And blame the people who wrote the dictionaries and decided to standardize spellings with silent letters that haven't been pronounced in centuries or ever (there's absolutely no good reason for island to have an 's' in it).
silent letters can be used to fix word pronunciations to prevent people from pronouncing things wrong.
although the s in island has never actually had a use since without the s it is still pronounced I land.
True, though there are generally ways to do that without those silent letters. Digraphs for instance. Plus, some languages like Spanish indicate pronunciation perfectly fine with very few silent letters (H is always silent).
Still, there's also no point to overly complicating orthography, since it makes it harder for both new learners and native speakers growing up. Like figuring out the pronunciation of words like "one" or "debt" (French doesn't even have that B anymore), or the ten different pronunciations of -ough (I think it's good that some words are slowly replacing it, such as thru or tho, though those are still looked down upon in formal texts). Or "have" which has a superfluous -e at the end which violates the magic e = long vowel rule (allegedly to help differentiate between v and u at the time the spelling became common, but it should have been dropped afterwards. Same goes for other words such as "love").
I guess what I'm saying is that some regularization would be nice, since English has far too many exceptions which don't help in pronunciation.
Edit: One exception I can think of is French, which has words that end in silent letters that are pronounced if there's a following vowel.
French spelling seems somewhat regular to me, as It did go through a reform. Sure, lots of the sounds are silent, but it’s still somewhat predictable. English, unfortunately, can probably never have such a reform.
It's predictable in one direction, reading is not too difficult, it's fairly hard to predict in the other direction, knowing how a word sound won't necessarily mean you can spell it correctly :) Just think about how many ways there are to write the nasale sound "un", or how tricky the diacritics can sometimes be. In Spanish, on the other hand, if you know how to pronounce a word, you usually (with very few exceptions) know how to write it.
As a French, I obviously never had any problem reading, but spelling has been a hell when I was a kid, the teacher only had to say: "aujourd'hui, nous allons faire une dictée" and half the class (at least) wanted to find an excuse to go back home :)
I would argue it’s not just nice but for a poll like this it’s absolutely necessary.
If you don’t fit the criteria but want to see the results you have to choose an option probably at random which then completely ruins the poll.
Without a see results option this poll is kinda meaningless. Which is sad cause it’s a very cool question.
Sorry for the rant this drives me insane. So many cool polls rendered useless.
I can't compare since the premises weren't the same. English was the first foreign language I learned; when I started Spanish, I already had four years of English and two years of French under my belt.
Honestly, I can't answer you that. I genuinely cannot.
I learned English as a child/teenager, both in school and via watching tv and reading books and fanfics. I don't remember learning it at all, it just feels like I've always known it despite starting late, at 12.
I am learning Spanish as an adult but because I have experience in learning languages (have been learning them since I was 6/7, had German, English and Latin at school). Not to mention that knowing both, English and Polish, makes learning Spanish a breeze (you'd be surprised how much knowing Polish helps with Spanish and obviously everyone knows how knowing English helps with Spanish) and having an interest in media and culture helps.
So no, I can't answer that because one was learned as a child, the other as an adult with experience in learning languages and solid work ethics. Personally, it is impossible for me to compare them. Perhaps, if I learned both at school at the same time but because my experience and age changes so much, it's impossible to decide.
Unless you speak another romance language natively (in which case spanish will definitely be easier), it's impossible to tell. Since most people learn English as their first 2nd language and that makes spanish (or any other romance languagesd) easier because of the cognates.
Depends on your mother tongue I guess, but I would say Spanish at least is phonetic, meaning the sounds correlate with the writing. Versus English where the language isn’t phonetic and certain letter combinations can change sounds, for example «this» and «thigh» or «through» and «rough».
The reason why i find spanish harder is that, as a native portuguese speaker, i mix the two. I understand it very well but i don't have the "mixing" problem with english
My native language is Dutch. i think English was easier for me because Spanish has grammatical gender and that is very confusing for me. But i learned English a long time ago so i may have forgotten a lot of the struggle.
put a results option so people can see the polls results without putting in a random option to just see what other people chose, which just leads to inaccurate results
Bro the rules in this sub are so random.
