Hi everyone, I was wondering if anyone could help me. I have to write an assignment on the particular difficulties different nationalities have with English: grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation. Problem is, I can't find any about Czech speakers. Could any of you spare a moment to tell me what the 'classic' Czech difficulties with English are? I'd be really grateful!!!! Thanks in advance, Loobaloo
For pronunciation problems, you might look at the previous topic Pronunciation problems for Czech speakers in English. In addition to those mention on that thread, I would say that often Czechs have difficulties with the unrolled "r" in English (of course the "r" is rolled by some in Britain). As for grammar difficulties, the verb tenses give many Czechs problems. English has many more tenses than Czech does. Writing run-on sentences is also an issue, as Czech grammar has looser rules on this point. As for vocabulary, the only thing that comes to mind are some of the so-called "False Friends." That's all I can think of now. I'll try to come up with some others later.
Hi, Grammar: Articles, prepositions, noun+noun constructions (or compounds of any kind). word order, the above tenses, though there aren`t that few if you include "verbal aspect" in Czech. That kind of thing doesn`t exist in English. Vocab: In any language there are "desriptive" words and "abstract" words. The latter always being more difficult than the former. Abstract words are most prepositions, non-action verbs. Articles in English. Most adjectives, non-abstract nouns, action verbs fall into the descriptive category. Pronuncation: the final consonant sound tends to go mispronounced or even silent. Particularly in words like: "Doug" :arrow: "duck". G :arrow: K "red" :arrow: "ret" D :arrow: T These are usually glossed over by grammarians but they cause tremendous misunderstanding. This is one of the moments people would, if they could, rather forget: One of my friends once wanted to say hello to his friend whose last name was Dodd, but as was his luck, got it all wrong, and said : hey twat. V and W. "Visa card" and "Window". Some Czechs pronounce them in the same way. The Czech "v" and English "v" differ quite immensely. Vowel sounds: "red" can become "rat". E :arrow: A Many more. Karel
The most confusing thing as far as pronunciation goes is the anarchy in English spelling. Czech is a phonetic language (basically, what you see is what you get) and the beginner is puzzled by such oddities as wood, blood, door and doom.
