Anyone who has learnt and taken the ielts in singapore can attest to the complexity of the language. English is a confusing language for both native and non-native speakers. However, millions of people all over the world are enrolling in English classes, despite it being a tricky language to understand. The language has now reached approximately 1 billion speakers across the world, and you can expect the numbers to keep rising. Therefore, it is time you enrol in an English class as soon as possible if you still want to remain relevant in your career and business in the next few decades to come. Below are the common confusing aspects that you are likely to encounter while learning the language.
1. Singular versus Plural
Converting plural nouns to the singular is not an easy task for English learners. Most English words will change their form in plural form, and this is quite hard for a beginner to understand. For example, goose changes to geese while tomato becomes tomatoes in their plural form. However, some words like sheep remain the same in their singular and plural form. It is always hard to understand when to include ‘s,’ ‘es,’ or ‘ies’ after a noun to convert it into its plural form but you will understand this after enough practice.
2. Homophones Can Be Tricky to Understand
Homophones are words that have an identical sound carry different meanings and spelling. For examples, “plane” and “plain.” The two words have similar pronunciation, but different spellings and meanings. This might be confusing for someone learning written English since they will require knowing the definition of a word before you can use it in a sentence.
3. Tenses
Learning tenses can be a little confusing for non-English natives, but it is still achievable after enough practice. Most of the time, English uses three tenses- past, present, and future and variations of the three to distinguish when any activity occurs. For example, you can say, “I am going to the store to indicate an event that is happening now.” The sentence can take another form to indicate an action that happened yesterday or an incident that will occur in future. In this case, you can say “I went to the store” or “I will go to the store” to depict activity in the past and future respectively. Learning how to work with tenses is one of the hardest parts of learning English, but you will eventually master the art of it.
4. Most Similar English Words Have Different Meanings
English boasts an extremely rich vocabulary that can take years to master. The English language is still evolving today, with linguists developing more words every passing day. Some words also carry different meanings that must be used in the right context to give meaning to a sentence. For example, the word “lead” can be used in various settings to mean a metal or to instruct an activity.
The English language is not hard, but it can be confusing for any beginner trying to improve. The language has so many loan words from various languages such as Latin and Roman, adding to its already rich vocabulary. Remember, all languages are challenging and confusing, and you should not give up even if you face many setbacks.
