[Suki]

Originally Posted by GinaS

I'm surprised to hear people say that English is easy to learn. I would think it would be very difficult, at least to read and write, because of all the differing pronunciations the same letter combinations can produce, or even just individual letters.

It's easier than most languages. English is essentially a very logical language, in terms of grammar and sentence structure. Like faaar easier than any other language I know of.

Pronunciation is the hardest part about it, but you learn it over time. Plus, everyone's used to hearing English in both music and movies/tv, so pronunciation catches on quickly cause you've heard every word before and eventually you learn how to sound it out the right way.

However, you get than in almost every language. At least with vowels.

Originally Posted by GinaS

There's an old joke about "ghoti" being pronounced as "fish," if you take your cues from the "gh" in "rough," the 'o' in "women," and the "ti" in "nation."

But I think the worst offender is "ough." If you don't know, you can't guess. It can be pronounced as in

through, rhymes with blue,
though, rhymes with glow,
thought, rhymes with hot,
cough, rhymes with scoff,
hiccough, rhymes with cup,
bough, rhymes with how,
rough, rhymes with cuff,
and Yough, rhymes with rock, names of a trail, lake, school district, etc., in Pennsylvania on the Youghiogheny (Yawk-uh-gay-nee) River (from Algonquian).

Hahaha awsome!

Yeah, it doesn't make sense whatsoever that one word written in one specific way can be pronounced in two distinct ways, as it's the case with either/neither.