If your mother tongue is Russian, the grammar of which language will be the most difficult for you?
If your mother tongue is English, the grammar of which language will be the most difficult for you?
If your mother tongue is Hindy, French, Spain and etc., the grammar of which language will be the most difficult for you?
Thank you in advance.
Languages of the same general family seem a bit easier to me. You will find cognates in the vocabulary and general clausal patterns that are similar. Speakers of Japanese, Chinese, Punjabi, and other languages that do not have articles have a difficult time with European languages that are rich in articles. An article is such a subtle part of a noun phrase that it is difficult to capture its significance.
Vladimir,
My native language is English. I studied Spanish and have a fairly good grasp of it.
With my linguistics studies, I have had contact with hundreds of languages, but never studied any particular one in detail. However, I found I could read French pretty well (similar syntax to Spanish and many cognates with English and Spanish). I can get the general idea when reading Italian, Catalan, Portuguese, all closely related. On the German side of English, I can read through Dutch better than German itself.
As far as listening, I am not very good at any of them other than Spanish. I have studied a native language of my ancestors (Lenape), but there are no native speakers left. I studied some Japanese syntax, but have almost no ability to do Japanese, Chinese, or other Asian languages. My contact with African languages never lead to any use beyond the theoretical backgrounds.
My further judgment comes from teaching students from a variety of language backgrounds and the problems they discovered. In one writing class I had native speakers of Punjabi, Bengali, Mexican Spanish, Puerto Rican Spanish, and English. It was a challenge for all of us.
@Glenn,
Which useful tips or recommendations you can give to improve the understanding of the English and Spanish grammar? Which books were the most useful for you?
Vladimir,
I am not a teacher of particular languages, so I can offer no concrete advice here. I will offer a couple comments in a general vein, however. I think it is a good idea for anyone learning a new language to first have instruction in phonetics. Once a student understands the range of possible linguistic sounds and the means of articulating them, then there is a better chance of approaching new sounds with more comfort, maybe reducing any accent caused by interference from a native language. The sounds of a new language are consequently framed against the background of Language, rather than the student's native language(s). It is often a practice in my area for native English speakers to impose English pronunciations on Spanish to such an extent that the result is hardly identifiable as Spanish.
A second general comment is that there is so much bad (incorrect) advice in English handbooks and internet "help" sites about the mechanics of English. English has 2 tenses, not 9. Pronouns replace noun phrases, not nouns. Many of these claims are not based on up-to-date research, but passed along from the era when all grammar was expected just to reflect Latin grammar. I won't go into that any more here--it won't help much--but I suggest consulting modern linguists rather than old "grammar books."
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