difficult part in English for me
Personally, prepositions are the most difficult part in English to me
Personally, prepositions are the most difficult part of English to me

All good.


in some instances, it doesn't work right
Of some instances, it doesn't work right <<<< this doesn't sound right

Thanks for confusing me even more...

Actually (sorry for confusing you btw)

that last one "Of some instances, it doesn't work right" this actually in this context sort of sounds right.....

but again sorry for confusing to you of me?

 

[DarkStar GT]

If you go to the cinema to watch Mad Max, The Thunderdome Scene is a part of the film but Mel Gibson has a part in the film.

 

[Scotteq]

Ive always heard English is the hardest language to learn.

When you really start to think about and look at things like this, it's no wonder why.

Speaking as a former ESL instructor... For what it's worth the various dialects of Chinese are supposed to be the most difficult for non native/western speakers to learn. Chinese is a "Tone" language, where "How" you say a given syllable changes it's meaning. For example, Chinese has a steady tone, a falling tone, a rising tone, high~low~high, Low~high~low.. and the same syllable on paper - say 'Ma' - can, and usually does have a completely different meaning depending on which tone the speaker used. Arabic is right up there with Chinese in difficulty. Russian, Hungarian, and Basque are also supposed to be among the most difficult.

Where you were raised obviously has a great influence: I lived in Japan for a long time, and native Romance language speakers (French, Spanish, Italian) had relatively little trouble learning to speak Japanese because structurally they are similar: Subject/Object/Verb, and you denote time and motion by conjugating the verb with various relatively standard endings.

Of course... Writing in Japanese, on the other hand... < shudder >




English is just hard because we have all these rules that we don't follow, and a penchant for highly creative usage.


Though I must admit to the numberous possiblities due to the crucial role punctuation plays in English

I helped my uncle, Jack, off his horse




(yah... it's a really old joke, but...)

 

[Thorsen]

If you go to the cinema to watch Mad Max, The Thunderdome Scene is a part of the film but Mel Gibson has a part in the film.

Although MadMax is not in cinema anymore (at least that I know of), the statement above is correct.

Also mine above ^^^

 

[johnwillyums]

Near where I live there is a small village called Sough.
Nobody I know is sure how to pronounce it and I've never met anyone who lives there.
As you drive into the village on a country road there is a standard "Sough Welcomes Careful Drivers" sign plus one indicating the speed limit through the village.
Every now and then someone will deface the sign by altering it to read "Sough Welcomes Careful Pronunciation".
The council have replaced the sign several times but it keeps happening. Always makes me smile when I see it.

 

[Kari]

Ive always heard English is the hardest language to learn.

When you really start to think about and look at things like this, it's no wonder why.

Speaking as a former ESL instructor... For what it's worth, Arabic and the various dialects of Chinese are supposed to be the most difficult for non native/western speakers to learn. These are "Tone" languages, where "How" you say a given syllable changes it's meaning. For example, Chinese has a steady tone, a falling tone, a rising tone, high~low~high, Low~high~low.. and the same syllable on paper - say 'Ma' - can, and usually does have a completely different meaning depending on which tone the speaker used. Hungarian and Basque are also right up there in complexity.

As is my native Finnish, too. Finnish (and Hungarian) belong to Finno-Ugric languages, which are extremely difficult to learn.

We have for instance no prepositions, instead we use 15 different cases. The only easy thing in Finnish is that it is pronounced exactly as it is written; when you know how to pronounce the alphabet, you can pronounce words.

Totally trivial, but here's you pronounce my name: http://www.saunalahti.fi/~kajun/finns/Samples/kari.wav

And here how to say a Finn (Suomalainen) in Finnish: http://www.saunalahti.fi/~kajun/finns/Samples/suomalai.wav

 

[Grimmjow]

Icelandic should be hard to learn too, at least that's what I heard.
Try to pronounce this




Kari my mate, how would you say: "I would like to have one beer, please"
Was wondering, one article said that in Icelandic, Finnish and some other languages there isn't a word for "please"
No Icelandic Word for Please at How do you like Iceland? - a blog by Iceland Express

 

[Kari]

Kari my mate, how would you say: "I would like to have one beer, please"
Was wondering, one article said that in Icelandic, Finnish and some other languages there isn't a word for "please"
No Icelandic Word for Please at How do you like Iceland? - a blog by Iceland Express

I would like to = haluaisin
One beer = yksi olut, but because both nouns and numerals have cases, in this context it is yhden oluen
Please = ole hyvä (singular), olkaa hyvä (plural), but in this context we use the word kiitos (thank you)

So, it would literally be translated as Haluaisin yhden oluen, kiitos. There's however a big difference between literary, official Finnish, and spoken Finnish, so if you were a bartender in Finland, you would most likely hear me to order my beer by saying Yks olut, kiitti.
(Yks = yksi = one, olut = beer, kiitti = kiitos = thank you).

 

[Grimmjow]

Kari my mate, how would you say: "I would like to have one beer, please"
Was wondering, one article said that in Icelandic, Finnish and some other languages there isn't a word for "please"
No Icelandic Word for Please at How do you like Iceland? - a blog by Iceland Express

I would like to = haluaisin
One beer = yksi olut, but because both nouns and numerals have cases, in this context it is yhden oluen
Please = ole hyvä (singular), olkaa hyvä (plural), but in this context we use the word kiitos (thank you)

So, it would literally be translated as Haluaisin yhden oluen, kiitos. There's however a big difference between literary, official Finnish, and spoken Finnish, so if you were a bartender in Finland, you would most likely hear me to order my beer by saying Yks olut, kiitti.
(Yks = yksi = one, olut = beer, kiitti = kiitos = thank you).

Thanks for the explanation mate + it's nice to learn how to order a beer on(in?) a different language

 

[The Howling Wolves]

Grimmjow,
I use this when helping me translate. I am sure there are other free translation sites but I found this one and have it bookmarked on top for easy access.

Free Translation and Professional Translation Services from SDL

 

[clunkfish]

Kari my mate, how would you say: "I would like to have one beer, please"
Was wondering, one article said that in Icelandic, Finnish and some other languages there isn't a word for "please"
No Icelandic Word for Please at How do you like Iceland? - a blog by Iceland Express

I would like to = haluaisin
One beer = yksi olut, but because both nouns and numerals have cases, in this context it is yhden oluen
Please = ole hyvä (singular), olkaa hyvä (plural), but in this context we use the word kiitos (thank you)

So, it would literally be translated as Haluaisin yhden oluen, kiitos. There's however a big difference between literary, official Finnish, and spoken Finnish, so if you were a bartender in Finland, you would most likely hear me to order my beer by saying Yks olut, kiitti.
(Yks = yksi = one, olut = beer, kiitti = kiitos = thank you).

Kippis Kari

 

[Grimmjow]

Grimmjow,
I use this when helping me translate. I am sure there are other free translation sites but I found this one and have it bookmarked on top for easy access.

Free Translation and Professional Translation Services from SDL

thanks for sharing, bookmarked it

 

[Kari]

Kippis Kari

Cheers!