this post was submitted on 18 Oct 2025
28 points (100.0% liked)

LanguageLearning

101 readers
1 users here now

A community to discuss learning languages, and meet people who might speak the language you're trying to learn.

founded 3 weeks ago
MODERATORS
Fawkes@lemmy.zip
28
What is the least enjoyed/most frustrating aspect of learning your target language? (lemmy.zip)
submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by Fawkes@lemmy.zip to c/LanguageLearning@lemmy.zip
29 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

As an English speaker learning German, I face endless confusion and frustration with many of the short question words that are "False Friends"

Such as:

Wer (where) - Actually means who.

Wo (Who) - Actually means where.

Wie (We) - Actually means how.

Was (was) - Actually means what.

Also (also) - Actually means so.

Will (will) - Actually means to want.

And the completely arbitrary gender assignments!

For example.

The year is: Das Jahr, a neuter word.

The month is: Der Monat, a masculine word.

And the week is: Die Woche, a feminine word.

And then there's directly counter-intuitive examples of words that seem like they Should be a gender other than what they are, such as:

The little girl - Das Mädchen (Neuter, not feminine)

Breasts - Der Busen (Masculine! Boobs is masculine!)

Person - Die Person (Feminine! Why isn't this word neuter?!"

top 29 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Pipster@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

Dutch (probably applicable for a bunch of Germanic languages), the way a word at the end can modify the whole meaning of the sentence as I've already mentally parsed it.

I need a book Ik heb een boek nodig

I have a book need

So my brain has got to 'boek' and therefore already finished that part of the sentence as 'I have a book', only to have a new word thrown in. It feels like a kid saying "I like you........ NOT".

And time... Ugh... Half past seven = Half acht (eight) Twenty five past one = Vijf voor half twee (five before half two).

On the other hand, dutch swear words? Sublime. Gezellig? Amazing word. Swaffelen? Chef's kiss.

[–] Multiplexer@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Regarding the times:
Took ages until I was somewhat sure on how to use that am/pm thing in English. 🙃

[–] Pipster@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

At least in the UK we just use the 24 hour clock, am/pm isn't used nearly as much

[–] Multiplexer@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Interesting, didn't know that.
I learned British English at school, yet all the learning materials focused on using the am/pm style.
Perhaps because we already know the 24h format well in Germany, as it is also routinely used here.

[–] Pipster@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 2 weeks ago

I guess in speech we tend to say something like 'eight thirty" rather than "twenty thirty" but certainly in witten communication its always 24 hour.

[–] Eq0@literature.cafe 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I know some Dutch. God verdomme just beats any other swear word ever. So satisfying

[–] Pipster@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 2 weeks ago

My favourites (especially as a microbiologist) are the swearing ilnesses. Krijgt tyfus. Kanker op. Teringlijer etc ect.

[–] davepleasebehave@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Could you tell me what time it is?

Could you tell me what time the train leaves?

Similar to Dutch in the sense that the important verb comes at the end.

[–] Fawkes@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 weeks ago

Yeah, it's the same in German. You don't say Seven-thirty. You say Half-eight. A bit tricky. And german is the same qith sentence structure. The second verb always comes at the end of the sentence. Makes it so you literally can't know the purpose of the sentence until you hear the whole thing. Which, is kinda ingenious actually. Means you can't interrupt people.

[–] Multiplexer@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

As a German I have to agree: Yes, the whole gender system of the language is nuts.

And false friends work in both ways.

My favorite:
bekommen - to get
become - werden

"I become a sausage!"

[–] Fawkes@lemmy.zip 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

As a German, do you have a difficult time remembering the genders of new words? Or does it come naturally?

[–] Multiplexer@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 2 weeks ago

I am perhaps too old to answer that question, as I don't stumble upon new words often enough any more.

Most of the new ones for me are imported terms, like "Computer" or "Internet".
These are mostly gendered based on the translation of the part that defines them, e.g. "the net" - "das Netz", so it is somewhat logical.

There are some unclear or disputed ones, though. E.g. "Interface" is "das", but "API" (from application programming interface) often is "die", because "the interface" translates to "die Schnittstelle".

Also, there are some regional differences.
E.g. "Butter" is female ("die") in many parts of Germany, but in some it is male "der".

To sum up: It is complicated.

[–] DeuxChevaux@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (3 children)

And you have to relearn the whole genders, if you start learning romance languages.

German, french, Italian:

Die Sonne (f), le soleil, il sole (m).

der Mond (m), la lune, la luna (f).

And lots more like that.

