Why the English Language Is Hard to Learn (part 1)

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- [Jack] Hello, this is Jack from tofluency.com,

and these are the reasons why

the English language is hard to learn.

So there are various sentences in this article.

You can see these on your screen.

I'm going to read some of these to you,

and also at the end explain how you can improve

this area of English.

But first, what we are looking at today are these.

- [Woman] Heteronym.

- [Jack] Heteronym.

How is my American accent?

- [Woman] Heteronym.

- [Jack] Heteronym, heteronym.

This is interesting, because they use the D sound

instead of the T sound.

Heteronym, heteronym, heteronym.

Now these are two or more words

that are spelled identically,

but have different sounds and meanings,

such as tear meaning rip,

and tear meaning liquid from the eye.

Now all of these sentences include heteronyms,

and I'm going to just explain

some of these sentences to you,

and then again, at the end, I'm going to talk about

how you can improve this area of English.

Now this also highlights the fact

that English isn't phonetic,

which means that you can't know the sound of a word

just from its spelling.

And this is a more advanced example of this,

where we're actually looking at two words

that have the same spelling,

but they have different meaning and different ways

to say these words.

So let's look at number one.

Okay, here it is.

The bandage was wound around the wound,

and they put the around in there too.

It's a bit of a tongue-twister.

The bandage was wound around the wound.

The bandage was wound around the wound.

Okay, number two.

The farm was used to produce produce.

The farm was used to produce produce.

And here's a quick tip.

If you're ever stuck on something,

you can just enter it into the Google dictionary

and it gives you the verb pronunciation here.

- [Man] Produce.

- [Jack] Produce, it's the verb, produce.

And then the noun.

- Produce. - Produce, produce.

Things that have been produced or grown,

especially by farming.

Good, okay.

Number four.

We must polish the Polish furniture.

We must polish the Polish furniture.

So Polish furniture is furniture from Poland,

and to polish means to clean something.

Actually, let's have a quick look here.

Make the surface of something smooth

and shiny by rubbing it.

It's a better description than what I used.

Make the surface of something smooth

and shiny by rubbing it.

So you can polish brass, for example.

Let's do number five.

He could lead if he would get the lead out.

He could lead if he would get the lead out.

This isn't a very natural sentence,

but to lead is like a leader, to be a leader,

to be in charge of people,

and lead is a type of metal.

So again, if you're in doubt, the verb.

- [Man] Lead.

- [Jack] Lead.

And then the noun, they don't have the pronunciation here.

There it is.

- Lead. - Lead.

A heavy, bluish-gray, soft, ductile metal.

Number nine.

When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

So the dove here is a type of bird,

and dove is the past tense of dive.

Now what's interesting is I think in British English

past tense, it's dived.

The words dived and dove are interchangeable

as a past tense and past participle of the verb dive.

Both verb inflections are used in American

and British English.

However, dove is an Americanism,

and thus tends to be used more in American English.

Yeah, it sounded strange to me when people

first used dove, okay?

But when shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

Let's have a look at number 13 now.

They were too close to the door to close it.

So one uses the S sound, one uses the zed, or the Z sound.

Let's do number 19.

Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.

Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.

So this is the example that Google gave us at the start.

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So those are reasons why the English language

is hard to learn.

Now this headline is a little bit too strong

because what we're doing here is showing extreme examples.

And I'm sure in your native language

you can think of different things or reasons why

your language is hard to learn.

For example, in Spanish,

it's because of all the conjugations.

When you take a verb there are so many

different conjugations depending on the subject,

and the tense, and other things,

that this can be difficult for speakers

of English to understand.

Now when it comes to English, this is a big area,

and something that you're going to have to get used to,

because English isn't phonetic,

which again means that you can't understand

or you don't know the sound of a word from its spelling.

And these are just extreme examples where you have

one spelling of a word which has different meanings

and different ways to say the word.

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Now when it comes to learning how words

are said in English, I recommend listening

as much as possible.

And one thing you can do is listen and read

at the same time.

Recently, I made a video where I talked

about putting on subtitles in English.

You can check that out on my YouTube channel.

And this is a way for you to understand

how a word is pronounced.

So you can read and listen at the same time.

Turn on subtitles when you watch videos on YouTube.

Turn on subtitles when you watch TV shows, too.

Another way to do this is to find audio books

and listen and read at the same time.

So to find those audio books and listen

and read at the same time.

Additionally, if you are learning new words and phrases,

then find words and phrases that have audio,

and that is what I have inside the To Fluency program.

I have downloadable audio sentences

which have me saying these sentences out loud.

And if you want to learn more about this program,

then go to tofluency.com/tfp,

and also watch the video where I talked about

the power of input and the power of sentences in English.

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