Why Russian is harder to learn than English. English: a difficult or easy language to learn

More than 100 years ago, the playwright Oscar Wilde, through the mouth of one of his heroes, said that in England and America "today everything is the same, except, of course, the language."

It turns out that, according to linguists, he was not far from the truth. Recently, however, the two languages ​​have begun to converge. Languages ​​change over time - some faster than others. Some languages ​​reflect the changes taking place in the world around them, highlights a new study published by the Royal Society of London (Royal Society).

Universal and historical factors are influencing, and languages ​​have been found to change at different rates. The authors of the study used the Goole Books Ngram corpus database to analyze the use of words and expressions over the past five centuries in eight languages. They analyzed 8 million books, which, according to Google's own data, is approximately 6% of all published books. Google also scanned these books, thus creating a corresponding database.

Linguists have always been aware of the differences in language changes, but this time the gigantic Google database was explored, which in its volume far exceeded all previous objects of research. The group of scientists participating in this work turned out to be international in composition, which, paradoxically, caused its own language problems.

The study's lead author was Søren Wichmann, a Dane at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. Its co-authors were Valery Solovyov, a linguist at Kazan Federal University, located in the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia, and astrophysicist Vladimir Bochkarev, also from Kazan, whose interests include languages.

This study was carried out at the Kazan Linguistic Laboratory.

The work was complicated by the fact that Wichman does not speak Russian, and Bochkarev does not speak English. Wichman's wife sometimes acted as an interpreter. When it wasn't there, they used Google translator, which wasn't always helpful.

In this study, participants analyzed written languages ​​that are more conservative in their forms and did not study spoken languages ​​for which the necessary data had not yet been collected. They mainly paid attention to how often the words were used.

Each verbal form was considered a separate word; words such as “parking” (park) and “parked” (parked) were counted as two different words.

The process they used is called glottochronology by linguists. Language is shaped by culture “One word that used to be special can take on a broader meaning and replace another word that had an equally broader meaning,” Wichmann noted. Sometimes it's just a matter of fashion, sometimes external events have an influence.

So, for example, in early English, the word "hound" was used to refer to a dog (dog). Today the word "hound" denotes a special breed of dog.

The reverse process probably occurs with the word "vodka" (vodka), which sometimes replaces the word "liquor" (alcohol).

“Any important change in society is reflected in the frequency of the use of words,” Wichmann emphasized.

According to researchers, for the most part, languages ​​change at the same rate, but this rate is usually measured in time terms such as half a century, unless something special happens, such as a war.

According to Wichman However, during the wars, language vocabulary changed faster as new words like “Nazis” were included, and people began to think about things that they had not thought about before the outbreak of hostilities, Wichmann noted.

During the Victorian era, at the height of the British Empire and at a very stable time for Britain, the language remained fairly stable. With the advent of unrest and chaos in the 20th century, the change in the vocabulary of the language began to occur more rapidly. Since about 1850, British English and American English have been the same - except that the British version was about 20 years behind. New words entered the lexicon of American English, and in Britain they appeared only 20 years later.

Then, starting in 1950, under the influence of the media, these two languages ​​began to converge. Today they are much more similar than before, Wichmann noted.

I have always been interested in the question of why some languages ​​are more difficult for adults to learn than others?

According to the researchers, our languages ​​contain what linguists call a "kernel lexicon", that is, a list of words that make up 75% of the written language. If you know these words, then you can understand most of the literature. These are also words that are less susceptible to change even if the language itself changes.

The basic lexicon of the English language includes less than 2400 words. If you know them, then you can read 75% of the text. The basic lexicon of the Russian language includes approximately 24,000 words. Although there are about 600,000 words in the English language, and Russian has only a sixth of this number, without knowing the 21,000 basic Russian words, texts written in Russian will be largely incomprehensible.

“Just because a particular word may be in active use in a given period doesn't mean it has to be new,” said Brian Joseph, noted professor of linguistics at The Ohio State University in Columbus.

