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Comparing Polish to English

There are many differences between the Polish and English languages. Some of these differences include:

• The Alphabet: The Polish alphabet has 17 letters and letter combinations unknown to English speakers. Additionally, Polish does not contain the letters U, V, or X.

• Vowel sounds: In English, the total number of vowel sounds (also called vowel phonemes) varies between 14 -25 different sounds. In Polish, there are only around eight different vowel sounds. For example, in English, the letter "A" has seven possible sounds, in Polish, the letter A has only one!

• Double consonants: English speakers tend to treat double consonants, such as in the word motto, as one sound. Polish speakers, however, leave a pause between the two consonants. This pausing is not common in English but can be compared to the common English pronunciation of the word "misspell."

Common English pronunciation differences made by Polish speakers

*Though these pronunciations are different than native English speakers, it is important to note that they are not incorrect because they are sounds influenced by another language.*

• The two 'th' sounds are often changed to /f/ and /d/

• short vowels like in hat, hut and heart are often changed to a more common Polish vowel sound

• -ing endings are often changed by either adding a /k/ or using an /n/

RUSSIAN

Map Description: The orange colored countries represent where Russian is an official language, the lighter orange indicates where Russian is spoken predominantly but NOT the official language.

Video Description: Christina is an 8-year-old girl from Russia practicing her English by talking about her family and descriptors of clothing and appearance.

Differences between English and Russian

Phonology

In the English language there are 16 vowel sounds, whereas in Russian there is only 5 vowel sounds. Furthermore, both short and long vowels do not exist in the Russian language. In reference to consonants, /θ/, /ð/, /ng/ are not sounds heard in Russian which may prove difficult for English language learners.

Pragmatics

English sentences such as, "Want to close that door for me?”, may seem rude to native Russian speakers as within their culture, it is rude to suggest what someone should do. However, the natural bluntness of Russian conversation may prove rude to English speakers

Linguistics

The correct pronunciation of words in the Russian language rely heavily on the spelling of the word, whereas English sounds tend to have inconsistent spellings. Furthermore, a larger percentage of Russian words are multisyllabic in comparison to English language. In reference to English there are six tenses, each with two to three forms. Idioms used in the English language may prove foreign to Russian speakers.

Fun Facts about Russian!

• The Russian language uses three kinds of nouns, based on genders of masculine, feminine, and neutral. Masculine nouns end in “on”, feminine nouns end in “ona”, and gender-neutral nouns end in “ono”.

• Along with English, Russian is the language of space! Astronauts are required to Russian as part of their training and the computer system of the International Space Station (ISS) uses both English and Russian.

Chinese (Mandarin)

Differences Between English and Mandarin (Chinese)

English and Mandarin have differences beyond just a different set of character! Just like English, there are many different dialects spoken within China, but Mandarin is the official language of the country. Many children in China are also taught to speak English, but there are some major differences in the languages that make learning English difficult. The video below depicts a teletherapy session of a child learning English through a tutor. Some of the differences between the languages are detailed below.

German

SPANISH