Non-native English speakers: what was the hardest part of the

Dealing with native english speakers that write and speak like shit.

dont remember, maybe using certain tenses naturally (still can't do it 100% of times)

phrasal verbs

>>74516995
this.

>>74516995

This

>>74516882
Never had any problem with it. I was fluid in written english by age 6 or 7. I still can't speak it for shit, though, because i litteraly never do it. Last time i ever spoke english was on some xbox 360 forza game 10 years ago, and all i said was "get out of my way, faggot".

>>74517269
This

>>74516882
pronunciation and motivation

>>74516995
What's that?

>>74517269
>fluid in written english
Clearly not.

>>74517548
i don't know either

>>74517548
Things like:
see to "I'll see to it"
Break down "The car broke down"
look down on "They don't want to be looked down on"

>>74517591
So verbs that just happen to be in phrases?

>>74517269
our languages basically developed alongside each other due to the old norse influence on both, it's why our grammar and sentence structure is so similar

so it makes sense why skandis find english so easy

>>74516882
I'll answer for them: it's th

Literally 90% of foreigners can't pronounce the sound correctly

>>74517610
Yeah, except you it isn't obvious what the phrasal verbs mean from the sum of their parts. Essentially they are the verb form of idioms.

>>74517637
A lot of Londoners seem to have trouble with it to, don't you fink?

>>74516882
Talking the same language that dumb bongs do.

>>74517637
Th is easy.

>>74517784
No it isnt.

>>74517742
I always thought it dealt more with the metaphorical meanings that prepositions can have than the verbs themselves. I know i have the same problem in German; prepositions are just weird

>>74517784
Can Swedes pronounce squirrel?

>>74517821
Skuirrul

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>non-anglos call this "TURD"

>non-anglos pronounce "ball" as "borrrrrrrr"

>>74517821
http://vocaroo.com/i/s1uyEc8jSEvv

>>74516882
Articles

>>74517974
Skruuuurl :^)

>>74517891
KEK
why don't they just off themselves?

>>74516882
grammar

>>74518066
You mean 3rd!

>>74518006
kek.. can double as a straining sound

TH wasn't an issue for me but I knew for sure it gave a hard time to a lot of my classmates.
Personally I struggled the most with the pronunciation. Watching movies, writing and all this stuff is no real problem but as soon I have to open my mouth the eloquence is pretty much gone. Not like I don't say anything but not in the same manner like you'd expect.
While playing games I'm sometimes with some pals from UK in Discord voice chat and chatting is no problem but after asking for feedback they said I pronounce words not the way they are. I do wonder what would happen if I were to live in London for a few weeks though. In the end it's really just practise.

Countries like Sweden, NL, Crotia all have no dubbed TV so I guess countries like that are 'better prepared' in the end thus most fluency in english from countries like them.

>>74517742
>implying londoners aren't foreigners anyway

>>74517755
t. literally whonduras

>>74518220
>implying it's not the white people speaking like that
Immigrants to London speak better English than the locals

>>74518246
>white people
>london
pick one

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>>74517974
Are you Putin? Why eastern Europeans always have to make noises with their mouth.

>>74517637

You spent how many decades, if not centuries, trying to civilize Ireland, and they still pronounce 3 as "tree"?

Britain had the best colonies, but jesus christ the bar is set low.

>>74518360
Its a thousand dollar mic that picks up all mouth noises.

articles, prepositions and idioms, because usage of these doesn't always make sense.

>>74518261
oi

>>74516882
prepositions

>>74516995
this fo'sho

>>74517548
look forward to
back off
hold on
etc...
you can modify the meaning of a verb by changing the next word. I till struggle with that tbf

>>74519014
these seem really obvious if you think about it, tho
maybe that's cause im a native

>>74519096
No they don't, it is just because you are a native speaker. There is literally nothing about "look forward to" that involves the future/time.

>>74516882
it's an enemy language
i still struggle with the fact i'm so good at it, but it gives me joy and pride as a son of the Motherland to be better at it than most enemy native speakers

>>74519143
Russian is a beautiful language, I feel bad for Americans who don't understand it and just see it as retarded gibberish

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>>74519143

Russian is one of the best languages this world has to offer.

phrasal verbs
I often make a mistake

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>>74519251
>>74519321
it was a joke btw

i won't even hack you if you're mean to Russia on the internet, you don't have to sweet-talk me

but english was easy for some reason

>>74516882
Pronunciation.

