Question:
Just wondered what is considered to be the most difficult aspects of
learning English grammar? (From a a non-English speaker p.o.v.)
Answer:
In my experience of assisting EFLers, I would say it's a competition
between:
1. Use of articles (more so if their L1 doesn't use them).
2. When and where to use our verb "tenses" properly.
They seem to be the questions that I get asked about the most and the
ones whose answers lead to the greatest need of further explanation with
plenty of examples and exceptions to any general 'rules' I can provide.
Another, minor, issue I find is explaining English's large vocabulary
and apparent synonyms coming from many sources. For example, "Why do we
need both 'royal' and 'regal', and when is one acceptable and the other
not?" Although these are not difficult to explain, there are so many
instances of them that at times it feels like English is just a list of
exceptions that have to learned in a case-by-case fashion.
However, I mainly deal with EFLers who have an intermediate and above
level of English, so there might be more basic/fundamental parts of
English grammar that are difficult to get the hang of at the early
stages.
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