The difficult parts of English الصعوبة في اللغة الإنجليزية

[ESAL SPIRIT]

The difficult parts of English are:

• the spelling of a word may not show what the pronunciation (way of saying) the word is.
  This is because English words came from many different sources. It is not a 'pure' language.
  
• because English came from two main sources - old French, and old Anglo-Saxon, there is a very large vocabulary of words. Words with similar meanings may have come from both sources. For example, START (from Anglo-Saxon) and COMMENCE (from old French). The meaning is similar, but not precisely the same.
  
• native English speakers use a lot of idioms, that is - words used in a way which is not their obvious meaning. An English speaker may say,
  
  "I do not think much of apples."
  This does not mean he doesn't often think about apples. It means that he does not like apples very much!
  Yet he might say,
  "I think nothing of going for a swim before breakfast."
  What this really means is that he actually likes doing this, and that it is no problem to him!
  But don't worry. You will find that you can understand and communicate even when you have not been learning English for long!