Why English is Difficult to Learn: Unveiling the Challenges for Language Learners

English, the most studied language globally, boasts over a billion second-language speakers. It serves as a "lingua franca," bridging communication gaps between individuals from diverse linguistic backgrounds. While its global prevalence suggests accessibility, many learners find English a challenging language to master. This article delves into the specific aspects of English that pose difficulties for learners and explores the underlying reasons for these challenges.

Linguistic Distance and Native Language Influence

Learning English will be most difficult for students whose native language is very different from English. The more different your native language is from English, the more you will have to learn in terms of vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, and cultural knowledge. English belongs to the Indo-European language family, a group encompassing most European languages and some from the Middle East and the Indian Subcontinent. Speakers of Indo-European languages generally find English easier to learn due to familiar vocabulary and grammar. However, the proximity within the Indo-European family varies, with languages like German, French, and Norwegian being closer to English than Persian, Hindi, or Kurdish. For those whose native language falls outside the Indo-European family, acquiring English vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation can be significantly more demanding.

The Intricacies of English Verb Tenses

English verb tenses often prove difficult for learners. The reason English verb tenses are so tricky is that they carry a lot of information about when and how something happened. It’s more complicated than just past, present, and future! These tenses convey nuanced information about the timing and manner of an action, extending beyond simple past, present, and future distinctions. Consider these examples:

Emily had cried when Patrick walked into the room.
Emily was crying when Patrick walked into the room.
Emily had been crying when Patrick walked into the room.
Emily cried when Patrick walked into the room.

In all four sentences above, Emily cried at some point in the past, so the verb to cry appears in the “past tense” in all four sentences. However, did you notice that in each verb looks a little different and in each sentence, there is a slightly different relationship between the timing of the two different past events?

In the first three sentences, Emily started crying before Patrick entered, while in the final sentence, the two things happened at the same time. In sentences 2 and 3, Emily was finished crying by the time Patrick walked in, but there’s a difference between these two as well! In the second sentence, we’re focusing more on the fact Emily cried for a period of time. In the third sentence, we’re more focused on the simple fact that she cried.

To use the correct English verb tense, you need to keep in mind both the tense of the verb (when it happened compared to now: past/present/future) and the “aspect” of the verb (which describes how that event overlapped with other events or times under discussion). Mastering English verb tenses requires understanding both the tense (past, present, future) and the aspect (how the event relates to other events or times). This complexity can be confusing for beginners.

The Definite Article "The" and Indefinite Articles "A" and "An"

Articles are difficult for English learners because using them correctly requires you to get inside the mind of the person that you’re talking to. Most English teachers and learners will tell you to use a(n) for something that isn’t specific and the for something that is specific. But the story is actually more complicated than that. If your listener can pick out the specific person or item you are referring to, then you use the. If your listener can’t or doesn’t need to pick it out, you use a(n).

The correct use of articles hinges on assessing the listener's ability to identify the referent. The is used when the listener can identify the specific item, while a(n) is used when the listener cannot or does not need to identify it. Some proper nouns require articles (e.g., the Bahamas), while others do not (e.g., Charles). Articles are sometimes omitted after prepositions (e.g., at school), and mass nouns (e.g., milk) do not take a(n). These exceptions necessitate memorization, adding to the challenge.

The Challenge of Phrasal Verbs

Phrasal verbs, combinations of a verb and a preposition (e.g., put out, kick over), pose two main challenges for learners.

Idiomatic Meaning: Most phrasal verbs are idioms, meaning you cannot reliably guess the meaning of a phrasal verb just from the meaning of its parts. The meaning of phrasal verbs often cannot be deduced from the individual words. For example, the phrasal verbs based on the verb “to pick.” Notice that while you might be able to predict a few of these meanings based on the meaning of the preposition (ex: pick up, pick apart), most of them have meanings that need to be memorized.

