Language issues

I never realized how difficult the English language was until I moved here to Montreal, and it’s only been in the last few language exchange dinners that I’ve realized some of the key problems with our language.

Case in point – last week two Francophones were pointing out the problem with English verbs. In French there is a separate verb for every action. In English, we have one verb and append a preposition to the end of it to change its meaning. E.g. to hang up, out, in, on, etc. In French the equivalents would be raccrocher, sortir (no real equivalent), tenir, accrocher, etc.


I’ve also always taken our ability to enunciate some words for granted. I was chatting with a guy from France and a Caribbean French speaker last night. They were trying to understand the difference in pronunciation between ‘thought’ and ‘fought.’ They couldn’t differentiate between the two words because of the “th” sound. Sometimes difficulties like these can be very funny. E.g. The Caribbean guy was demonstrating his attempts to say “beach” and “sheet.” I can totally see how miscommunications would happen with his accent. :)

That being said I have similar difficulties at times. E.g. I have a hard time differentiating between the words “cueillir” (to pick, as in to pick an apple) and “cuillère” (spoon). Everytime I have to say them, I have to stop and carefully pronounce them. One of the Anglophones in our group also has a hard time telling “province” and “provence” apart.