Why is English such a confusing language?
By Prageet Goel
@wanderlus_she_be (23)
Kanpur, India
March 26, 2016 3:53am CST
Well, being a polyglot, I love languages , almost all of them. Pretty fluent in English because I've been learning it since birth but thinking about it , it's a perplexing language to learn. No particulars at all because pineapple doesn't have pine or apple and G is useless in Might and Night, so is the poor P in Psychology. So anyone out there who wants to solve this mystery?
6 people like this
6 responses
@Mike197602 (15505)
• United Kingdom
26 Mar 16
I don't want to solve it as although I am English and speak English the more technical aspects are often way beyond me and those with English as a second language know better
1 person likes this
@ScribbledAdNauseum (104628)
• United States
26 Mar 16
Then we can go Into the technicalities of spelling for British English versus American English.
2 people like this
@Mike197602 (15505)
• United Kingdom
26 Mar 16
@ScribbledAdNauseum or as I like to call it English and US English
There are a lot of differences and different words and often US words are old English that aren't used here such as gotten.
If you see gotten used you can almost guarantee it's an american writing.
There are a lot of differences and different words and often US words are old English that aren't used here such as gotten.
If you see gotten used you can almost guarantee it's an american writing.@ScribbledAdNauseum (104628)
• United States
26 Mar 16
@Mike197602 I sat here and wondered why we dropped the U in things like Colour and Favourite (I am not even sure if I spelled that right because spell checker doesn't recognize British spelling), but I think that we had a lot of influence with other settlers not from the UK. (Germany comes to mind but that's all that does at the moment) .
@ScribbledAdNauseum (104628)
• United States
26 Mar 16
@pgntwo You remind me of a skit I watched with Lucille Ball and Ricky Ricardo on their "I love lucy" show. They were expecting the baby and Lucy gave Ricky a children's book to read. There was a lot of words like Cough, Rough, Through, Though... 
It was a hilarious skit.
It was a hilarious skit.2 people like this
@ScribbledAdNauseum (104628)
• United States
26 Mar 16
I have read that a lot, that English is horrible. I can not call myself a polyglot by any means but I do love languages. I would love to learn Irish not only because it is my heritage but also because it is a language that is very much a dying out.
1 person likes this
@ScribbledAdNauseum (104628)
• United States
26 Mar 16
@Mike197602 THe only online sources I can find online are Bitesize Irish and Duolingo. I'm not sure if any of the other reputable ones have it. I think there are a few packages for a full immersion course... you go to ireland, and sight see / study at the same time. A BBC Radio presenter did that a few years ago, but he did a major crash course on it.
I forget the presenter's name ... William something?
@Mike197602 (15505)
• United Kingdom
26 Mar 16
My 9 and 5 year old nieces are trying to teach me Irish Gaelic as it is taught at their school
@else34 (13515)
• New Delhi, India
26 Mar 16
@wanderlus_she_be,Every language has its weak and strong points.English is not an exception.My mother tongue is Hindi.Some of my friends who are Bengali or Oriya language speakers have problem with 'gender' in Hindi.They say 'ladki jata hai' instead of 'jati hai.'English,too,has some problems.
@Daljinder (23236)
• Bangalore, India
26 Mar 16
English sure is a perplexing language. But I tend to pay not much attention to technicalities. The spellings and the pronunciations are learned by me as they were taught. Then again listening to native English speakers on videos and such helped.
Homonyms, synonyms, antonyms, phonetics etc...etc... were understood and applied then pushed aside... lol