Read also: Decoding Language Learning
- pick out to choose
- pick up to lift up in your hand OR to receive a signal
- pick over to search thoroughly through a selection of options
- pick onto bully
- pick apart to break something carefully into pieces (literally or figuratively)
- pick up onto notice
- pick at to take small bites of your food, not really eat it
- pick off to eliminate something one-by-one
- pick through to search carefully within a mess
Variable Grammar: Different phrasal verbs follow different grammar rules. Some phrasal verbs can be split apart (e.g., Sarah knocked the can over), while others cannot (e.g., Sarah looked after Mark's kids). Learners must memorize which phrasal verbs belong to each group.
- These phrasal verbs can be split apart:
  - ✓ Sarah knocked over the can.
  - ✓ Sarah knocked the can over.
  - ✓ Mark picked up his kids from school.
  - ✓ Mark picked his kids up from school.
- These phrasal verbs cannot be split apart:
  - ✓ Sarah looked after Mark's kids.
  - ✘ Sarah looked Mark's kids after.
  - ✓ Mark got over his cold.
  - ✘ Mark got his cold over.

The idiomatic nature and variable grammar of phrasal verbs require extensive memorization.

The Complexities of Questions and Negative Sentences

English questions (What does Ken like?) and negative sentences (Ken does not like cheese) are usually challenging for language learners. Questions and negative sentences in English are so difficult because they can have a different word order and sometimes involve changing the form of a verb. As shown in the examples below, the word order and verb forms in questions and negative sentences often differ from those in affirmative sentences.

Is Ken eating cheese? / Ken is eating cheese.
What is Ken eating? / Ken is eating cheese.

Read also: Unlock Your Potential with English
Who is eating cheese? / Ken is eating cheese.
Did Ken eat cheese? / Ken ate cheese.
What did Ken eat? / Ken ate cheese.
Ken is eating cheese. / Ken is not eating cheese.
Ken ate cheese. / Ken did not eat cheese.

Mastering these transformations requires practice, particularly for learners whose native languages do not alter word order or verb forms in questions and negatives.

The Perils of English Spelling

English spelling is one of the most difficult things for English language learners to master. The inconsistencies between spelling and pronunciation make English spelling a significant hurdle. The same sound can be spelled differently (e.g., bread and bed), and the same spelling can have different pronunciations (e.g., fig and sigh). Silent letters (e.g., who) and unpredictable letter combinations (e.g., gh in rough) further complicate matters.

Consider the following example:

The word “enough” ends with an f sound, so gh can be pronounced f. The o in the word “women” is pronounced more like an i, so let’s use o next! In words like “ignition,” the ti sounds like an sh, so we’ll use that at the end. Put that all together, and we get: gh+o+ti → fish!

Several factors contribute to the irregularity of English spelling:

Limited Vowel Letters: English uses between 16 and 25 different vowel sounds, but we only have 5-6 letters to use to write them (a, e, i, o, u, (y)). This means that we have to get creative about showing which sound each vowel represents!
Borrowing from Other Languages: English borrows words from a lot of different languages, and sometimes uses their original spellings, even when those other languages follow different spelling rules. Just think about words like faux or psychology!
Historical Pronunciation: English words are usually spelled the way they were pronounced in the mid-1500s, since that was when we decided on the “correct spelling.” Often, silent letters represent sounds that used to be pronounced (e.g., knife used to be pronounced “kuh-neef-uh!”)

Navigating the Sea of English Idioms

Learning how to use and understand English idioms is crucial if you want to use English in the real world. Idioms are set phrases whose meaning you cannot usually predict, even if you know the meanings of each word in the phrase. The non-literal nature of idioms makes them challenging for learners. The English phrase “a fly in the ointment” can be used to describe any annoying circumstance that causes problems in an otherwise good plan (just like idioms can cause problems for your plan to learn English!) It is an idiom because it doesn’t refer to actual flies getting stuck in actual ointment!

Idioms permeate everyday English. For example, consider this "pep talk" from a coach:

“Here’s the deal, team. I know you all expected winning this game to be a piece of cake, but now, here we are, 30 points down in the second half. So I’m going to need you all to step up and chip in so we can win this game! We haven’t missed the boat on winning this tournament yet! Come on, guys, let’s blow them out of the water!”

Here's the deal - this is the plan/situation
A piece of cake - something very easy
Step up (to the plate) - take responsibility in a crisis
Chip in - put your own energy into a goal
Miss the boat - miss an opportunity
Blow them out of the water - seriously impress or defeat someone

English courses often prioritize literal language, leaving learners to acquire idioms through real-world interactions, media consumption, and reading.