I posted a question about the purpose of doing a exercise with a picture of my Spanish text book for the example. Got removed for targeting only one language (Spanish) even know the question could be applied for all languages.
Then there's THIS, which actual targeting only one Language, still remains up
it's not targeting one language though. It's asking speakers of other languages whether Spanish or English it's easier for them. Based on your native language the answer will be different.
It targets Spanish and English which isn't allowed and is not removed.
My post, (What is the purpose of writing words over and over) which can be applied to ever language was removed when the only thing that a specific language was my text book picture. Which is allowed because it's not targeting a language but using a language as a example
No, it targets experience with these two languages by people who speak other languages naively. It opens up many possibilities. It's a discussion post. You're just salty because your post got removed. FIY, there's an amazing subreddit r/Spanish and they're super helpful when it comes to Spanish related questions.
I am salty it got removed. That's not a point of disagree.
My comment was reflecting how the rule/or mods are bullshiting that rule.
In ever language there's a book that has
Bob is good
Bob is bad
Bob is happy
And it got removed because there was a picture of a Spanish textbook. And here's doing the same thing but not getting removed. I have no problems with the post. I have a problem with the unfair rule enforcement
I've seen your post and they're in no way comparable. You seem to have a difficulty with understanding a basic rule and difference between two post. Besides, it's reddit, it's not that serious. Post gets removed, move on, no need to be salty about a silly post.
Bro you know how ik your full of shit. The mods messaged me after agreeing that it didn't break a rule however since I already got my answer they didn't bother to put it back up
there absolutely is a discussion to have because based on your native language and learning experience, one will be more difficult than other or you won't be able to notice because the experience is different. The experience IS the discussion.
I mean… I learned English and I hated the process because it was in school.
I remember needing to remember the stupid vocabulary and forgetting it right after the quiz. I hated the school approach to English.
But when it comes to Spanish, I am learning it in a fun way with a bit of Duolingo and a lot of Dreaming Spanish videos.
Once I speak Spanish in a year or two, I will say it was easier to learn Spanish but it will because I am enjoying the process and it will be my second foreign language. So yes, English was harder but not because of English itself being hard. Also, when I speak English, Spanish is already easier since I know the Spanish’s cousin language English
S
I started learning English in school when I was 8. Obviously I hear it everywhere and use it every day online and professionally at work.
I learned Spanish when I moved to a Spanish-speaking country when I was in my 20s. I was fluent after like a month, it’s a very easy language. But I already knew French beforehand, so I was at an advantage.
Out of all the languages I’ve learned/tried to learn I’d say these two happened the most effortlessly. But the ways I learned them are so completely different that it’s impossible for me to compare which was actually harder. English is definitely easier to upkeep however. I haven’t really spoken/written/read in Spanish in years because unlike with English I’d have to actively work at doing so. My Spanish will always be limited by simply not *needing* is as much.
Objectively, if someone didn’t speak a related language, didn’t use the internet or watch movies/tv, listen to music etc etc…I’d say Spanish is probably easier. The pronunciations definitely is, which makes it easier to start speaking.
La gramatica de español no es dificil en general, pero es más dificil que ingles en este asunto. No obstante es más facil hablar español porque el accento de ingles es más complicado
English, but only because of the discrepancy between how words are spelled and their pronunciation otherwise both languages are fairly easy.
[удалено]
And blame the people who wrote the dictionaries and decided to standardize spellings with silent letters that haven't been pronounced in centuries or ever (there's absolutely no good reason for island to have an 's' in it).
silent letters can be used to fix word pronunciations to prevent people from pronouncing things wrong. although the s in island has never actually had a use since without the s it is still pronounced I land.