So, for example, at present, the word “cupcake” (capcake) has a similar trend in English. Sometimes words are combined, as happened with the word "labradoodles" (labradoodles). Definitions also change. Some words in Shakespeare's time meant one thing, but we use them to mean something else, said David Lightfoot, a professor at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. The word "scientist" is present in the modern lexicon, but until the 19th century, people in this profession were called natural philosophers."

photo: primuzee.ru

Sometimes vocabulary changes can tell us more than we think.

In recent years, the word "divorce" has become more common than the word "marry" (marry), Wichman noted. Here, perhaps even more tellingly, the word "information" (information) replaces the word "wisdom" (wisdom). Joel Shurkin is a freelance journalist based in Baltimore; he is the author of nine books on science and the history of science, and teaches journalism at Stanford University, the University of California, and the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

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More than 100 years ago, the playwright Oscar Wilde, through the mouth of one of his heroes, said that in England and America "today everything is the same, except, of course, the language." It turns out that, according to linguists, he was not far from the truth. Recently, however, the two languages ​​have begun to converge.

Languages ​​change over time, some faster than others. Some languages ​​reflect the changes taking place in the world around them, highlights a new study published by the Royal Society of London (Royal Society). Universal and historical factors are influencing, and languages ​​have been found to change at different rates.

The authors of the study used the Goole Books Ngram corpus database to analyze the use of words and expressions over the past five centuries in eight languages. They analyzed 8 million books, which, according to Google's own data, is approximately 6% of all published books. Google also scanned these books, thus creating a corresponding database. Linguists have always been aware of the differences in language changes, but this time the gigantic Google database was explored, which in its volume far exceeded all previous objects of research.

The group of scientists participating in this work turned out to be international in composition, which, paradoxically, caused its own language problems.

The study's lead author was Søren Wichmann, a Dane at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. Its co-authors were Valery Solovyov, a linguist at Kazan Federal University, located in the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia, and astrophysicist Vladimir Bochkarev, also from Kazan, whose interests include languages. This study was carried out at the Kazan Linguistic Laboratory.

The work was complicated by the fact that Wichman does not speak Russian, and Bochkarev does not speak English.

Wichman's wife sometimes acted as an interpreter. When it wasn't there, they used Google translator, which wasn't always helpful.

In this study, participants analyzed written languages ​​that are more conservative in their forms and did not study spoken languages ​​for which the necessary data had not yet been collected. They mainly paid attention to how often the words were used. Each verbal form was considered a separate word; words such as "parking" (park) and "parked" (parked) were counted as two different words.

The process they used is called glottochronology by linguists.

Language is shaped by culture

“One word that used to be special can take on a broader meaning and replace another word that had an equally broader meaning,” Wichmann noted. Sometimes it's just a matter of fashion, sometimes external events have an influence. So, for example, in early English, the word "hound" was used to refer to a dog (dog). Today the word "hound" denotes a special breed of dog. The reverse process probably occurs with the word "vodka" (vodka), which sometimes replaces the word "liquor" (alcohol).

“Any important change in society is reflected in the frequency of the use of words,” Wichman said. Most languages ​​change at the same rate, according to the researchers, but that rate is usually measured in time terms such as half a century, unless something special happens, such as a war. According to Wichmann, the vocabulary of the language changed faster during the wars, as new words like “Nazis” were included, and people began to think about things that they had not thought about before the outbreak of hostilities, Wichmann noted.

During the Victorian era, at the height of the British Empire and at a very stable time for Britain, the language remained fairly stable. With the advent of unrest and chaos in the 20th century, change in the vocabulary of the language began to occur more rapidly.

Since about 1850, British English and American English have been the same - except that the British version was about 20 years behind. New words entered the lexicon of American English, and in Britain they appeared only 20 years later.

Then, starting in 1950, under the influence of the media, these two languages ​​began to converge. Today they are much more similar than before, Wichmann noted.

Challenges related to learning languages

I have always been interested in the question of why some languages ​​are more difficult for adults to learn than others? According to the researchers, our languages ​​contain what linguists call a "kernel lexicon", that is, a list of words that make up 75% of the written language. If you know these words, then you can understand most of the literature. These are also words that are less susceptible to change even if the language itself changes. The basic lexicon of the English language includes less than 2400 words. If you know them, then you can read 75% of the text. The basic lexicon of the Russian language includes approximately 24,000 words. Although there are about 600,000 words in the English language, and Russian has only a sixth of this number, without knowing the 21,000 basic Russian words, texts written in Russian will be largely incomprehensible.

