{"id":1318,"date":"2013-09-27T15:38:30","date_gmt":"2013-09-27T15:38:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/?p=1318"},"modified":"2013-09-30T16:15:40","modified_gmt":"2013-09-30T16:15:40","slug":"the-phrases-foreigners-find-difficult","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/the-phrases-foreigners-find-difficult\/","title":{"rendered":"The Phrases Foreigners Find Difficult"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"To_Big180_273\"<\/a>When you learn a foreign language the individual words are really the easy bit. Far more difficult are the phrases. This is where you need to roll a few words together and hope that it all makes sense. Sound easy? Take a look at these stinkers and you\u2019ll see that it\u2019s not so easy after all.<\/p>\n

Spanish \u2013 <\/b>Borr\u00f3n y Cuenta Nueva (Let Bygones be Bygones and Start Again)<\/b><\/p>\n

This simple little expression just means something like letting bygones be bygones and starting afresh. However, I have tentatively tried to say it quite a few times and it just never comes out right. I think this might be because of the potent combination of the RR and a couple of A\u2019s, which are among the trickiest letters for a native English speaker to use. I asked some other English speakers to say the phrase and they sounded even stupider than me.<\/p>\n

French - La Pipe au Papa du Pape Pie Pue (Pope Pius\u2019s Dad\u2019s Pipe Smells)<\/b><\/p>\n

I enjoy tongue twisters in English but have you ever tried one in a foreign language? I thought at first it might be easier for a non native speaker, because the words don\u2019t really mean much to them so they just concentrate on the sounds. I was wrong. This is a well known French tongue twister which makes me feel like a low budget Pepe Le Pew impersonator when I try to say it.<\/p>\n

Portuguese (Brazil) - O Brasil \u00e9 lindo e maravilhoso! (Brazil is Beautiful and Marvellous)<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the most difficult looking phrase in the world but when I tried using it in Brazil I felt very silly so I kind of spluttered and stopped. Rather than the actual words or the pronunciation, I think the problem here is that you need to be a cool, hip Brazilian to say this with pride. Striking the right attitude is one of the parts of speaking a language well, which takes time and creeps up on you bit by bit, I guess.<\/p>\n

English \u2013 A Nod\u2019s As Good As a Wink to a Blind Horse <\/b><\/p>\n

\"phraseshard2\"<\/a>Of course, foreign language speakers who learn English have a lot of phrases to try and learn as well. My wife is a native Spanish speaker and she enjoys learning new expressions and proverbs in English. Having said that, she has been trying to perfect this phrase for about 5 years. She loves the meaning behind it but just can\u2019t ever remember the words in the right order. Every time she makes a mistake I make her feel a little better by saying \u201cBorr\u00f3n y cuenta nueva\u201d in my silly voice.<\/p>\n

Have you struggled with these foreign phrases in the past or with different ones?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When you learn a foreign language the individual words are really the easy bit. Far more difficult are the phrases. This is where you need to roll a few words together and hope that it all makes sense. Sound easy? Take a look at these stinkers and you\u2019ll see that it\u2019s not so easy after(\u2026)<\/p>\n

\n
\n\t \t\t\t\tCONTINUE READING »<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1316,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,13,28],"tags":[59,102,39,66,93,101,33,37],"class_list":["post-1318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-everyday-language","category-language-learning","category-culture-travel","tag-english","tag-foreigner","tag-french","tag-language","tag-phrases","tag-portuguese","tag-second-language","tag-spanish"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Phrases Foreigners Find Difficult - Listen & Learn<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/the-phrases-foreigners-find-difficult\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Phrases Foreigners Find Difficult - Listen & Learn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When you learn a foreign language the individual words are really the easy bit. Far more difficult are the phrases. This is where you need to roll a few words together and hope that it all makes sense. Sound easy? 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