Is it Difficult or is it Hard?
By Inlemay
@Inlemay (17713)
South Africa
September 14, 2020 12:47am CST
Having an English teacher in the house keeps me on my toes with my grammar and figures of speech with our daily chats ~ quite refreshing to know she loves the language so much that she has chosen it as her vocation.
Hoorah to all the TEACHERS out there!!
I myself have loved exploring languages and try and keep them written and spoken correctly whenever the opportunity arises.
To the matter at hand - my heading - "Is it difficult or is it hard?"
The answer is: In many cases, " 'difficult' and 'hard' can be used interchangeably because difficult is one of the meanings of hard. However, the word 'hard' means more abstract than the word 'difficult''s. Hard and difficult express two different shades when it comes to difficulty." Google says
In the English language, only dead objects are HARD, whereas the actions of a living being are found to be difficult.
Example: The desk's wood is hard;
I found it very difficult to move the desk
This morning I found myself reading a quote and correcting it as I read:
"The three hardest things to say . . . "
which to my mind should read as:
"The three most difficult things to say . . . "
What's your call on the Spoken English language that differs so much over the Atlantic ocean?
My photo is of a Giraffe at the Royal Livingstone Hotel - Zambia.
I wish you all a wonderful Monday the 14th September - Be careful and be safe.
10 people like this
12 responses
@srinireddy (113)
• India
14 Sep 20
I agree with you, Hard means tough, dense, solid it does not yield, examples a wall, a rock. But Difficult means something it requires effort, is complex, so used for action s. Correct me if I am wrong.
And the picture you posted is nice.
3 people like this
@Hannihar (129966)
• Israel
14 Sep 20
@Inlemay
I was born and raised in the States so learned English. I am not good with languages. I took French in school and it was hard for me. I live in Israel and Hebrew is the language here and it is a hard language to learn. So that is where I am at with languages.
2 people like this
@everwonderwhy (6696)
•
14 Sep 20
I use either word interchangeably depending on my mood and whom I'm talking to. Often I use (show) active verbs why something is difficult or hard to do.
2 people like this
@arunima25 (86091)
• Bangalore, India
14 Sep 20
I love to explore these nuances of any language. Language I guess is the most mysterious thing of a human.... So many of them with different dialect and accent. And how many of us know one or more. That's the beauty of Human species.
3 people like this
@Lavanya15 (12888)
• Chennai, India
14 Sep 20
I am very poor in English grammar my friend. After joining here I try to improve more.
2 people like this
@LadyDuck (461776)
• Switzerland
14 Sep 20
English is not my native language, I try to use the correct words, but it is possible that I make mistakes. I get stomach ache when I read the actual Italian newspapers, the teachers would have killed us if we wrote with so many mistakes.
1 person likes this
@LadyDuck (461776)
• Switzerland
26 Oct 20
@Inlemay We have 4 official languages in Switzerland and we are expected to understand and speak at least two of the 4. Italian is my language, French is my second language as I lived there 31 years, I am not very good in German, but I can more or less understand simple phrases, the 4th language is very little spoken (Romansh).
1 person likes this
@Inlemay (17713)
• South Africa
26 Oct 20
I know a few phrases of Italian, French and German and can understand Dutch rather well and answer the dutch if need be, and that's because we speak Afrikaans in South Africa too. Plus we are expected to understand one of the 11 African languages - in our area its Tswana as they speak in Botswana, so it helps with travel across borders too.
1 person likes this
@GeniusSoul (360)
• United States
14 Sep 20
I use them interchangeably. Thank you for this
1 person likes this
