What difficulties do native speakers of English face while writing?

[emidio125]

I'm not an English native speaker and because of that I have to double check my attention while I'm writing my reviews or any other English text so as to avoid mistakes. However, when I use my mother tongue it's very much easier, and I don't need to pay so much attention. So I would like to know and learn from native speakers: What are the difficulties you face while writing? And how you overcome them?

[Alyssa]

Hey just want to say good on you for learning another language, especially English because can be difficult. There’s a lot of rules to English that isn’t in other languages which is what I think makes it so different. For me the worst is punctuation, every time it gets me. I do a lot of checking to make sure I use it properly in my reviews. Hope this is helpful for you.

[emidio125]

Hey just want to say good on you for learning another language, especially English because can be difficult. There’s a lot of rules to English that isn’t in other languages which is what I think makes it so different. For me the worst is punctuation, every time it gets me. I do a lot of checking to make sure I use it properly in my reviews. Hope this is helpful for you.

I apreciate a lot your suggestion and I will try to incorporate your tips for my own good.

[Yvonne Monique]

I'm not an English native speaker and because of that I have to double check my attention while I'm writing my reviews or any other English text so as to avoid mistakes. However, when I use my mother tongue it's very much easier, and I don't need to pay so much attention. So I would like to know and learn from native speakers: What are the difficulties you face while writing? And how you overcome them?

I am having the same problem as you: English is not my mother tongue either and I really have to do my best to get my reviews right. With spelling & grammar I'm fairly OK, but in nearly all reviews I get deducted the full 40 points because of punctuation errors . I will keep on trying though and learning along the way!

[emidio125]

I'm not an English native speaker and because of that I have to double check my attention while I'm writing my reviews or any other English text so as to avoid mistakes. However, when I use my mother tongue it's very much easier, and I don't need to pay so much attention. So I would like to know and learn from native speakers: What are the difficulties you face while writing? And how you overcome them?

I am having the same problem as you: English is not my mother tongue either and I really have to do my best to get my reviews right. With spelling & grammar I'm fairly OK, but in nearly all reviews I get deducted the full 40 points because of punctuation errors . I will keep on trying though and learning along the way!

I agree with you, give the best we can is the only way to improve our reviews and writing skills.

[Etini Willie]

The difficulties they face should be really minimal or probably non existent. It's really hard for us non native English speakers to keep up with writing the way an English person would write. We are bracing up and improving though

[Leonie Vermaak]

I have the same problem as all of you, my mother tongue is Afrikaans. I'm ok with the reviews spelling wise and I have managed the tenses finally, but the use of the comma is what's getting me down. For the life of me, no matter how many times I use grammar checkers or even ask an English person to check my reviews, I still somehow make mistakes and get 40 points deducted. It's so frustrating!!! Luckily I don't quit on something I love doing so I will perservere . I have however considered doing a writing course that can help me with this. Maybe that's something to consider for all of us

[latesummer93]

Great topic! Despite being a native English speaker, I'm not the best at spelling. So, I often have to double-check even the simplest of words. I also often get figures of speech wrong - sometimes you hear a phrase said so much in your life that you interpret it one way only to find out it isn't correct at all! Honestly, my dictionaries and Google are my best friend. I also grew up with friends in England, so despite living in America, my spelling of certain words varies widely. I've adopted the American spellings of some words and the British spelling of others. So, when I'm writing, I often have to go back over and correct those so it's consistent.

[dorroughdavid]

Bravo to all of you who write in English despite it not being your first language. I admire your perseverance and dedication... as well as your ability to do it at all! I studied French for six years and did very well with it in school, but if I ever attempted to write anything beyond the most simple ideas/sentences in French (which I'd never have the courage to do anyway!), it would be an atrocious mess unfit for anyone to read.

As mentioned by others here, we native speakers still struggle with spelling, punctuation, and grammar, even though we began learning English at birth. We probably tend to let our guard down with these things, because we feel like we know them completely; it surprises and embarrasses me sometimes, how many errors I make and how easily they slip past my mental self-editing!

Other challenges, for me personally, include trying to organize all my ideas into the best sequence, with the right divisions between sentences and paragraphs, and trying to express ideas clearly without phrasing them in a dull, boring way and without repeating the same words too frequently.

I am very proud to have published my first novel earlier this year. When writing it, I faced all of the difficulties mentioned above numerous times - as well as plenty of good old-fashioned writer's block!

[ej_author]

I'm in awe of your dedication to learn English! It's a very complicated language with lots of rules to remember, which is what makes it so difficult to write well. You truly have to know the English language inside and out, and even I have to refresh myself on details after I've been writing for many years. All of that to say that even native English speakers make mistakes all the time and none of us is perfect! Everyone has their own issues, it seems like - for example, I almost always have to double check when I use lay/lie/lied and all of that nonsense because the tenses are so weird. I have a friend who often gets confused with effect/affect. I'd say that those kinds of grammatical mistakes are the most common among English writers - at least the ones I know.

[Daniel A Roberts]

One of the biggest challenges I face when writing is making the content fully understandable for readers who don't have English as their birth tongue. I have some fans in the EU, especially the Netherlands, where their English is a second, and for some, a third language. If it's clear and flows well across the eyes to them, then native English users should find it twice as easy to enjoy. When I look for beta readers during a new project, which hasn't happened in a while, I like to have a couple of folks who's English is not their primary language for that very reason.

An example is the word 'balk' which can mean a 'wood beam' in Dutch. So using, 'He balked at entering the room' doesn't give the proper mental image for those speaking Dutch, and they have to labor some to get the meaning. So I would restructure the sentence. 'He paused, not caring to enter the room' works so much better for those readers.

It doesn't bother me that such rewrites lowers the grade level on the reading curve, I happen to love people on the other side of the pond. I like to entertain them just as much as everyone else.