Friday, May 15, 2020

AskReddit Thread: English Language Rules That Baffle People


Someone on AskReddit got a fun thread going that has people who picked up English later in life, or as a second language, describing the parts about the language that baffles them the most. Learning new languages is certainly not an easy thing to do. Maybe some folks that have muddled through the disorienting process of learning a new language, or picking up English, will connect on a deeply painful level with these replies. 

1.

Text - 01rafa • 11h tough though thought through thorough

2.

Text - Hmmhowaboutthis • 12h Why do alarms go off? Aren't they really turning on?

3.

Text - AmigoDelDiabla • 10h Taught ESL to Russians, who don't use articles for nouns. Was asked why you say, "I had breakfast" but also would say "I had A big breakfast." Let's just say I wasn't a great teacher.

4.

Text - Sab_accha_ho_jayga • 10h Rough Dough Through Rhyme? No But Pony Bologna Yes

5.

Text - lina360 • 10h Fucking articles! A, an, the, no article. I hate it. Thank God I know how to use them in most cases out of pure luck, but it's so frustrating! Oh, you want to name a mountain? Use no article. But only for one mountain. For mountain chain use the. And all the exceptions in each and every rule. Why even bother inventing rules if in half of the cases when you are trying to use it there is an exception?!

6.

Text - Mojrzeszg • 11h The inconsistency in pronouncing of the same letters or sets of letters. Like in Pacific Ocean every "c" is different. "Ea" in diffrent tenses e.g. lead, read. You can pronounce "a" in 8 different ways. You can also find "a" sound like in "art" in words that aren't spelled with "a", for example, down, clerk, choir.

7.

Text - arnoldone • 12h Why are there words that even though they are spelled exactly the same, they are pronounced different based on the context. • The guy is an invalid, he is bound to his bed. The strategy used is invalid. It shouldnt have ever been accepted. • I read every night. • I read the whole book while I was on the plane.

8.

Text - aonele • 11h Chaos. Why the fuck is it pronounced like that? When it's spelled like this??

9.

Text - Solleksmori • 6h Horrible (bad) –> Horrific (bad) Terrible (bad) –> Terrific (good) ???

10.

Text - DragonDivider • 9h More the missing of a word. In german you can say something like: Geht es dir nicht gut? (Do you not feel good?) Doch mir geht es gut. (I'm feeling good) The "doch" is a word to say after no/not to state that the no is wrong. But there is no translation for that in english. Edit: es

11.

Text - notamistakeihope • 12h Hey kids! Remember, it's I before E except after C, or when sounding like "A" as in "neighbor" and "weigh"! Plus these few exceptions: caffeine, species, science, sufficient, ancient, society, weird, theism, protein, sovereign, foreign, feisty, kaleidoscope, codeine, deify, deity, seize, beige, neither, counterfeit, zeitgeist, sheik, conscience. And that's I before E except after C. Plus a few exceptions.

12.

Text - Lucretius91 • 11h I don't know what a participle is. What's a preposition? Was I supposed to end my first sentence with 'is'? It's not something I'm aware of.

13.

Text - listentothiscrap • 10h The syntax. La camisa roja (the shirt red) vs the red shirt. Now that I speak English predominantly, going back to spanish is always a trip and it makes me stutter.

14.

Text - CADS_AZRG • 10h We were taught that verbs like is, am, are, are "verbs to be". What the fuck is a "verb to be". And how are they even verbs in the first place

15.

Text - Guilty_Coconut • 7h The spelling and complete lack of rules for it. All other languages I speak have spelling that is more or less phonetic. English spelling is all over the place.

16.

Text - leaky_eddie • 11h I shed a tear when I tear my fingernail on the door that's ajar

17.

Text - kingbane2 • 10h inflammable means the same as flammable.... why?

18.

Text - ObliterAsian • 11h HOW DO I SAY VEGETABLE Like is it veggie table Or vej ter bul

19.

Text - GamersStrike • 11h Posh what the hell does this word mean

20.

Text - Dynasuarez-Wrecks • 6h Dude, I speak English primarily, and even I have to wonder about some of its conventions. Why do we have to capitalize the first word of a sentence? What does the capital do that the end punctuation of the previous sentence does not? that question mark already told you one sentence had ended and that another was starting. "I" before "E" except after "C" or when it sounds like long "A". You may break this rule at your leisure. It also doesn't apply during seizures. T

21.

Text - Noobster646 • 3h We have noses that run and feet that smell

22.

Text - mellbell13 · 7h My non-native speaker friend used to pronounce cafe as "kayf". It's the only way I say it now.

23.

Text - dontgetthejoke2 •6h Colonel is pronounced kernel. Why didn't they just spelled it as kernel.

24.

Text - Royal_Count • 6h How do you pronounce "comfortable" "Com for te bl" or "comf tebl" i really have problems with that

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