I want to Learn English

Question

Hello to all.

My name is Silvio, I'm from Paraguay. I'm learning English, wait help me, and correct my mistakes please

thanks to all

Answer 1

Todo lo que necesitas es la práctica! Inglés es fácil! y esa frase es perfecta

Soy de los Estados Unidos, encantado

Answer 2

¡Su Inglés es perfecta!

I wish my Sapanish was!

Answer 3

Hello to all.

My name is Silvio, I'm from Paraguay. I'm learning English, wait help me, and correct my mistakes please

thanks to all

Me imagino que estabas pensando en la palabra esperar cuando escribiste wait. Esperar quiere decir "wait" y "hope". En este caso se dice "Please help me and correct my mistakes" (favor de ayudarme y corregir mis errores/equivocaciones).

Bae'yo paricó chamigo (no sé si lo escribí bien)

Answer 4

Hello to all.

My name is Silvio, I'm from Paraguay. I'm learning English, wait help me, and correct my mistakes please

thanks to all

Me imagino que estabas pensando en la palabra esperar cuando escribiste wait. Esperar quiere decir "wait" y "hope". En este caso se dice "Please help me and correct my mistakes" (favor de ayudarme y corregir mis errores/equivocaciones).

Bae'yo paricó chamigo (no sé si lo escribí bien)

I think Silvio was trying to say "I hope you can help me". Well spotted Nathaniel with wait and hope.

Answer 5

Silvio
Compared to the Spanish verbs etc English verbs are easy. But there are some problems. First you must learn the irregular verbs - there is no "system" for learning these - you must have a list of them and learn it. Second English spelling and pronunciation are illogical. But practice and people will help you on this forum. Good luck.

Answer 6

I have a list of 470 irregular verbs in English, from which 370 in use. I do not know whether English has more irregular verbs. Chinese students find English verbs VERY HARD (I'm sure Spanish ones are even harder for them, though).

My comprehensive database of Spanish verbs contains 1183 irregular verbs, from which 588 are commonly used.

Answer 7

English has its quirks like any language, but to me what is really, really difficult about it are its sounds: there are too many different ways to pronounce vowels and consonants, it's really hard to train your ear to recognize the subtle differences. For instance, I hear English on a daily basis and I still can't tell the difference between "been", "bean" and "bin", even though I know there is supposed to be one.

Also, it took me years to realize that English has something called a semivowel, which is ubiquitous in speech but non-existent in writing. Good luck figuring out when a written vowel is a real vowel or just the semivowel in disguise!

Answer 8

Heitor, Spanish has also semivowels, phonetically speaking, but we go by with 5 vowels, whereas English needs 12 vowels plus 9 diphthongs containing extra vowel sounds. To make things worse, the only vowels that typically appear in isolation, are different from the Spanish ones, or similar (but shorter or longer), and the ones that appear in isolation in Spanish appear practically in English diphthongs only, which is why English speakers find our vowels so hard, even though they have four vowels for each one of ours.

But, as Ian said before, spelling is the great nightmare in English, and not just remembering how to write words, which is something I can handle more or less (as I spell English words in Spanish to myself to make it easier), but finding in the dictionary a word you've just said: the number of possible ways of writing a English word is practically unlimited.

Answer 9

Spanish has also semivowels, phonetically speaking

Really? Can you give me an example (a word with a semivowel)?

I don't think Portuguese has semivowels, and given that Spanish is phonetically simpler than Portuguese, I'm surprised that it has them.

English needs 12 vowels plus 9 diphthongs containing extra vowel sounds.

I heard that English has 17 vowels, not 12. Are you counting the ones written as 'oo' and 'ee'? In any case, it's a lot.

But, as Ian said before, spelling is the great nightmare in English

I guess that really depends on whether you memorize a word in its written or spoken form. In my case, I learned most words in written form, so I have no trouble at all with spelling. I actually find Spanish spelling more difficult than English: why does "lápiz" take an accent; why is it "hielo" and not "yelo"; when does a word that starts with a vowel has a silent 'h'... (I'm not asking, just providing examples)

Answer 10

Just in case you are interested, this list contains 650 irregular verbs.

verbos iregulares con gerundios, tercera persona etc.

