Learning a new language can be an exciting but challenging task, especially if the questions have different characteristics from your language. For native English speakers, some languages are now becoming a big problem due to their complex grammar rules, unusual spellings, difficult pronunciations and special words. In this article, we will find out some of the most difficult languages for English speakers to learn and examine the details that make each language difficult. From the tonal nuances of Mandarin to the ancient complexities of Icelandic, we will observe what makes these languages special and why they require a high degree of dedication and commitment on the part of their owner. Following are the top 10 hardest languages to learn for an English speaker.
- Mandarin Chinese
- Arabic
- Japanese
- Korean
- Hungarian
- Finnish
- Basque
- Navajo
- Icelandic
Mandarin Chinese
Mandarin Chinese can be difficult for English speakers due to its pronunciation, where the meaning of a word can vary depending on its sound. There are four vowels and one vowel in Mandarin, and they need to be pronounced correctly. Also, the writing method has thousands of characters, each character represents a different word or idea, and there is no alphabet to make learning easier. Remembering these symbols and understanding their meanings and connections can be overwhelming.
Arabic
Arabic is complex as it is written from right to left and has many letters that vary depending on their position in the word. Speaking is also difficult due to sounds not found in English, such as guttural speech. Also, Arabic has many regional dialects that differ from the modern Standard Arabic used in legal contexts, adding to the difficulty for learners.
Japanese
Japanese’s three writing systems present unique challenges: kanji, hiragana, and katakana. Kanji consists of thousands of characters borrowed from Chinese, each with a different pronunciation. Hiragana and katakana are used for native Japanese words and foreign words, respectively. Grammar is also difficult, with different levels of politeness and complexity that differ from English. It will take years to master all three scripts and their complex syntax.
Korean
Korean has a unique grammatical structure that includes the use of honorifics and sentence endings that vary depending on the social context. Although the writing system Hangul is well developed and easy to learn, the language itself has many homophones and phrases that can be difficult for students. Korean is also quite different from English and requires a lot of writing.
Hungarian
Hungarian is known for its complex grammar, consisting of 18 different suffixes of the noun depending on their role in the sentence. The language also uses harmony, where the vowels in a word must be in harmony in some way, which adds another layer of complexity. As well as, the Hungarian language is often not related to English or other Indo-European languages, making it difficult to master.
Finnish
Finnish grammar is weak, with 15 cases affecting noun endings, each with different contexts. The language also has unique meanings, and very few words have the same origin as English. Finnish also uses a system of pairings between numbers and consonants, which makes it difficult to learn. Sentence structure and word formation rules are also different from English.
Basque
Basque is a separate language, meaning it is not related to other known languages. This makes grammar and vocabulary confusing for students from other languages. The language has complex verb conjugations and ergative-absolute structures that are fundamentally different from the subject-verb-object structure of English.
Navajo
The Navajo language has a simple morphological definition in which verbs are highly structured and can carry multiple meanings through prefixes, suffixes, and suffixes. The language also contains many non-English sounds, making pronunciation difficult. Navajo grammar is quite complex and sentence structure differs from English.
Icelandic
Icelandic retains many features of Old Norse, giving it a complex grammar with a high level of inflection in nouns, adjectives, and verbs. The language also has a rich vocabulary, with many words unique to Icelandic, which can be difficult to pronounce due to unique sounds and stress patterns.
Polish
Polish is difficult due to its complex vocabulary, which includes many sets of consonants unknown in English. Grammar is also complex; there are seven situations that affect the noun ending. Also, Polish uses free words and makes use of endings to express grammatical relationships; this makes the sentence structure awkward for English speakers.
