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Why Learning English is Easy

Let’s look at the facts about learning English, and then I hope you will understand why learning English is easy as compared to other languages.
 
Fact 1.  English has very few verb endings as compared to most other languages. I can’t speak for all languages, but let’s look at Spanish. This Latin based language, and the same can be said for French, Italian, Romanian, and Portuguese, must make a verb ending change for every subject pronoun. Take the verb “Llamar” in Spanish as compared with “Call” in English:

    llamar:
           Yo llamo  (o)
           Tu llamas (as)
           Usted llama (a)
           El, Ella llama (a)
           Nosotros llamamos (amos)
           Ellos, Ellas llaman  (an)
     Call:
           I call
           You call (familiar form)
           You call
           He, She calls
           We call
           They call
           
From this simple illustration, a person learning Spanish must learn to make five verb ending changes before mastering one verb in one time frame, the simple present, while the English learner must learn only one, the final “s” on He and She.  Also Spanish has three classes of verbs ending in “ar”, “er”, and “ir”, and each of these verb classes has its own particular verb endings. So, in summary, just to learn the simple present tense of regular verbs in Spanish, you must learn at least 15 different verb endings. Again in English there is just one verb ending; the “s” for He and She.
 
Fact 2.  Spanish, like other Latin based languages, has many more verb tenses that English, which further adds to what you must master when learning Spanish. There are ten verb tenses in common use in Spanish, and each of these verb tenses has its own verb endings. For our example verb, Llamar, Spanish has 50 different verb endings. And remember there are still the verb endings for “er” and “ir” verbs. The entire verb structure for the verb Call in English consists of these five endings and/or changes: 
 
1.Present Progressive:          
                  I’m calling (Be + verb + ing)
                  You’re calling
                  He’s/She’s calling
                  We’re calling
                  They’re calling
 
2.Simple Future:                
                  I will call. (or) I’ll call  (will + verb) 
                  You’ll call                  
                  He’ll / She’ll call
                  We’ll call
                  They’ll call
 
3.Simple past:                  
                  I called (verb + ed)
                  You called
                  He/she called
                  We called
                  They called
 
4.Present Habitual:             
                  I call
                  You call
                  He/she calls (verb + s)
                  We call
                  They call
 
5.Present Perfect:              
                  I have called (have + verb + ed)
                  You have called
                  He/She has called
                  We have called
                  They have called    
 
I think it should become obvious that just from learning to manipulate verbs in Spanish or English, the English verb system is much smaller and requires many fewer verb endings that must be learn than in Spanish. Of course students will say English has more vocabulary, true, it has more prepositions used in many more ways, true, and the use of modals such as should, would, and could are difficult to master, true. However, all of these difficulties are learned and mastered as you actively use the language. However, to begin to speak English, you don’t need to know more that about 1000 words, the 35 or so prepositions will come with usage as will the use of the modals should, would, and may. You don’t need to know everything in English before being able to use it at a rather advanced level. While I do not know any Asian or Slavic language, I have been assured by speakers of these languages, my remarks about the difficulty of learning English as opposed to learning Spanish apply equally well to their respective languages. So good luck and study English everyday.
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Why Learning English is Easy