>>74519420
>>74519425
Not having articles is what I like about the Russian language. Russian is beautiful. Don't lose the accent Belarus, we native speakers find it sexy.

>>74517269
>fluid in written english
ha
cuck

For me it's the different way Brits use English vs Americans. It feels normal to say "at the store" and "in Tesco" but I've heard people from the UK use "at Tesco" more often. Also past perfect, I get "she had done her homework before she went to bed" but I can't use it on its own, I just use past simple.

I'm relatively fluent otherwise, pronunciation has never been a big deal aside from certain words (writhe, trough, Appalachian, Byzantine)

"th"

>implying English is hard

>>74520206

"at X" vs "in X" isn't necessarily a British or American thing. I'd say I'm "at X" when I'm just generally explaining where I am, while I'd say I'm "in X" if it was necessary that the listener knew I was inside of the building itself.

>>74519126

What? You'd say you "look forward to" something if it was impending. "I'm looking forward to that cake", "I look forward to the day that..", etc.

>>74516911
this. weird accents/ gopnik tier slang words.

also you never know how to write/ pronounce words because anglos dn't have their own alphabet
>>74516995

also this

>>74516882
Grammar

>>74516911
can imagine this being hard for non-english speakers

I can have trouble understanding guys the north of England or New Zealand's south island. I know one anglo South African who could barely understand Australians speak and just pretended he was dutch for the first six months he spent here so people wouldn't try to have conversations with him.

Right Preposition > Tense > inflections of verbs > plural > spelling of words and names > Proper translation for a word in Chinese exists but it doesn't come to me

That there was a british aspect to it

Petrol, like hahaha what the fuck? Just call it gas like everyone else

>>74520807
>call petroleum (a liquid) gas
>because that's what America does

>>74520736
Your text really sounds like someone scanned my brain and sorted out what I've been feeling when using English.

The spoken language.
English sounds are so different from italian, even japanese or finnish while grammatically unrelated would be a lot easier.

Can't remember anymore, but I'd guess the orthography. Why you gotta have things like "a" being pronounced like three different vowels, silent letters, etc. other retarded shit

>>74520456
>You'd use word if you meant word
Your lack of comprehension hurts.
Look: view
Forward: physical direction
To: destination

That metaphorically becomes temporal and anticipatory, but the literal construction just says you are actually looking down a physical path at the destination. That literal interpretation of the individual parts doesn't make sense with "I'm looking forward to tomorrow"

>>74520818
You Brits are too dumb to handle synonyms it seems

I'm not joking, I can't think of any other lingual aspect that was even remotely difficult to pick up. English is babby's second language.

>>74520912
I am not British

>>74520926
Your flag tells a different story

>>74520938
I am not British

>>74520888

Methinks it is you who lacking comprehension here. Forward as in "forward in time".

>>74520818
>Thinks gasoline is the same as petroleum
>The nation famous for abbreviations can't comprehend an abbreviation

Pathetic really

>>74520984
Australia is famous for abbreviations?

>>74520954
>british flag in the top left corner
that means you're british

>>74521010
almost every noun is shortened here, we're too lazy to say words in full
>>74521030
I am not British

>>74521055
You may look like a gook, but you still speak english and kiss the british queen ass.

Pronunciation
I guess since English has a lot of loan words you tend to get thrown off by spelling

English is my second language but I technically grew up speaking it, but I still get moments of not knowing that's how a word was said until I hear someone else say it (or until I try saying it myself and someone corrects me)

Before important uni talks too I'd have to google the pronunciation of some words to make sure I'm not making a fool out of myself

>>74521135
I am White

>>74521170
t. zhang/stavros/giuseppe/tawfiq

>>74518372
>pronounce 3 as "tree"

I-I do this.

How is it supposed to sound then?

>>74521207
th-ree

good luck learning how to make a th sound though

>>74521172
>I'm not a Brit
>OK gook
>I'm not Asian I'm a Brit
Get your story straight

>>74521236
>every white is british

>>74521224
oh god is this is the same as 'cecear' in spanish?