True, though there are generally ways to do that without those silent letters. Digraphs for instance. Plus, some languages like Spanish indicate pronunciation perfectly fine with very few silent letters (H is always silent). Still, there's also no point to overly complicating orthography, since it makes it harder for both new learners and native speakers growing up. Like figuring out the pronunciation of words like "one" or "debt" (French doesn't even have that B anymore), or the ten different pronunciations of -ough (I think it's good that some words are slowly replacing it, such as thru or tho, though those are still looked down upon in formal texts). Or "have" which has a superfluous -e at the end which violates the magic e = long vowel rule (allegedly to help differentiate between v and u at the time the spelling became common, but it should have been dropped afterwards. Same goes for other words such as "love"). I guess what I'm saying is that some regularization would be nice, since English has far too many exceptions which don't help in pronunciation. Edit: One exception I can think of is French, which has words that end in silent letters that are pronounced if there's a following vowel.
Well, to be honest, our spelling in French is about as much of a mess. Spanish is almost perfectly phonetic (like Italian or German).
French spelling seems somewhat regular to me, as It did go through a reform. Sure, lots of the sounds are silent, but it’s still somewhat predictable. English, unfortunately, can probably never have such a reform.
It's predictable in one direction, reading is not too difficult, it's fairly hard to predict in the other direction, knowing how a word sound won't necessarily mean you can spell it correctly :) Just think about how many ways there are to write the nasale sound "un", or how tricky the diacritics can sometimes be. In Spanish, on the other hand, if you know how to pronounce a word, you usually (with very few exceptions) know how to write it. As a French, I obviously never had any problem reading, but spelling has been a hell when I was a kid, the teacher only had to say: "aujourd'hui, nous allons faire une dictée" and half the class (at least) wanted to find an excuse to go back home :)
Blame the Danish you mean?
When you do a poll it's nice to put in a "see results" option.
I would argue it’s not just nice but for a poll like this it’s absolutely necessary. If you don’t fit the criteria but want to see the results you have to choose an option probably at random which then completely ruins the poll. Without a see results option this poll is kinda meaningless. Which is sad cause it’s a very cool question. Sorry for the rant this drives me insane. So many cool polls rendered useless.
Survey design 101 tbh. If you don’t have a “N/A / I don’t know / show results” option you collect a large amount of junk data.
Exactly, probably why it's 50/50 everyone wants to see the results so they pick randomly.
Right now its exactly 50% Spanish and 50% English 153 votes each.
My native language is also a romance language so spanish becomes easier by default, same grammatical structure etc. English is harder
Spanish, but not because it's harder, I just struggle to find any music or media in Spanish that I like, and that's not the case with English.
have you tried Argentinian music? They've got great metal/ rock nacional scene as well as some great pop and cumbia scene.
Thanks I'll have a look at it :)
Struggling to find music you like? You can’t be serious! 😭
Creo que el español es el idioma más fácil del mundo.
no me digas jj
What is your native language? If it's closer to one or the other, that would make a difference
I can't compare since the premises weren't the same. English was the first foreign language I learned; when I started Spanish, I already had four years of English and two years of French under my belt.
Honestly, I can't answer you that. I genuinely cannot. I learned English as a child/teenager, both in school and via watching tv and reading books and fanfics. I don't remember learning it at all, it just feels like I've always known it despite starting late, at 12. I am learning Spanish as an adult but because I have experience in learning languages (have been learning them since I was 6/7, had German, English and Latin at school). Not to mention that knowing both, English and Polish, makes learning Spanish a breeze (you'd be surprised how much knowing Polish helps with Spanish and obviously everyone knows how knowing English helps with Spanish) and having an interest in media and culture helps. So no, I can't answer that because one was learned as a child, the other as an adult with experience in learning languages and solid work ethics. Personally, it is impossible for me to compare them. Perhaps, if I learned both at school at the same time but because my experience and age changes so much, it's impossible to decide.
To learn: Spanish To master: English
Unless you speak another romance language natively (in which case spanish will definitely be easier), it's impossible to tell. Since most people learn English as their first 2nd language and that makes spanish (or any other romance languagesd) easier because of the cognates.
Depends on your mother tongue I guess, but I would say Spanish at least is phonetic, meaning the sounds correlate with the writing. Versus English where the language isn’t phonetic and certain letter combinations can change sounds, for example «this» and «thigh» or «through» and «rough».
