Instagram users were left stumped over a newspaper clipping explaining why the English language is “so hard to learn”. In an article about heteronyms in an unknown newspaper by columnist Marlene Davis, she penned twenty different sentences with the same words with different meanings and pronunciations.
The column entitled, “Why English is so hard to learn”. posted on the Instagram account Imgur asked readers, “YOU think English is easy? Check out the following”. Examples included, “the bandage was wound around the wound”, “he could lead if he would get the lead out”, and “I did not object to the object which he showed me”.
Imgur’s post racked up over 79,264 likes and 1,644 comments, where even English speakers appeared to be confused but were divided over whether the language is easy or difficult to learn. One Instagram user wrote: “English is actually one of the easiest. Heteronyms are found in many languages, we have tons of them in Turkish, please stop thinking so special of yourselves.”
READ MORE: The order of your Instagram Story viewers explained
Another agreed: “If you think English is hard it’s because you do not speak any other language. English is like the fast food of languages.”
A third agreed, “This is not hard?” while a fourth wrote, “Literally nobody aside from native English speakers thinks that English is hard, it's one of the easiest languages there is”.
One person sticking up for the English language wrote: “Surely all languages have their anomalies and quirky traits? The beauty with English is that you can pronounce things wrong, spell words wrong and get words in the wrong order, in a sentence, and people will still understand what you are saying or writing. At least nobody has to guess the gender of a light bulb.”
However, some disagreed, as one said: “A lot of ppl saying English is easy. On paper, it is not, the reason it is easy is because it is so widely used and we are all constantly exposed to it on the internet, especially those in Europe who basically all use English as a lingua franca between countries. Immersion is the best way to learn, and in order to learn other languages you must go out of your way to do this, but with English, you don’t have to go out of your way.”
A second said: “English is a difficult language to learn. It can be taught through tough, thorough thought, though.”
Get the very best of What's On in London straight to your inbox
London has it all - the best nightlife, food, drink, events, markets, everything!
But how do you keep on top of this? Our weekly What's On newsletter, Going Out Out, is how.
You'll get a fully curated newsletter with the most exciting stories, reviews, previews and more every single week.
And the best bit? It's completely FREE.
All you have to do is sign up for Going Out Out here.
At the bottom of the column Marlene wrote: “Heteronyms. These are brilliant. Homonyms and homographs are words of like spelling, but with more than one meaning and sound. When pronounced differently, they are known as heteronyms.”
If you’re still not getting it, heteronyms are defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as “each of two or more words which are spelled identically but have different sounds and meanings, such as tear meaning ‘rip’ and tear meaning ‘liquid from the eye’”.
Is there a story you think we should be covering? If so, please email whatson@mylondon.news or at ellen.jenne@reachplc.com
Life through a new lens. We are Curiously. Follow us on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
READ NEXT:
Read More
Related Articles
Read More
Related Articles
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7rsXLqKWdp55ju6bD0miuoZmkqHqwuo6wn5qso2K8r3nNnq6sZ5mjwaa%2BzZ6rZpyZq7alscNmpqdllaO0rbXSoWSlmZ6cwqKzxGZpb2pmaYR3fw%3D%3D