They pronounce 'c'(spanish) as 'th'(english) while we pronounce it as 's'.

For this reason alone I can't imitate the castilian accent at all.

>>74521272
wait, I meant s and z instead of c.

>>74521272
Yes, it's exactly that except English has 2, voiced and unvoiced the.

>>74516882
Articles and prepositions, we don't have similar systems in Finnish, so I have to learn all the cases separately.

sometimes I'll literally translate dutch/english colloquialists to English but generally as a dutch speaking person with an IQ over 77 english is easy mode

>>74521207

Don't worry about it. The Irish and various other native English speakers pronounce "th" as either a "t" or a "d". You'll get bullied by pretentious fags on here, but in the real world people won't care if they even notice at all.

English was easy as fuck, there are no hard parts

>>74521475
no one ever bullies anyone for it, it's just part of their accent

Pronouncing words you have only seen written. There's literally no rules at all. Also difference between w/v sounds when I was younger.

Pronunciation is fucking nightmarish
Sort your spellings out anglos

>>74521543
Might add plural/singular verb conjugation, which we don't have in Norwegian, but that is only a problem on 4chinz where I write shit without any thought.

>>74521577
blame the fr*nch for that

ye olde english was more straightforward from what I understand

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>>74516882
I still can't be a non-native speaker, I don't know why, maybe learning languages is just not for me. I feel some buthurt when even schoolboys can speak better than I. Even now I have to put this few lines into the google translate to fix it.

>>74521577
this. Learning english made me appreciate how easy spanish vowel sounds are.

>>74516911
Isn't it like that with most languages? Non natives normally speak more carefully and concisely.

>>74521475
>You'll get bullied by pretentious fags on here
>implying I don't go on those vocaroo threads to listen to everyone's adorable shitty accents
It's like wanking but for the heart

>>74521620
>this
these
SHIIIIIIIITT

Articles and subjunctive. I often can't tell subjunctive and past tense apart.

>>74521792
>subjunctive
Literally never heard this word in my life.

>>74521792


Doesn't Japanese lack a "proper" future tense? Everything you guys say is in a present progressive set to a general or fixed time?
e.g

I am eating (present)
I am eating later (future)

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>>74516882
Pronounciation, so many words are written the same way but have different pronunciations baka

>>74516882
Not getting a choice of it being my first language

>>74522089
Do you speak gaellic?
I know you guys are supposed to learn it at school but do you care and do you use it?

>>74521500
if anything shit like that is nice to hear since it's different
don't worry about it tree bro >>74521207

>>74522122
it varies depending on the region
some are raised with irish as their first language and there's even some who don't speak a word of english, although they're rare

>>74516882
Perfect tenses. I still cannot use them correctly to be honest.

>to pronounce TH
>to pronounce H
fuck, it's hard

>>74522048
This.
The fact that "lives" as in "he lives" and "our lives" is written 100% identical but pronounced completely differently is pretty annoying

>>74522296
also closer as in "it's coming closer" and "the song was the closer"
really bothers me because there's a Joy Division album called Closer and I don't know how I should pronounce it.

>>74522122
I speak Irish but as a second language so not fully fluently, it's pretty sad

>>74522122
Also just noticed the second part of the question, I use it maybe weekly mainly just to understand memes or Sinn Féin speeches, I speak other languages better than it which again is quite sad

>>74522296
At least we hear the differences.
I litteraly can't hear the differences between "to import" and "an import"

>>74522445
Sad indeed, but Iktf
>Tfw speak Arabic and no amazigh

>>74522506
>I litteraly can't hear the differences between "to import" and "an import"
there isn't one?

>>74522296
>>74522338
>>74522506
to abuse, abuse
to contest, a contest
to convert, a convert
to rebel, a rebel

seems like it's mostly verbs vs nouns and the stress on which syllable

>>74522634
>to contest, a contest
>to convert, a convert
maybe it's an australian thing, but we pronounce those in the same way

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Whether the weather be fine
Or whether the weather be not,
Whether the weather be cold
Or whether the weather be hot,
We'll weather the weather
Whatever the weather,
Whether we like it or not.

>>74522523
There is.
To imPORT, an IMport.