“Just because a particular word might be in active use in a given period doesn’t mean it has to be new,” said Brian Joseph, noted professor of linguistics at The Ohio State University in Columbus. So, for example, at present, the word “cupcake” (capcake) has a similar trend in English.

Sometimes words are combined, as happened with the word "labradoodle" (labradoodles).

Definitions also change. Some words in Shakespeare's time meant one thing, but we use them to mean something else, said David Lightfoot, a professor at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. The word "scientist" is present in the modern lexicon, but until the 19th century, people in this profession were called natural philosophers."

Sometimes vocabulary changes can tell us more than we think. In recent years, the word "divorce" has become more common than the word "marry" (marry), Wichman noted.

Here, perhaps even more tellingly, the word "information" (information) replaces the word "wisdom" (wisdom).

Joel Shurkin is a freelance journalist based in Baltimore; he is the author of nine books on science and the history of science, and teaches journalism at Stanford University, the University of California, and the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Is it easy to learn English? Usually this question is asked by those who only think about how important it is to master a foreign speech. There are two answers to this question at once: yes, it is easy and no, it is very difficult. It all depends on the person and motivation, how the chosen method of teaching English is suitable for a particular student, and whether enough time is devoted to classes. However, there are general principles that allow us to classify learning English as simple or complex tasks.

Why lightweight?

English can definitely be called easy compared to other languages, and here's why.

1. It is the most common on the globe, as it is considered the simplest and most logical in terms of grammar among the languages ​​of Europe.

2. Habitual writing of letters. The entire language is based on 26 characters, while Chinese has over 80,000 characters, some with 30 strokes.

3. There are a lot of borrowed words in Russian. Even a beginner in training knows more than one hundred. For example, business, office, football, basketball, jeans, soundtrack and others.

4. Adjectives used together with numerals do not decline for cases, numbers and genders.

5. Nouns can be singular or plural, but they are declined in only two cases.

Why complex?

Like any other foreign language, English takes time. You cannot learn it in 3 months and reach a professional level. This period will not be enough even to understand the basics of grammar.

The following factors can also be attributed to the difficulties.

1. A large number of tenses compared to Russian: the main 3, but each of them has 4 aspects, plus a passive voice. As a result, more than 20 are obtained, while in the native there are only 3.

2. Articles. There are few of them, but since they are generally absent in Russian, it is quite difficult to understand why they are needed and when they are used.

3. Management of verbs. These parts of speech in English are used with various prepositions that have different meanings.

4. Complicated grammar and the presence of many paradoxes.

The difficulties described are the most common, but there are others: someone cannot accurately reproduce some sounds, and someone does not remember the spelling of certain words well. However, as practice shows, the most difficult thing is the development of discipline and a responsible approach while teaching English.

Make a firm decision, start with the simplest and methodically move forward towards your goal, and after a year of hard work, answer yourself the question: is it easy for you to learn English?

There is an opinion that English is a very simple language and it is not difficult to master it. Probably, if this were true, then, even with all the disadvantages of Russian education, many would have mastered the language. But it's not. A very small percentage of people, graduating from school, and sometimes university, master English, at least at a basic level. And there are many reasons for this. Let's try to consider the main ones:

The ambiguity of the teaching system

There are a great many methods of learning English, as well as words in it, besides, new methods appear every year. However, upon closer examination, you realize that they are all similar to each other or basically have a similar idea. The main methods of language learning can be divided into 2 groups - classical and communicative. The communicative technique looks more interesting, but often our respected teachers do not miss the opportunity to add something from the classical language learning course to it. Namely, grammar. Of the minuses of the communicative system, it is worth noting the need to know the elementary rules of grammar. What about the classical teaching system - its main drawback is a huge number of boring rules, coupled with a significant lack of speaking practice.