Irregularities in Verbs and Plurals

Learning to use irregular verbs and irregular plurals is difficult for most English language learners because it requires a lot of memorization. Irregular words, deviating from standard grammar rules, require rote memorization. The plurals of man, loaf, and fish are men, loaves, and fish, respectively, and the past tenses of is, bring, and have are was, brought, and had.

The Immense and Diverse Vocabulary

Most linguists would tell you that English has a larger and more diverse vocabulary than most other grammatically similar languages. The sheer size and diversity of the English vocabulary present several challenges. The 1989 full edition of the Oxford English Dictionary contains over 250,000 individual entries.

Contradictions and Exceptions to Rules

One of the reasons why English is known for being difficult is because it’s full of contradictions. As native speakers, we rarely stop to think how illogical many of the things we say really are - we’re just used to them. Unless you’ve been brought up speaking English, how can you possibly begin to learn all these oddities? It’s little wonder that people trying to learn English end up feeling confused.

One of the hardest things about English is that although there are rules, there are lots of exceptions to those rules - so just when you think you’ve got to grips with a rule, something comes along to shatter what you thought you knew by contradicting it. Thus “believe” and “receipt”. But this is English - it’s not as simple as that. What about “science”? Or “weird”? Or “seize”? There are loads of irregular verbs, too, such as “fought”, which is the past tense of “fight”, while the past tense of “light” is “lit”. So learning English isn’t just a question of learning the rules - it’s about learning the many exceptions to the rules.

Word Order and Nuance

Native English-speakers intuitively know what order to put words in, but this is hard to teach to those learning the language. The difference between the right and wrong order is so subtle that it’s hard to explain beyond simply saying that it “just sounds right”. For example, we often use more than one adjective to describe a noun, but which order should they go in? We would say “an interesting little book” not “a little interesting book”. Both are technically grammatically correct, but the first “just sounds right”. It’s a bit of a nightmare for those who are trying to learn, and it may prove one nuance too much.

Pronunciation Peculiarities

As if the spelling wasn’t hard enough, English pronunciation is the cause of much confusion among those trying to learn English. Some words are very low on vowels, such as the word “strengths”, which is hard to say when you’re not accustomed to English pronunciation. What’s more, words that end in the same combination of letters aren’t necessarily pronounced in the same way. Why is “trough” pronounced “troff”, “rough” pronounced “ruff”, “bough” pronounced “bow” (to rhyme with cow) and “through” pronounced “throo”? There are silent letters at the start of words, too. Why are there so many words that begin with a silent “K”, such as “knife”? Or even a silent “G”, such as “gnome”? If it’s not pronounced, what’s the point of including that letter in the first place, if it only adds to the confusion of both native speakers and learners? And don’t get us started on the number of hapless tourists who don’t know where to begin with pronouncing a town name such as “Worcester”.

To make matters even more complex, the way in which you emphasise certain words in a sentence can subtly change its meaning. When you’re not used to speaking English, these may all sound the same to you.

Homophones and Synonyms

Confused yet? If not, you will be after this next point. English is absolutely full of homophones - words that sound the same but have different meanings or spellings. Homophones exist in the English language that has no fewer than seven different meanings - namely words that sound like ‘course’ and ‘raise’. Flick through a thesaurus and you’ll see countless groups of words that supposedly mean the same thing. You’d think that this would mean that they were interchangeable - but you’d be wrong. Even words whose definitions are seemingly in the same ballpark differ subtly - or apply to something completely different, because English words can have multiple meanings. You can’t always swap words with the same meaning, and this means that it’s easy to end up using a word in completely the wrong way.

For example, you “watch” television, and you can either “watch a film” or “see a film” - but you don’t “see television”. But you’re not a “watcher” when you’re doing this - you’re a “viewer”, even though you don’t “view television” or “view a movie”. To take another example, I could talk about a swan’s elegant neck, but I couldn’t swap the word “elegant” for the word “classic” or “chic” (both suggestions I found in the thesaurus when I looked up “elegant”) because these are words that apply to fashion, not birds!