[–] Eq0@literature.cafe 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Yep. I know German quite well, but French and Italian better. My brain just picks a random gender every time. Usually not even consistent

[–] Fawkes@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 weeks ago

That seems like the best option imo. Just decide on the spot which gender you want the word to be and go with it! I really don't think it matters if my refrigerator is a man or woman lol.

[–] Tagger@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

I had this question. I'm learning Welsh from English. So learning a language with genders from one without. Then met some who learnt Welsh from German. Two gendered languages. Which do you think is harder - having to learn about genders and try to incorporate a new concept or having. to learn genders for words that may or may not match your 'expectations' and 'logic' from your L1

[–] stray@pawb.social 1 points 2 weeks ago

I personally don't think of them as genders and instead go by what feels right for the individual word. Swedish technically has two grammatical genders, but no one thinks of them that way; there are just en-words and ett-words. So for me "el mar" and "la mer" aren't confusing because the "the" is part of the word, and the word sounds wrong if you change it.

[–] trolske@feddit.org 5 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I've only learned Germanic and Romance languages before, so learning Finnish feels like repeatedly running against a wall, hoping the wall will give up.
It's incredibly frustrating.

[–] MicrowavedTea 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Learning something completely new is humbling. I started learning Finnish for the grammar but have spent so much time on vocabulary it's annoying. I hadn't realized just how many roots indo-european languages share that Finnish doesn't.

[–] trolske@feddit.org 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Any recommendations for learning resources especially for grammar? I'm currently in s low motivation phase for learning Finnish, but I should get started again.

[–] MicrowavedTea 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I'm currently using duolingo which is usually good enough but kinda sucks in this case. There was an app mentioned here that had Finnish as one of its first languages and could be good but sadly I didn't save it. If anyone remembers it please do say.

[–] trolske@feddit.org 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Yeah, I've been done with the Duolingo course for a while now.
As for the other app, you might be talking about Lingonaut. They'll have Finnish from the start. The iOS version is in beta and they just started development of the Android version.
Or you are talking about Anki, I've made a super deck with all the Finnish courses and removed the duplicates, but I lack the motivation to get started again.

[–] MicrowavedTea 2 points 2 weeks ago

Yeah Lingonaut might be it, it was something new. If you are on a good level you could try some content outside of lessons. There is !suomiblogit@sopuli.xyz here where I can't understand anything yet but maybe you'll have more luck.

[–] stray@pawb.social 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I think Japanese writing is really stupid. Any given character has many potential pronunciations, and they for some reason tacked on multiple syllabaries instead of just doing their own thing like the Koreans did.

Some of their printed media has both kanji and also a furigana pronunciation key so that younger people can read it, which makes me ask why they don't just use one system that everyone can read.

Typing is a nightmare because you type what you're saying phonetically, but then you have to select which kanji you want for the correct meaning, and you also have to switch between which version of the syllabary you want. It's too many extra steps.

Chinese is similar, but I forgive them because hanzi is their own historical system instead of a messy version of someone else's, and I feel like the pronunciations and meanings are much more consistent. I can appreciate the historical value and artistry of it in a way I just can't with Japanese kanji.

[–] emb@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Initially I hated it for how very much it was. Over time, I've come around on the multiple scripts, the beauty of Kanji, the fun of writing them, the way it breaks up words, the way they convey ideas at a glance.

But the inconsistent pronunciations will always throw me. If even just at least the onyomi readings were always the same, it would make life so much easier.

[–] FabioTheNewOrder@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

As a polyglot person I've to say that his is the shit which makes me the most mad about the transgenders issue. Our languages evolved independently defining differently the gender of words based on how the different people "felt" about them. If we can accept that these "feelings" are valid and we teach them to students learning a new language why cannot we accept that a person feeling about its gender are valid as well? Unlogical shit, let me tell you

[–] suff@piefed.social 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

IDK if this is true scientifically. But when I learned french articles (la/le) I tried to imagine some sterotypical French guy and I easily could remember what he likes (everything with 'la') and dislikes (everything with 'le') but sometimes it was arbitrary.

Articles aren't gender, or are they?

[–] suff@piefed.social 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Breasts - Der Busen (Masculine! Boobs is masculine!)

Die Brust (some parents give milk from it)
!= Der Busen (sometimes the full upper torso front, the chest)
!= Das Euter (breast of milk giving animals)

I think each language has some trait that feels arbitrary, hard to learn. I think the purpose is, to be able to figure out foreigners who didn't "drink the language from mother's breast". I believe, historically/evolutionary, language speakers had to quickly sort out infiltrated traitors.

  • how to speak written words in English
  • articles among central European languages like French, German
  • cases among eastern European languages
  • when to say "sk" like "sh" in Swedish
  • measure words in Mandarin

Overall, false friends are everywhere because our brain works in associations.