Serious differences in the grammar of Russian and English

Russian grammar, and especially punctuation, is considered one of the most difficult in the world. But for native speakers it is not difficult to master it, it happens by itself. As for the grammar of the English language, here, first of all, there are differences due to the philosophy of the language. The main problems in mastering grammar arise with tenses, verbs, prepositions and articles.

There are as many as 12 tenses in English, against 3 in Russian, but we always use different particles and additional words to clarify the meaning. - For example "What are you doing now?" and "What are you even doing?". In English, there is a time for each case. - For example "What do you do?" and "What are you doing?".

As for verbs, this is the main wealth of the English language. There are many, many verbs. But the worst thing is not the quantity, but the fact that there are irregular verbs whose forms you have to learn, and verbs like "set", "get" and "way" that have many different meanings. For example, the verb “set” has 44 of them. And if you want to master spoken English at a good level, you will also have to remember phrasal verbs, of which there are many.

Next on the list are prepositions and articles. As for prepositions - nothing complicated, just some of them do not coincide with the use of prepositions in Russian. Phrasal verbs are also formed in conjunction with prepositions. But with articles it is more difficult. They simply do not exist in Russian, which means that we simply have nothing to compare with, find differences, etc. You will have to come to terms with this and master the rules for using articles, which is not so difficult to do. By the way, you will be forgiven for any mistake related to the use of articles, since some of the subtleties of their use are almost incomprehensible to a foreigner.

Imbalance of theory and practice in teaching.

For some reason, teachers in our general education schools put too much emphasis on the grammatical component. On the colloquial part remains 15 percent, at best. Dry grammar is boring, and with an insufficient number of examples, it is also incomprehensible. Schoolchildren have 2 ways - to cram or write off from somewhere. In universities, this situation is also not new. As a result, people who have spent an average of 10 to 15 years studying English cannot speak it.

We were all once small children and also mastered our native language. Without any rules, they just learned from adults, repeated, invented, experimented, etc. As a result, at the age of 6-7 years, having come to school, we could freely communicate without knowing any (well, almost any) rules. With English, it’s the other way around – we are first bombarded with grammar, and only then, maybe, we will start talking. No wonder we have a very high percentage of people who cannot overcome the language barrier.

All this sounds very frightening, but you should not be afraid. All the difficulties that we have considered are very easy to get around. To achieve a result, so that learning English is interesting and exciting, you need only 2 components:

1. Your desire and desire to master the language. Good motivation has never hurt anyone, set a goal and go for it.

2. Suitable teacher. If you are good with grammar, focus on practice. If you need to improve your grammar as well, find the right teacher who can give you the best combination of theory and practice.

Learn the language and enjoy your progress!

First, let's determine which languages ​​are popular today.

Of course, English, which is unanimously considered the language of international communication.

Then Spanish, because it is spoken not only in Spain, but also in most countries of South America, it is also one of the official languages ​​of the United States.

You can't forget about French, and not only because it is, on an equal footing with English, the official language of Canada, as well as the main language of many African countries, but also because this beautiful and melodic language has many fans who study it just like that, “out of love for art."

Deutsch, despite the limited area of ​​\u200b\u200bapplication (officially - Germany and Austria), still does not lose ground and has a huge army of students or masters of it, apparently due to the fact that Germany has had a huge historical and cultural impact on other countries, and continues to flourish in economic and political terms.

Let's not forget about our own in Russian, after all, it is spoken not only in the largest country in the world, but also in the former Soviet republics, as well as emigrants who have departed from this very country and republics in all other developed countries. Let's include it in our list also in order to compare its complexity with other popular languages.

And now let's face it and admit that in fact, the first on this list should be Chinese, which is statistically the most widely spoken language in the world, because it is spoken by 1.213 billion people, and this is a lot.

At first, we wanted to be fair to add the national language of India to our list - Hindi, which takes an honorable 3rd place in the list of the most common languages, after Chinese and English. But, unfortunately, it is of little interest to anyone outside of Hindustan. This situation has developed due to the active role of the English language, which in the nineteenth century became in India lingua franca- the language of interethnic communication. That is, in India you can freely communicate in English, and you will always be understood.

