# is English so hard to learn because we have so many words? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 20, 2004, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-so-hard-to-learn-because-we-have-so-many-words/240976 "2004-04-20T04:45:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![seaworthy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a8b319/32.png) [@seaworthy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seaworthy)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2004, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-so-hard-to-learn-because-we-have-so-many-words/240976/1 "2004-04-20T04:45:21Z")
I’ve often heard that English is the hardest (or one of the hardest) languages to learn. Now I understand that’s all a matter of opinion, and I’d say that any language that used a different alphabet than your native one would be horrible to learn (which is why I’m going to learn Arabic). Anyhow. I’m a native English speaker, so I obviously think English is really easy. I’m a foreign language major, though, and currently studying French. At some point I’ll get around to German, Arabic, and Gaelic. Maybe more, it depends on how well things go. I’m stuck in a French class that’s below my level, because although I took it for 4 years in high school, I hadn’t spoken it for a few years and thought I needed the review. Apparently not. So a semester of not learning anything new has made me wonder if I will ever be fluent. I was having a discussion with my friend about this, and he told me that English is so hard to learn because we have way too many words. I thought about it, and we do have an excess of synonyms. Think of the different ways to say drink, eat or ran. And that’s not even including the slang. Anybody know the number of words in different languages? Is this true? Also, how fluent can I get? Will I ever be able to speak these foreign languages as well as my own? Or did I miss my opportunity because I didn’t have the languages hard-wired into my brain as a kid? ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2004, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-so-hard-to-learn-because-we-have-so-many-words/240976/2 "2004-04-20T04:50:00Z")
English does have massively more words than comparable languages. But a working vocab in English is no bigger than that in other languages. English is hard to learn because it’s very irregular. There are almost no hard-and-fast rules of spelling or pronounciation. I suspect this is due to it’s unique heritage, being a fairly even mixture of germanic (Saxon) and romance (French)-originated languages. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2004, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-so-hard-to-learn-because-we-have-so-many-words/240976/3 "2004-04-20T04:50:35Z")
I think most of the problem people have is that Enlgish is not very phonetic. There’s little doubt of how to pronounce a French word, for example. Almost none at all for Spanish. But English grammar is pretty simple compared to many other languages. No gender, few noun declensions, and not too many verb tenses or conjugations. Try learning Russian… ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2004, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-so-hard-to-learn-because-we-have-so-many-words/240976/4 "2004-04-20T04:53:01Z")
> [@AndrewT](#): > > I suspect this is due to it’s unique heritage, being a fairly even mixture of germanic (Saxon) and romance (French)-originated languages. Not really. It’s mostly because it was committed to writing quite awhile ago and never really updated. Many other languages have had spelling reforms in modern times. The spelling of English words did usually correspond to how the words were pronounced at one time in some dialect or other. ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2004, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-so-hard-to-learn-because-we-have-so-many-words/240976/5 "2004-04-20T05:20:54Z")
> [@John Mace](#): > > I think most of the problem people have is that Enlgish is not very phonetic. There’s little doubt of how to pronounce a French word, for example. Almost none at all for Spanish. > > But English grammar is pretty simple compared to many other languages. No gender, few noun declensions, and not too many verb tenses or conjugations. > > Try learning Russian… I agree with this. English has the simplest grammatic structure of any language I know about. It’s the spelling and pronounciation that are a bitch. However, native English speakers have heard so many mispronounciations that we are pretty ready to fill in the gaps. Russian is terrible. Two numbers, three genders and 6 cases. An adjective has to agree with its noun in number, gender and case giving a total of 36 adjective endings in all and all of the most used ones are irregular! Well, not all of them but enough to make life miserable. Even native speakers of Russian admit that the swallow the ending of a lot of adjectives, or cough at convenient times. ---
**Author:** ![seaworthy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a8b319/32.png) [@seaworthy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seaworthy)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2004, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-so-hard-to-learn-because-we-have-so-many-words/240976/6 "2004-04-20T05:30:46Z")
> [@John Mace](#): > > The spelling of English words did usually correspond to how the words were pronounced at one time in some dialect or other. Does that mean that at some point in time, somewhere in the English-speaking world, people pronounced knight ‘kuh-nigget’? I’ll fart in your general direction… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@The\_Tim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tim)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2004, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-so-hard-to-learn-because-we-have-so-many-words/240976/7 "2004-04-20T05:38:37Z")
