Learning another language is no easy feat. You can memorize all the rules and still find yourself messing something up.
The English language is no exception. With roots in many other world languages, English includes a number of spelling, grammar and pronunciation rules that seem to contradict one another ― in addition to the many norms and standards that often stump ESL learners.
We asked celebrity.land Facebook followers who are not native English speakers to share what aspects of the English language they find confusing or ridiculous. Some native English speakers also jumped in to share their observations as well. While many apply to other languages, others are unique to English.
1. “My mom and I used to always laugh so hard when we heard people say ‘I feel like toast’ or ‘I feel like fish’ instead of ‘I feel like having [fish or toast].’ It must be so strange to feel like you’re a pice of toast!” ―Karleen Haché
2. “Sean Bean does not rhyme.” ―Costanza Baldi
3. “The lunacy behind blaming yourself for an injury or illness! ‘I broke my arm in the car accident’ vs. ‘my arm got broken in a car accident’ so much blame on a person for illness and injury. So strange.” ―Caitie Lou Pfeifer
4. “Idioms are one of my favorite things. I remember learning ‘It’s raining cats and dogs’ at uni, and the whole class cracked up. Mind you, in French we say ‘It’s raining ropes.’” ―Catherine MacAdam
5. “When a question is asked in the negative ― for example, ‘Are you sure you don’t want any cake?’ Should I say ‘yes’ as in I’m sure or ‘no’ as in I don’t want any cake?” ―Steph Aay
6. “That darn ‘i before e, except after c’ lie.” ―Anamary Marquez-Grossman
7. “Different pronunciations for ‘table’ and ‘comfortable.’” ―Ángeles Gelesmora
8. “Telling the time! Let’s just say it’s 12:30 p.m.. British people would say, ‘half twelve.’ In my native Estonian, it’s ‘half one.’” ―Mari Eesmaa
9. “‘A,’ ‘an’ and ‘the’ do not exist in Russian. So even though I have now spent 15 years living in English-speaking countries I still get it wrong sometimes.” ―Svetlana Sargant
10. “As a dance teacher I kept telling my students to move their ‘feets’ with the ‘s’ at the end. It’s confusing why some plural don’t need the ‘s’ like fish or feet.” ―Krisztina Hera
11. “All the different pronunciations for the same vowel combination.” ―Alina Brito Lee
12. ″‘Cough’ and ‘though’ don’t rhyme, but ‘sue’ and ‘through’ do.” ―Anamary Marquez-Grossman
13. “I always wondered why you have to pronounce ‘tough’ and ‘dough’ absolutely different when there is only one letter different.” ―Manuela Friedl
14. ″‘Tough,’ ‘through,’ ‘thorough,’ ‘thought,’ ‘though,’ ‘trough’ … need I explain? ―Myriam Tagej
15. “When you say ‘uncle,’ it is not clear if you are talking about the brother of your mom or the brother of your dad, or the husband of your aunt. Same goes for ‘aunt.’ In my maternal language we have different adjectives for all those family members.” ―Tutku Rüya Özmen
16. “That you don’t have any pronoun that is gender neutral. In the Scandinavian languages we can use ‘hen’ which is a combination of ‘hun’ (‘her’) and ‘han’ (‘he’).” ―Marie Ø. Nielsen
17. “My husband always says we have 75 words that all mean the same thing, but depending what you want to say, it can sound rude even though you are technically correct.” ―Becky Garcia
18. “Just explain how the words ‘read’ and ‘red’ sound alike.” ―Anamary Marquez-Grossman
19. “We have silent letters, like in ‘plumber.’ Wtf is that about?!” ―Maria Harvey
20. “‘In’ and ‘on’ is super hard for my Latino students. In the bus is same as on the bus, but on the car isn’t in the car.” ―Amanda Abair
21. “I find really confusing that there is difference between saying ‘I love you’ and ‘I am in love with you.’ In my country it has the same meaning when being in romantic relationship.” ―Mia Žureková
22. “The fact that one word can have different meanings, or it can be a noun or a verb.” ―Angela Ortiz Guerrero
23. “As someone who natively speaks English and has interacted with foreigners for the better part of this year, some of the things I say … took some explaining. On an airplane once I said ‘No, it’s OK’ and the stewardess was very confused because I said ‘no’ and ‘OK’ in the same sentence.” ―Emily Wascura
24. “Two words I’m thinking about: ‘Worcester’ and ‘paradigm’ … wister and paradime.” ―Lucy La Hurreau
25. ″‘Daughter’ and ‘laughter.’” ―Fiona Jayne MacMillan
26. ″‘Good’ and ‘food.’” ―Mindy Wallace
27. “The way the Brits pronounce Warwick, Leicester and some other cities.” ―Ana-Raluca Cătinean
28. “My Irish stepfather used to say ‘draw the blinds’ for shutting the curtains.” ―Jay Flamey Iones
29. “The way you have to order adjectives was the hardest for me to learn when I was a kid: opinion-size-shape-color-origin-material-purpose noun.” ―Estefania Cortez Macias
30. “The fact that ‘love’ is the only word to use for the different kinds of love! Like in Spanish, there is a word for the love of a close family member, a lover, a different word for a friend, or for loving a type of food or thing! A different word for different types of love.” ―Alex MorGa
31. “The same letter or combination can be pronounced in different ways (‘cat,’ ‘cake,’ ‘car’…) Makes it awfully confusing in the beginning.” ―Elina Singh
32. “Two words for movement ― ‘come’ and ‘go’ ― could be just one word.” ―Kristina Smirnoff
33. “I’m always afraid to mess up with phrases that involve common words like ‘make out,’ ‘blow out,’ ‘pull out,’ etc.” ―Ana Ibarra
34. “Syntax. The words have to be in the same order. There’s not much wiggle room. So then, how do you know which part of the sentence is the most important one?” ―Elina Singh
35. “The difference between ‘th-’ vs. ‘d’ and ‘b’ vs. ‘v’ sounds. As a Spanish speaker, I don’t have those different sounds.” ― Estefania Cortez Macias
Responses have been edited and condensed for clarity.
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