English is far from easy desu

>>74521842
It's just a different mechanism, but the result is pretty much the same.
We have the same in italian, while we actually have the future tense the usual colloquial way is something like "I go tomorrow" which means "I'll go tomorrow".
The future is implied by using the temporal noun.

>>74516882
Ask yourself, Pedro.

>>74522718

Is that some kinda British pronunciation? I pronounce both of those as "imPORT".

>>74522666
waait do you say CONtest or conTEST

1.pronunciations that don't match the spellings
2.f/p, l/r, b/v
3. intonations

>>74523296
conTEST for both

Grammer.
english is S+V ~ but korean is V+S ~

>>74517974
>http://vocaroo.com/i/s1uyEc8jSEvv
sounds like youre about to vomit

I can't speak it for shit

>>74516882
eventually being able to understand just how retarded americans are

>>74521621
Spanish vowel sounds aren't easy. You say that because you're a native speaker

I don't remember having any real difficulties - English sentences mostly end up being just a word for word replacement of the equivalent danish sentence.

I'm very fluid . Languages come naturally to me

>>74516995
>Dealing with This

Living is suffer.

>>74533186
I do a lot of language exchange while learning Japanese. How can I make effective use of my English speaking to help others learn to understand better. I can't speak slow and clear because I know well as soon as they run into another native speaker who has never learned a language in their life, they will speak in slurs and slang. So me speaking clearly might not even help right?

I'm terrible at explaining grammar as well. I just want to help.

writing from right to left

>>74516995
fuck this gay shit
Also, propositions
Also, reported speech

I can't pronounce 'interesting'

pronounciation of the words and still is

evelyn = evlyn

every fucking word is like this and you've got to memorize them all

>>74521620
Don't feel bad. Imagine how difficult it would be for the average Amerilard, myself included, to learn your language.

>>74521792
Subjunctive? It hardly exists in English anymore. The Spanish one is much more annoying.

>>74516995
I guess becuase Im a native speaker I don't even know what this is, like the other Americans in the thread.

>>74540230
>evelyn
i pronounce that evuhlyn

>>74516911
You were taught incorrectly.

>>74517269
>I was fluid in written english by age 6 or 7
lol what am i reading

>>74517548
>>74517574


an example would be something like this song lyric

"Dance away the heartache"

the word aways turns dance into something like Dance until xxxxxx goes away

your retarded metric system

For me both the Future Perfect and Future Perfect Continous.

I still do not know why I should use them, since no American I met EVER used them

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nothing, easiest language in the world

>>74516995
Those are very basic and simple concepts though

>>74517637
>>74517742
>>74518220
>>74518246
>>74518261
Th-fronting, or the dropping of <th> in favour of <f> is a common feature in Multi-Cultural London English and Estuary English. Its presence amongst 'white' dialect groups has been noted since the 19th century, but was mostly associated with class. Following the surge of foreign populations, its prevalence expanded into modern Estuary English. Even I, a Kentish person, do it half the time.

Its presence has also been noted in Glasgow, with it being on the increase. This also correlates with the growth of the city's black population.

>>74544795
I think it´s this
Spanish (Italian must be similar I guess)
Cuando nos visites en las vacaciones ---- tu hermano ya habrá vuelto de Francia.

The second part in translation of that would be
your brother will have returned from France.

>>74544795
It's not common but I don't think it's that complicated. Y is in the past relative to Z but it is currently X.

"I'll have it finished by our next meeting"

>>74545262
I think it's kind of cool that although various dialects around the world are starting to use the same words/vocabulary, our accents/pronunciations are becoming more distinct.

>>74544991

look at this list

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:English_phrasal_verbs_with_particle_(out)

knowing what out means in each of those cases is hard for people learning English

>>74545830
Do other languages not have the equivalent of this?

Why don't foreigners like prepositions?

>>74517637

its psychological imo
There is no difficulty in putting your tongue in the front teeth and pronouncing the TH sound. Latin Americans who speak Spanish never use than sound, but can do it with no problems to imitate how Spaniards talk.