Don’t worry about having missed some critical period. There isn’t really any hard and fast evidence as to its existence. Language learning studies are difficult to conduct well because of ethical considerations along with the cost and problems associated with studies requiring a great deal of time. Fluency tends to come from being forced to use the language. Learning to quickly translate in your head isn’t fluency. This accounts for a lot of the edge that first language learning has. As for grammatical complexity every language has a host of weird things it does that confuses the hell out of people trying to learn it. I wouldn’t say that any language is harder than any other language, but similarity between one’s native language and a new language may help the learning process. Formal English writing is hard, not just because it involves the refined imports from latin grammar, but because word choice and vocabulary size are very important. Of course all formal language is hard. That’s the point of formal language, to be special by being difficult. ---
**Author:** ![Joe\_Random](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Joe\_Random](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joe_Random)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2004, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-so-hard-to-learn-because-we-have-so-many-words/240976/8 "2004-04-20T05:44:03Z")
> [@seaworthy](#): > > Does that mean that at some point in time, somewhere in the English-speaking world, people pronounced knight ‘kuh-nigget’? [Pretty close, actually](http://academics.vmi.edu/english/audio/GP_Knight_Baragona.html) > [@](#): > > I’ll fart in your general direction… Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelt of elderberries! ---
**Author:** ![RindaRinda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/dfb087/32.png) [@RindaRinda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RindaRinda)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2004, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-so-hard-to-learn-because-we-have-so-many-words/240976/9 "2004-04-20T06:01:10Z")
> [@David Simmons](#): > > I agree with this. English has the simplest grammatic structure of any language I know about. I have to disagree. Phrasal verbs are very difficult for many foreigners to learn, as well as the auxiliary verbs (to do, to be, to have), the modals (could, should, would, may, can, etc), and modal phrases. Many verbs have irregular past tenses, as well. There are also very subtle grammar points, like when to use “a,” “an,” and “the,” which aren’t easy to grasp. Japanese is often touted as being one of the most difficult languages to learn, but I disagree. Its grammatical structure is far more clear and consistent than English, which makes Japanese (IMO) easier to learn how to speak (not read or write - all those Chinese characters really suck). ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2004, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-so-hard-to-learn-because-we-have-so-many-words/240976/10 "2004-04-20T06:04:11Z")
> [@David Simmons](#): > > I agree with this. English has the simplest grammatic structure of any language I know about. :eek: You must not know much about Chinese. Grammar so easy, they had to come up with some wacky system that makes it impossible to read. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![RindaRinda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/dfb087/32.png) [@RindaRinda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RindaRinda)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2004, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-so-hard-to-learn-because-we-have-so-many-words/240976/11 "2004-04-20T06:06:15Z")
> [@John Mace](#): > > The spelling of English words did usually correspond to how the words were pronounced at one time in some dialect or other. One of my professors, who was from Scotland, said that “slaughter,” for example, was once pronounced “slachter,” the “ch” being that clearing the throat sound you sometimes hear in, say, German. I forgot the technical term for that sound. Uvular fricative? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@The\_Tim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tim)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2004, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-so-hard-to-learn-because-we-have-so-many-words/240976/12 "2004-04-20T06:15:33Z")
> [@RindaRinda](#): > > Japanese is often touted as being one of the most difficult languages to learn, but I disagree. Its grammatical structure is far more clear and consistent than English, which makes Japanese (IMO) easier to learn how to speak (not read or write - all those Chinese characters really suck). Japanese particles are tricky. Especially because in realistic situations they tend to sort of lump onto adjacent words, vanish and otherwise become a pain. I think I’ll eventually be able to read kanji, but I’ll never be able to write it on the fly. Oh and another thing to consider is that most languages have a lot of flex room in terms of what is grammatically acceptable and what isn’t. When you are being taught the language in a class room you don’t get that experience, making the whole thing seem more difficult. Far more difficult than your native language, which allows for more leeway. ---
**Author:** ![Tokyo\_Mann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e480ec/32.png) [@Tokyo\_Mann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tokyo_Mann)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2004, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-so-hard-to-learn-because-we-have-so-many-words/240976/13 "2004-04-20T06:23:16Z")
> [@](#): > > I thought about it, and we do have an excess of synonyms. Think of the different ways to say drink, eat or ran. And that’s not even including the slang. But pretty much all languages have an excess of synonyms. I’ve heard various claims over the years that certain languages are more difficult to learn than others, but part of that depends on which language you are coming from. For example if you are a native speaker, you don’t have to learn a new alphabet for French, etc. There are only a couple of patterns for Japanese verbs, and a handful of exceptions, but the written language is a bear. Also, there a fewer words in common then there would be in related languages. As far as the question of fluency, it really depends on your desire to learn and the amount of study you do, as well as an aptitude for languages. Plenty of people become fluent even though they learned as adults. Good luck on learning Arabic. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2004, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-so-hard-to-learn-because-we-have-so-many-words/240976/14 "2004-04-20T06:57:30Z")