Idioms and Archaic Words

English is a very old language, and over the course of many centuries, interesting sayings have been incorporated into everyday language that make little sense if you haven’t grown up with them. “Barking up the wrong tree”, “the straw that broke the camel’s back” and “raining cats and dogs” are all examples of idioms that add colour to the English language.

Though English does ‘move with the times’, there are still plenty of archaic words floating around that you may well encounter (and they may not be in your English dictionary). “Alas” (an expression of grief or pity) is one of the more common ones, but language of the sort traditionally used in the Bible is also still commonly understood, such as “Thou shalt not kill” in the Ten Commandments. This means “You will not kill” in modern lingo, but the Ten Commandments usually retain this old language. Old-fashioned words such as “apothecary” (someone who prepares medicine) and “shilling” (an old form of English currency) will crop up in historical dramas that you watch on television.

Regional Dialects

We’d imagine that all languages have regional dialects, but when you add the bizarre pronunciations and unique additional vocabularies of the UK’s many regional dialects, they don’t exactly help the poor folk trying to learn English. It’s bad enough for us southerners to understand people from Glasgow, or even for people from Edinburgh to understand people from Glasgow. There’s a broad north/south divide in the pronunciation of certain words, a good example being “bath”, which is pronounced with a short “A” by those “up north” and a long “A” (“barth”) by those “down south”. Of course, every English-speaking country also has its own way of speaking the language; the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa all have their own distinctive way of pronouncing words.

Personal Experiences of Language Learners

As a non-native English speaker, I’ve certainly found the nuances of English somewhat difficult to master. Learning German, Italian, and even French came much more naturally to me. And despite English sharing its roots with many other European or Latin-based languages, English is a cat of a different color.

Challenges Faced by English Learners

Many Words: Unlike other more compact languages, the English language has a heck of a lot of words. In fact, the Oxford English Language Dictionary has over 500,000 headwords. So, unlike more simplified languages, you have a huge range of different words that share meaning, though there’s some unique and magical difference between the right word and the wrong word for a situation.
Grammar Rules: In most languages, the grammatical conventions are pretty easy to master. However, English has evolved from so many unique sources that the language has an army of exceptions to their own basic grammar rules.
Pronunciation Variations and Tricks: And, of course, I can’t skip the fact that English seems intent on creating insanely complex pronunciations, despite the spelling of words being similar.
Irregularities and Bent Rules: The irregularities that confuse new learners continue with odd plural forms of words. How can “child” become “children,” but “tooth” becomes “teeth?” Another case is the use of “dog” becoming “dogs” but “ox” is pluralized to “oxen.”
Meaning and Context: Oh, and let’s not forget how context can influence the meaning of words and what words to use.
Pronunciation Is About More than Saying a Word: In many languages that I’ve mastered, words can be spoken phonetically, but not in English - at least - not always.
Homonyms and Slang Words: English has some of the most odd and defeating homonyms (similar sounding words) in all of the spoken languages.

Strategies for Overcoming Challenges

Despite these difficulties, English can be mastered with the right approach. Here are some effective strategies:

Ear Training: Start off by training your ears to understand English sounds. Our brains and ears are wired to understand our native language, so rewiring them for English is one of the most important things you can do at the beginning.
Frequency Lists: We’ve already mentioned that English has a vast vocabulary. If you want to learn fast, don’t just try to memorize every single word you come across. Frequency lists are compilations of the most commonly used vocabulary. Most languages have one. You can start with The Most Awesome Word List You Have Ever Seen - a frequency list made by us.. This list is made up of 625 of the most common words in any language.
Pattern Recognition: If you’re looking to learn English quickly, the last thing you want to do is to pore over grammar books eternally. Try noticing the patterns while you read and pay close attention to how native speakers talk.
Practice with Native Speakers: The best way to learn English is to practice with native speakers as much as possible.
Contextual Learning: It is essential to learn English in context. This means understanding the language’s usage and structure by reading and listening to examples of English being used naturally in various situations.
Immerse Yourself: One of the best ways to learn to use any language naturally is to consume media in the language you’re trying to learn. So if you’re trying to learn English idioms, try reading a book, listening to a podcast, watching TV shows or movies, or even just spending time on English-language social media!
Use a Dictionary: Look up the idioms and slang you come across in a good English dictionary, such as the Oxford English Dictionary or Merriam-Webster.

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