Answer 11

In all fairness, it should be pointed out that the irregularity of verb is English is almost entirely restricted to the past tense/participle. Our spelling is, of course, a mess. There are historical reasons for this (much like the preservation of the silent "h" in Spanish, the coalescing of "c/z/S" for those that use the "seseo", the confusion of "b/v" and (in many dialects) the failure of "ll/y" to correspond to a distinction in pronunciation. These are, however, all cases of the orthography being out of sync with the pronunciation. If one only wishes to speak English (rather than to also write it) the situation is somewhat simpler (but not much).

Answer 12

I am not sure how many "vowel sounds" there are in English. I have never counted them but for example "tomorrow" has 3 Os and 3 sounds apart from when we actually pronounce T'morrow (where the ' has replaced the O with a SCHWA sound. I think there are more than 17 "sounds" for vowels. I think this "sound" and pronunciation problem actually has a very negative affect on the process of learning English.

Answer 13

Further to my previous comments I thought the following may be useful.

a pronounced in the alphabet as ay (as in the word mate)
e pronounced in the alphabet as ee (as in the word edict)
i pronounced in the alphabet as ei (as in the word life)
o pronounced in the alpbabet as oh (as in the word only)
u pronounced in the alphabet as yu (as in the word union)

y pronounced in the alphabet as "why" is usually considered to be a consonant (as in yet). But it also is used as a vowel (as in merry), and then functions as a letter i.

The vowel a may be pronounced:
1. a as in apple (short a)
2. a as in father (long a)
3. ay as in mate (peculiarly English a)
4. as a schwa'.
5. "e" as in many.
6. "aw" as in mall.
7. "o" as in alter.
8. "eh" as in Mary.

The vowel e may be pronounced:
1. e as in get (short e)
2. e as in beta ["bay-ta"] (long e)
3. ee as in edict (peculiarly English e)
4. as a schwa'.
5. "uh" as in mercy.
6. or it may be silent as in life.

The vowel i may be pronounced:
1. i as in pit (short i)
2. i as in machine (long i)
3. ei as in life (peculiarly English i)
4. as a schwa"

The vowel o may be pronounced:
1. o as in font (short o)
2. oh as in only (long o)
4. as oo as in t"oo"morrow
5. "uh" as in some.
6. as a schwa'

The vowel u may be pronounced:
1. u as in full (short u)
2. u as in brute (long u)
3. yu as in union (peculiarly English u)
4. "uh" as in cup

'a schwa is an unstressed vowel such as the a in comma, e in model, second o in common, i as in one American pronunciation of mobile [mob"uh"l], all pronounced as "uh" by many speakers.

Further, for example a town called "Lesta" is actually written "Leicester"
Here a pair of vowels are reduced to one ("ei" becomes "e") and the middle "e" is dropped and the "er" becomes a schwa.
By the way the scwha is the most common sound in the English language.

Answer 14

Todo lo que necesitas es la práctica! Inglés es fácil! y esa frase es perfecta

Soy de los Estados Unidos, encantado

Oh, and learning English isn't 'easy'. It requires a lot of work to learn any new (to you) language with any degree of proficiency. If it were easy there would be no need for teachers of English as a Second Language in our schools. (Which coincidentally I am studying to become.)

However, in my experience, people from Paraguay generally learn to speak English much easier and with a better accent than other hispanohablantes because of the prevalence of Guaraní in Paraguay. The sounds that the letters make are surprisingly similar (to my ear).

Answer 15

'a schwa is an unstressed vowel such as the a in comma, e in model, second o in common, i as in one American pronunciation of mobile [mob"uh"l], all pronounced as "uh" by many speakers.

Oops, I just realized that this is what I wrongly referred to as a semivowel. You can never fully trust your teachers.