Therefore, we will include in our analysis Arabic language, which is spoken in many countries in the Middle East, North Africa, South and Central America.

So let's start with the complexity analysis. English, Spanish, French, German, Russian, Chinese and Arabic. We will make a reservation right away that we will analyze them from the perspective of a Russian-speaking person, and we will take into account the data on the Russian language itself from the perspective of foreigners studying it.

1. The simplest of these is... English language! There are no genders, cases, word agreement in it, its grammar is quite simple. The words in it are short, as a rule, the verb and noun are denoted by the same word, verbs acquire a suffix only in the third person. Native speakers are comfortable with the mistakes of foreigners, because so many people learn English as a second language. It is in English that 80% of the world's information is now stored, the bulk of technical and scientific literature is also printed in it, in addition, English is considered the language of the Internet.
For those who are just starting to learn English, it is important to understand that it is a language of structures, a language with a fixed word order. You just need to remember that the structure of each sentence is the same: "subject + predicate + minor members", and in that order. It should also be remembered that in every sentence there must be verb. Well articles of course - it is they who cause the greatest difficulties for Russian speakers. In general, English can be learned quite quickly for everyday communication, but to master it masterfully ... more than one year is needed. As they say, English is easy to learn, but hard to master.

Read more about English.

2. Second place can be Spanish. His vocabulary is similar to English, since they have a common root - Latin. His spelling is simple - as it is written, so it is heard. The word order here is not as rigidly fixed as in English, auxiliary verbs are not needed. In addition, this language is brighter, richer and more interesting in terms of word formation - for example, diminutive suffixes are actively used (which English simply does not have). Tenses on the same level of complexity as in English, but a little confused in the past. In general, for a Russian person, Spanish is easily perceived by ear, much easier than English, this is due to similar phonetics. Read more about Spanish.

3. French is also not very complicated, many of his words are similar to English and Russian, which is historically conditioned. French is widely used, it is quite easy to find opportunities to learn and speak it.
The most difficult thing in French is pronunciation and reading. It is difficult to get used to the fact that several letters in a word may not be read at all, and those that are read may not be pronounced the way they are written. In addition, the pronunciation features of abbreviated forms are related and studied in parallel with the main grammar.
What about grammar? Verbs are conjugated according to faces (there is both you and you) in different tenses and moods. In the traditional system of grammar, there are: 3 present tenses, 3 future tenses, 6 past tenses, 2 types of imperative mood, 2 types of conditional mood and 4 types of subjunctive mood. Also, French is distinguished by the abundant use of negative and restrictive phrases and the frequent use of the infinitive as a subject.

Despite the seeming complexity, the French language has many fans, even fans, and learning it is actually not so difficult. You can read more about French.

4. If you like long words and capitalized nouns - your language Deutsch. German is easier for people with a technical mindset, it is rather schematic and predictable, its sentences are like an electrical circuit, where each subsequent link is connected to the previous one. And it also looks like a sprawling tree with many branches - rules and exceptions to them. You definitely can’t call it a poor or boring language!
German is difficult in its grammar, it has 4 cases and three genders of nouns, of course, in no way connected with the real qualities of the objects they denote (all articles are declined). According to Mark Twain, “In German, a girl is genderless, although, say, a turnip has it.”
The German language also has a rather complex syntax, and the words in it are very long, because. are formed by combining different words and adding suffixes and prefixes to them.

Despite the fact that it is considered a rough language in terms of sound, many people hear its lyricism and see its ornamental beauty. Although, we admit honestly: teaching him is not an easy task. As said Richard Porson, Life is too short to learn German. But, of course, this is an exaggeration. Read more about the German language.