> [@David Simmons](#): > > I agree with this. English has the simplest grammatic structure of any language I know about. It’s the spelling and pronounciation that are a bitch. However, native English speakers have heard so many mispronounciations that we are pretty ready to fill in the gaps. To us, yes, English has simple grammar. However, to anyone who’s grown up speaking virtually _anything_ else as a first language, English does _not_ have simple grammar. We find it easy to alter a sentence by adding words; most foreign language speakers are far better prepared to alter a sentence by altering the words themselves. IOW, while simple sentences may work very well in English, we have to put together _much_ longer sentences to explain more complex ideas. Other languages merely require (for the most part) that the words already in place get different endings. ---
**Author:** ![epepke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9de0a6/32.png) [@epepke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epepke)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2004, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-so-hard-to-learn-because-we-have-so-many-words/240976/15 "2004-04-20T07:42:19Z")
> [@seaworthy](#): > > Does that mean that at some point in time, somewhere in the English-speaking world, people pronounced knight ‘kuh-nigget’? > > I’ll fart in your general direction… Actually, that’s pretty close. The best guess is that it was pronounced something like “knicht,” where the “ch” is like in “loch.” ---
**Author:** ![cckerberos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@cckerberos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cckerberos)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2004, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-so-hard-to-learn-because-we-have-so-many-words/240976/16 "2004-04-20T08:16:34Z")
> [@RindaRinda](#): > > I have to disagree. Phrasal verbs are very difficult for many foreigners to learn, as well as the auxiliary verbs (to do, to be, to have), the modals (could, should, would, may, can, etc), and modal phrases. > > Many verbs have irregular past tenses, as well. > > There are also very subtle grammar points, like when to use “a,” “an,” and “the,” which aren’t easy to grasp. > > Japanese is often touted as being one of the most difficult languages to learn, but I disagree. Its grammatical structure is far more clear and consistent than English, which makes Japanese (IMO) easier to learn how to speak (not read or write - all those Chinese characters really suck). I agree wholeheartedly. Sure, my Japanese students aren’t wild about the irregularity of English spelling and pronunciation, but it’s the grammar that makes them cry in their textbooks. [hijack] I’d argue that kanji are actually extremely useful in aiding a student of the language to rapidly increase their vocabulary. I don’t think that I’d be anywhere near as good at the language if it was all written in romaji or kana. [/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2004, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-so-hard-to-learn-because-we-have-so-many-words/240976/17 "2004-04-20T12:25:04Z")
> [@epepke](#): > > Actually, that’s pretty close. The best guess is that it was pronounced something like > “knicht,” where the “ch” is like in “loch.” the “gh” in words like night, through, bough, tough, etc. was the sign for that velar fricative (like the ch in “ach”). It’s actually not a bad representation of the sound, and was chosen by French scribes who needed a way to indicate a sound that was not part of their own language. Over time, the sound was lost and the words all took on different pronunciations. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2004, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-so-hard-to-learn-because-we-have-so-many-words/240976/18 "2004-04-20T12:28:32Z")
> [@epepke](#): > > Actually, that’s pretty close. The best guess is that it was pronounced something like > “knicht,” where the “ch” is like in “loch.” I think that sound was more like the “ch” in the German “ich”. With the “t”, it’s almost impossible to pronounce the back-throated “ch”. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2004, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-so-hard-to-learn-because-we-have-so-many-words/240976/19 "2004-04-20T14:15:49Z")
> [@Really Not All That Bright](#): > > IOW, while simple sentences may work very well in English, we have to put together _much_ longer sentences to explain more complex ideas. Other languages merely require (for the most part) that the words already in place get different endings. Oddly, my experience (vs. Spanish) tends to be to the contrary – English tending to express things more tersely. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2004, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-so-hard-to-learn-because-we-have-so-many-words/240976/20 "2004-04-20T14:17:31Z")
> [@John Mace](#): > > But English grammar is pretty simple compared to many other languages. No gender, few noun declensions, and not too many verb tenses or conjugations. > > Try learning Russian… I’m not demanding a cite. I just want an example of an English noun that has a declension (in light of the fact that I have no idea what a _declension_ is). Thanks. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-so-hard-to-learn-because-we-have-so-many-words/240976.md?page=2)