English is weird.
As native speakers, there are so many nuances to the English language that we don’t even realize. Things like the graphic below give me an even greater respect for ESL learners.
What’s the weirdest thing you can think of about the English language? If you’re an ESL learner, what has been your biggest challenge?
9 Responses to English is weird.
November 7th, 2011 at 1:25pm
I love this!! I love words/wordplay and my dad is not a native English speaker, so I have always had an appreciation for what a crazy language English is.
November 7th, 2011 at 1:40pm
Hi Moriah! Aren’t they interesting? Tell your dad congratulations for learning to speak such a crazy language!
November 7th, 2011 at 3:18pm
This is such a great blog post. When I was growing up, I had so many questions regarding the English language. When I read the part about “filling something in by filling it out” i actually laughed out loud, that makes no sense.
English is a funny, funny language.
November 7th, 2011 at 3:32pm
English is also an language in which someone can be pretty ugly.
November 7th, 2011 at 11:17pm
i luv it!
November 9th, 2011 at 2:22pm
I love this post too. It reminds me of the comedian Gallagher and a series of skits he would do about the pronunciation of similarly spelled words. Head to YouTube and search for “gallagher messing with your mind” and you’ll find the video. He talks about how the words bomb, tomb and comb all have different pronunciations. About how the word “some” should have the same spelling as “numb” given they sound alike. It’s a great video to use in an ESL class.
November 18th, 2011 at 4:34pm
I totally laughed at this! This brought me back to nine years of age when I was so frustrated with English because there are more exceptions to the rules than rules themselves.
There are many things I can think of, but one that I never understood is why knife and knee start with a k.
December 1st, 2011 at 1:38pm
I’d like to “k”now why knife and knee start with a k as well.
July 17th, 2012 at 11:33am
Ohh God. This is so funny and so true! My biggest challenge is English pronunciation. I took 2 accent reduction classes and learned a lot. I wrote about it later in a blog:
“My biggest struggle was to get the right pronunciation of the following set of words: sheet, cheat, shit and chit. I pronounce all of them like “shit”; that’s embarrassing! I always prefer to say a “piece of paper” instead of a sheet and “bed linens” instead of bed sheets.”