5. Russian It is certainly a rather difficult language. Even the Russians themselves have to learn it all their lives, and at school only a few have an “excellent” mark on it. Russian has 6 cases, while German has only 4, in general its grammar is very confusing, with many exceptions, exceptions to exceptions; word order is not fixed, there are no articles, and the meaning is often conveyed by intonation.
Punctuation in Russian is rather confusing, but logical, but contains many rules.
It is difficult for foreigners to perceive Russian by ear because of the excellent phonetics - a large number of hissing and whistling sounds and a rolling “r”. Most people in the world consider Russian to be even more difficult than Chinese. Many people quit learning the "tourist set" immediately after they try to pronounce "Hello" - Hello. Combination "healthy" and "vstv" in one word is unpronounceable for most people.
Russian is a very emotional language. Its lexical content is rich and plastic - indeed, in no other language you will find so many diminutives and abusive words! For example: girl - girl - girl - girl - girl - girl - girl, and all these are derivatives of the same root. Compare English: girl - littlegirl, and that's it!
Much in Russian is not subject to logical comprehension, as it conveys mood, emotion.
For example:
- Do you want tea?
- No, probably.

So think, foreigners, whether we want tea or not.

6. Arabic language no one will call it easy, but let's see how difficult it is. The first thing a beginner encounters and what scares him is Arabic writing, Arabic script. However, the fear of the Arabic script is false, as there are only 28 letters in it, which are connected to each other in print and writing. However, many letters have four different spellings, depending on their position in the word. Another difficulty (although in fact just a lack of habit) is the direction of writing from right to left. But the stresses in Arabic words are placed very simply and logically without any exceptions.
So what's so hard about it, you ask? Firstly, the pronunciation of Arabic sounds corresponding to a particular letter is rather difficult for both Slavs and Europeans. This mainly concerns the reading of vowels, since it is believed that they are not there, but there are "vocalization". Arabic has 28 consonants and only 3 vowels - a, i, u- each of them can be short or long. But vowels are not reflected in the letter. In addition, there are sounds there that do not have an equivalent in Russian. At the same time, words are read the same way they are written.
The grammar of Arabic is also not encouraging - the verb usually comes before the predicate and the object. The verb has three numbers, so nouns and verbs must be learned in singular, dual and plural. The present tense has 13 forms. The noun has three cases and two genders.
It is also necessary to take into account the fact that the Arabic language is the language of a completely different culture (for Russian speakers). Studying any European language, we will meet a lot of words that are familiar to us. And when studying Arabic, we will no longer come across a single familiar word.

Another problem of the Arabic language is that there are many dialects in it. Classical Arabic - the language of the Koran - was originally a dialect of Mecca (the territory of Saudi Arabia), and its adapted form, which is called "Modern Standard Arabic", is now used in literature, newspapers, television and radio, in the mosque, as well as in the communication of educated people. Arabs from different countries. But the differences between local dialects are sometimes so huge that a representative of Morocco, for example, may not be understood by an Iraqi, and vice versa, although both formally speak Arabic.

7. There is an opinion that Chinese not at all that complicated. In fact, only its grammar is simple and even primitive - there are no endings, no suffixes, no prefixes.
What makes Chinese really difficult is the mass of synonyms and the terrible interchangeability of words, as well as the actual hieroglyphics. Many hieroglyphs are often synonyms, and the synonyms themselves require the study of more and more hieroglyphs, while often completely different words are read identically.

At the same time, there are no particular problems when reading hieroglyphics, they arise in oral speech, when the brain has to deal with a mass of associations and similar-sounding words. Therefore, the Chinese themselves speak in short phrases, sometimes repeating everything said anew. And for a native speaker of the Slavic group, even just saying one Chinese sentence with the correct, understandable pronunciation is already a great achievement, for which you need to work and work.
As for the simplicity of Chinese grammar, it is more than covered not only by complex writing, but also by an extremely complex pronunciation with 4 tones, extensive homonymy, homophony, homography. Thus, Chinese is in last place on our list, and you can read more about it.

So, we have considered 7 popular languages ​​today and arranged them according to the degree of complexity. But which language will be easier or more difficult for you is a separate issue that depends on many factors. If, for example, you already taught English at school, like most Russians, then it will be easier for you to learn related languages ​​- German, Spanish, French.

if you have strong motivation, for example, the intention to move to another country (read about emigration), then of course the language you are learning will be easier for you - your emotional mood, interest in the life of the country, the press, television, the desire to watch films and TV programs in the language will affect.