I simply didnt hear the English TH of Thunder as the Spanish Z (of Spaniards), and pronounced it as F. Then one day a professor told me, that is not pronounced like an F, it is like the Z of Spaniards, and I begun doing it that way (for words like think, thing, thunder etc-this, that are different)

And something I dont understand is why the TH sound still sounds "ugly" to me in Spanish, but not in English. It is purely psychological.
No one (wrongly) accuses English speakers of having a lisp like it happens to Spaniards.

I wish we could make English great again

>>74546117

there are suffixes and prefixes.
Everybody immediately understands what Dismembered or Misunderstand means, but phrasal verbs arent immediately clear for begginers.

>>74545392
>"I'll have it finished by our next meeting"
Sorry I messed this sentence up. It should have been "I'll have finished it by our next meeting".
In the first one finished was just an adjective. May be a better example might be.
"I'll have revised it by our next meeting" vs "I'll have it revised by our next meeting". They mean slightly different things and only one is the future perfect.

>>74516995
This is based more upon basic abstract reasoning. People with autism have more difficulty in asbtract communication with others, which would explain why a large number of 4chan users have difficulty with this concept.

>>74546945
You just made that up

>>74518261
this. fuck that shithole. even worse than nee york.

>>74547126
You mean NYC?

>>74546232
romance languages don't have as much
desu english is pretty simplified compared to other germanic languages so it's actually quite easy
but most romance speakers itt like all the latin americans, the italians and the french, simply don't use the same variety as english users to so they can be confusing for them

>>74516882
Sometimes I don't know what preposition I need to use, e.g. in school or at school. This is tough for me sometimes.

>>74547047
No. I didnt. Im not saying there is anything wrong with someone having autism. Theres no reason for you to feel ashamed, friend.

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Let's all just take a moment to appreciate that English lost grammatical gender and cases and how much more of a clusterfuck it would be if it hadn't.

>>74547047
Actually hes right. Consider the phrase "your brother looks up to you". He isnt necesarily literally looking up, but rather taking the actions of another as guidance. Its an abstract statement.

>>74547477
>more than 4
jesus christ how do you even memorize all of that

>>74547477
>simplistic means good

>>74546945
It's common for the autistic people to make up explanations for why normal people are inferior minds to repress their own sense of inferiority.

>>74547477
>hungary
>18 cases
Is Hungarian the most difficult European language to learn?

>>74547574
>No one is able to learn the language, therefore there can be no foreign spies
Take that capitalist pigs!

>>74547587
Im not trying to claim that any group of people is superior. Im simply discussing phrasal verbs and abstract reasoning.

>>74516882
prepositions.

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>>74547477
>Russian
>6 cases

>>74547477
What's the 7 case language covering parts of Finland, Norway, and Sweden?

>>74547784
Phrasal verb meanings are not the sum of their parts. Any sense of abstraction you may think there is just an attempt to rationalize the modern state of the words. In reality they used to have a literal meaning from the sum of their parts, but the phrases, like idioms, became a semantic unit who's meaning changed over time and use to be something different. It is not something you could deduce if you aren't native. Even idioms have a sensical origin.

>>74546232
They're random. "in the thread" or "on the thread"?

>>74548012
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sami_languages

>>74548012
sami

>>74548081
>>74548135
Thanks.

>>74548058
Depends on what you're trying to say.

>>74517269
i'm fluid in written english but solid in spoken english.

>>74547477
Grammatical gender is degenerate as fuck. How gender-obsessed does society have to be to go around and say, "bridges are male, and telephones are female"?

>>74551423
Excuse me, but knowing the gender of my PS4 and toaster is really important.

>>74551423
Sometimes English gets ambiguous. For example: "The poet". You can't tell if it's a woman or a man. In Portuguese you say "o poeta" for men and "a poetisa" for women. That's the good thing about it.

>>74552141
You don't need to know anything other than the poet is a poet.

>>74530159
that's because we both speak an evolution of old norse

>>74552181
Agree to disagree. But didn't English have genders though when it was Old English?

>degenerate: lacking some property, order, or distinctness of structure previously or usually present, in particular.
So...

Speak english and think in spanish. I fuck grammar and pronunciation eventually and sounds retarded. Not the same problem with other romanic languages.

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>>74546457
How so?

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The accent.
I can't speak correctly for shit to begins with, and with my butchered french it's just fucking impossible