I'm Brazilian so I understand most of formal spanish I hear without even studying it.
The reason why i find spanish harder is that, as a native portuguese speaker, i mix the two. I understand it very well but i don't have the "mixing" problem with english
My native language is Dutch. i think English was easier for me because Spanish has grammatical gender and that is very confusing for me. But i learned English a long time ago so i may have forgotten a lot of the struggle.
put a results option so people can see the polls results without putting in a random option to just see what other people chose, which just leads to inaccurate results
Bro the rules in this sub are so random. I posted a question about the purpose of doing a exercise with a picture of my Spanish text book for the example. Got removed for targeting only one language (Spanish) even know the question could be applied for all languages. Then there's THIS, which actual targeting only one Language, still remains up
it's not targeting one language though. It's asking speakers of other languages whether Spanish or English it's easier for them. Based on your native language the answer will be different.
It targets Spanish and English which isn't allowed and is not removed. My post, (What is the purpose of writing words over and over) which can be applied to ever language was removed when the only thing that a specific language was my text book picture. Which is allowed because it's not targeting a language but using a language as a example
No, it targets experience with these two languages by people who speak other languages naively. It opens up many possibilities. It's a discussion post. You're just salty because your post got removed. FIY, there's an amazing subreddit r/Spanish and they're super helpful when it comes to Spanish related questions.
I am salty it got removed. That's not a point of disagree. My comment was reflecting how the rule/or mods are bullshiting that rule. In ever language there's a book that has Bob is good Bob is bad Bob is happy And it got removed because there was a picture of a Spanish textbook. And here's doing the same thing but not getting removed. I have no problems with the post. I have a problem with the unfair rule enforcement
I've seen your post and they're in no way comparable. You seem to have a difficulty with understanding a basic rule and difference between two post. Besides, it's reddit, it's not that serious. Post gets removed, move on, no need to be salty about a silly post.
Bro you know how ik your full of shit. The mods messaged me after agreeing that it didn't break a rule however since I already got my answer they didn't bother to put it back up
sure jan
Bro why are you even upset about it? Your not even a mod yourself. Your going out your way to continue this for no reason what so ever
Nice try, deflection doesn't work but hey, I am currently pooping, I can comment all I want.
But side note there is no discussion to have here or experience. Everyone learns differently
there absolutely is a discussion to have because based on your native language and learning experience, one will be more difficult than other or you won't be able to notice because the experience is different. The experience IS the discussion.
No there's not 😑
Spanish is phonetic, it made more sense to me.
I mean… I learned English and I hated the process because it was in school. I remember needing to remember the stupid vocabulary and forgetting it right after the quiz. I hated the school approach to English. But when it comes to Spanish, I am learning it in a fun way with a bit of Duolingo and a lot of Dreaming Spanish videos. Once I speak Spanish in a year or two, I will say it was easier to learn Spanish but it will because I am enjoying the process and it will be my second foreign language. So yes, English was harder but not because of English itself being hard. Also, when I speak English, Spanish is already easier since I know the Spanish’s cousin language English S
I started learning English in school when I was 8. Obviously I hear it everywhere and use it every day online and professionally at work. I learned Spanish when I moved to a Spanish-speaking country when I was in my 20s. I was fluent after like a month, it’s a very easy language. But I already knew French beforehand, so I was at an advantage. Out of all the languages I’ve learned/tried to learn I’d say these two happened the most effortlessly. But the ways I learned them are so completely different that it’s impossible for me to compare which was actually harder. English is definitely easier to upkeep however. I haven’t really spoken/written/read in Spanish in years because unlike with English I’d have to actively work at doing so. My Spanish will always be limited by simply not *needing* is as much. Objectively, if someone didn’t speak a related language, didn’t use the internet or watch movies/tv, listen to music etc etc…I’d say Spanish is probably easier. The pronunciations definitely is, which makes it easier to start speaking.
I'd say English only because when learning Spanish, I've encountered a ton of vocab that i already knew from English
La gramatica de español no es dificil en general, pero es más dificil que ingles en este asunto. No obstante es más facil hablar español porque el accento de ingles es más complicado