Reasons why English is so Hard to Understand (REHU)

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Incompl te

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Below are sentences which I believe make the English language too hard to understand. If you don't understand from the first time of reading them, the concept is simple. The same word written the same way but it has different meanings with different pronunciations. Here are what I could think of in the past week.

Add on to the list or comment your thoughts below.

EDIT: Adding peoples sentences onto the list to make easier for others

The bandage was wound around the wound.

The farm used to produce produce.

The dump was so full we had to refuse the refuse.

We must polish the Polish furniture.

He could lead if he could get the lead out of his feet.

The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.

A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

I do not object to the object.

The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.

They were too close to the door to close it.

A seamstress and a sewer fell down the sewer line.

To help him with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

After a number of injections, my jaw got number.

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

I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

How can i intimate this to my most intimate friend.

I will murder that murder of crows.

I already read that book, but i'll read it again.

I saw him saw the see-saw with his saw.
 

Aardvark

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We make it hard on purpose to confuse and confound those disqualified by reasons of being stupid and/or foreign.

I will murder that murder of crows.
 

Cadren

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Dec 14, 2008
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There are a bunch of reason that English is hard to understand.

Mainly, English spelling makes no sense at all.

Seriously, have you ever thought for a while about the concept of silent letters? Letters are supposed to represent sounds, but some of them represent nothing. If that's the case, why have them at all?

Or could you ever imagine having to teach how to read 'ough' to somebody and making sense of it? Dough, rough, through, cough, bough... none of them sound anything a like.
 

Dufferking75

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Dec 4, 2008
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Cadren said:
There are a bunch of reason that English is hard to understand.

Mainly, English spelling makes no sense at all.

Seriously, have you ever thought for a while about the concept of silent letters? Letters are supposed to represent sounds, but some of them represent nothing. If that's the case, why have them at all?

Or could you ever imagine having to teach how to read 'ough' to somebody and making sense of it? Dough, rough, through, cough, bough... none of them sound anything a like.
That would be one reason I love German. Every word is spelled exactly how it sounds. :D
 

Charlie-two-zero

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Dec 30, 2008
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All languages have this, at least the germanic and romantic languages do. I don't know anything about eastern languages.
 

Aardvark

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Charlie-two-zero said:
All languages have this, at least the germanic and romantic languages do.
Where do you think English stole them from?

I saw him saw the see-saw with his saw.
 

xitel

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Aug 13, 2008
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Well, people keep mentioning homonyms, but there's also homophones that make listening to it even harder. I can see the sea in the shape of a c.
 

Dramatic Flare

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Jun 18, 2008
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Charlie-two-zero said:
All languages have this, at least the germanic and romantic languages do. I don't know anything about eastern languages.
Yes. Spanish in particular has a few I could name.

Qué and que are pronounced almost with infinitessimal difference, but the first one is "what" and the second one is "that" in the case of not being an "this or that" issue (e.g.remember when we went to that play?" Using "this" in that sentence would not work, so you would use "que")

Also, caro and carro. expensive and car, in order.
 

Graustein

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Chad and Shad both sat an English test. One of the questions was regarding the usage of "had" versus "had had". Chad, where Shad had had "had", had had "had had". "Had had" had had the approval of the teacher.
It's grammatically correct, as far as I know. Now try saying it out loud, without the benefit of quotation marks.
 

hypothetical fact

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Graustein said:
Chad and Shad both sat an English test. One of the questions was regarding the usage of "had" versus "had had". Chad, where Shad had had "had", had had "had had". "Had had" had had the approval of the teacher.
You just blew my mind!
 

Incompl te

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Graustein said:
Chad and Shad both sat an English test. One of the questions was regarding the usage of "had" versus "had had". Chad, where Shad had had "had", had had "had had". "Had had" had had the approval of the teacher.
It's grammatically correct, as far as I know. Now try saying it out loud, without the benefit of quotation marks.
*loses tongue* that owns. (jots down)
 

GloatingSwine

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It's quite simple. The rules of the English language (which are only applied on a "when we feel like it" basis anyway) were specifically designed to confuse and annoy Johnny Foreigner.
 

The Kind Cannibal

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Aug 19, 2008
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This is why I utterly fail at speaking English. It was hard enough to learn to write and read it, but speaking and understanding spoken English is demonically hard!

I'll take my Spanish any day.
 

Beetlejooce

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The advantages with English is that there are SO MANY foreigners in England, if you speak the language really badly it's accepted as normal, and in fact many people who speak correct English are shunned and considered posh.

French is ridiculous though. Some of the words are basically identical, but if you mispronounce a hundredth of a syllable the French have no idea what your talking about. In English you can mispronounce something and due to the wide range of accents it makes sense. In France if you mispronounce something they'll all 'WTF' you until you feel bad
 

Incompl te

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Beetlejooce said:
The advantages with English is that there are SO MANY foreigners in England, if you speak the language really badly it's accepted as normal, and in fact many people who speak correct English are shunned and considered posh.

French is ridiculous though. Some of the words are basically identical, but if you mispronounce a hundredth of a syllable the French have no idea what your talking about. In English you can mispronounce something and due to the wide range of accents it makes sense. In France if you mispronounce something they'll all 'WTF' you until you feel bad
The only french i know is retard which means late. guess why i learnt that? :p
 

GloatingSwine

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Charlie-two-zero said:
I don't know anything about eastern languages.
Oh yes.

Japanese, for instance, not content with having no less than four complete alphabets, each of which is used for different types of words (one of them, handily, is the standard Roman alphabet), even has two different readings for each character in one of them, depending on whether they appear on their own or next to another character of the same alphabet.

Or Mandarin, where the tone of voice used when saying a word alters it's meaning.
 

GloatingSwine

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Beetlejooce said:
The advantages with English is that there are SO MANY foreigners chavs in England, if you speak the language really badly it's accepted as normal, and in fact many people who speak correct English are shunned and considered posh.