Quick answer: English is difficult to learn because its spelling and pronunciation often don't match, it is stuffed with irregular verbs, phrasal verbs and idioms, and its stress-timed rhythm 'swallows' whole syllables. Teachers can help most by exposing learners to real English little and often outside class – short daily listening and reading beats one long weekly lesson every time.
Why is English difficult to learn?
And what can we do about it as teachers?
Well, English can be difficult for a number of reasons. Consider the following 2 examples:
a) The farms produce produce for Tescos.
b) The bandage was wound around the wound.
Here you can see the dilemma our students face. In the first example, we have a verb (pro'duce) and a noun ('produce) right next to each other. But these are pronounced differently, the stress is on the second syllable in the verb and the first in the noun).
In the second example, we have a regular verb in the past tense (wound – pronounced /waʊnd/), which is pronounced differently from the noun, pronounced /wuːnd/ at the end of the sentence, but spelled exactly the same. You can hear the correct pronunciation of both produce and wound at the Howjsay website, a free online talking dictionary of English pronunciation and a great simple resource for your students.
And that’s just 2 examples!
So as we have seen, English can be very difficult to learn, at least to a high level. Stuffed full of irregular verbs, with the largest vocabulary of any language in the world and idiosyncratic spelling and pronunciation rules, you should be mightily relieved if you are reading this as a native English speaker who has simply absorbed this complex language from childhood.
What makes English so hard for learners?
Ask a class of intermediate students and the same culprits come up again and again:
- Spelling that doesn't match pronunciation – though, through, tough, thought share letters but not sounds.
- Irregular verbs – go/went/gone has to be memorised; there is no rule to lean on.
- Phrasal verbs – put up, put off, put up with look similar and mean completely different things.
- Stress-timed rhythm – unstressed syllables get 'swallowed', which makes natural speech hard to follow.
- The sheer size of the vocabulary – and the shades of meaning between near-synonyms.
- Idioms everywhere – native speakers rarely notice how often they say things like it's up in the air.
None of these problems is fatal on its own. The difficulty is that learners meet all of them at once. Knowing which one is tripping up your students tells you what to teach next – a clear, learner-friendly reference like the Cambridge Dictionary British grammar guide helps you check the rules before you stand up and explain them. And if it's your own grammar knowledge that feels shaky, our 20-hour Essential English Grammar course was designed for exactly that.
What can we do about this as teachers?
Well, part of your job as teacher will be to motivate your students to access English outside the classroom, so they are exposed to language in all its richness. One idea is to tell your learner that you will ask them to bring in new phrases they have discovered at the start of your next lesson. This will help them to focus on listening out language and to not 'tune out', which we can all be guilty of sometimes.
The beauty of the all the sites that we have suggested is that they require only 1-10 minutes, which means your students can easily incorporate a bit of English into their daily lives. This is key because if you overload your student, they are unlikely to even get started. For free short listening and reading practice graded by level, point them to the BBC Learning English site, which is full of 1-10 minute activities ideal for the autonomous learner.
For more advanced and motivated learners, encourage them to watch films in English, with subtitles if necessary. If it is an old favourite, all the better since the English will simply support a story line they know well.
When we stretch our learners outside of the lesson, we are also encouraging them to take more responsibility for their acquisition of the language. We do not help them if we only feed them full of English once or twice a week, and not encourage them to do anything with their English in-between. There are plenty more practical ideas in our posts on getting students to use English out of class and great homework ideas for ESL students.
Which problem areas need which teaching response?
| Difficulty | Why it's hard | How to help |
|---|---|---|
| Spelling vs pronunciation | English spelling preserves history, not sound | Teach words with their pronunciation from day one; use a talking dictionary like Howjsay |
| Word stress | Stress can change meaning (pro'duce vs 'produce) | Mark stress on new vocabulary; drill pairs aloud |
| Irregular verbs | Must be memorised individually | Little-and-often revision, quizzes and games rather than one long list |
| Connected speech | Weak syllables disappear at natural speed | Short, repeated listening tasks; raise awareness of the schwa |
| Phrasal verbs and idioms | Meaning can't be guessed from the parts | Teach in context and in small themed sets, recycled over weeks |
If speaking practice is where your students freeze, structured conversation lessons help enormously – see our tips for TEFL discussion classes and these 5 TEFL warmers to get them talking early in the lesson, or grab our ready-to-print instant TEFL lessons for classes you can teach with zero preparation.
Can pronunciation problems be fun to teach?
Fancy a smile to end this article? Well, here is a fun clip to illustrate pronunciation problems to your students. Credit this one to Berlitz, a well-known English language school chain, who played on the difficulties Germans have with the pronunciation of the ‘th’ sound in the humorous youtube sketch below. Press play and enjoy!
Encourage your students to gain a wider appreciation of English and it will lead to increased motivation and improvement in all areas and help them gain mastery of our varied and complex language. Good luck!
Frequently asked questions
Why is English difficult to learn?
Mainly because spelling and pronunciation don't reliably match, the language is full of irregular verbs, phrasal verbs and idioms, and its stress-timed rhythm swallows unstressed syllables in fast speech. English also has an unusually large vocabulary, so learners keep meeting new words long after they feel 'fluent'.
Is English the hardest language to learn?
No. Difficulty depends on the learner's first language: a Dutch or Swedish speaker finds English relatively close to home, while speakers of more distant languages face a bigger jump. English grammar is actually simpler than many languages in some ways – few verb endings, no grammatical gender – but its pronunciation and idioms make mastery slow.
How can I help beginners who find English overwhelming?
Keep exposure short, daily and achievable: one to ten minutes of graded listening or reading between lessons. Teach pronunciation alongside spelling from the first lesson, celebrate small wins, and avoid long grammar explanations. Beginners need confidence and routine more than they need completeness.
Do these techniques work in online lessons?
Yes. Online 1-to-1 lessons are ideal for the 'bring me a new phrase each week' technique, and you can type tricky words with their stress marked straight into the chat box. Set the short listening and reading tasks between video lessons so class time is spent speaking.
What next?
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Louisa Walsh, Course Director, Global English
Updated July 2026