Articles - do you find them the hardest part of English

[Lost_Soul]

Hi,
I'd like to know your opinion on these little imps in English - words a, an and of course the. Do you find it difficult to "wield" them, to learn how to use them? Or is it not your "pet peeve" in learning English - then I'd love to know what is.

[Torsten]

Hi Alex,

I think using the articles in English is difficult for people whose mother tongue doesn't have any articles. The best way to learn how to use the articles correctly is to listen to English until you know what sounds correct and what doesn't.
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[Jamie (K)]

English articles are also difficult for people who speak languages that use their articles differently from the way they're used in English. Germans can have quite a bit of trouble using "the" correctly, as do French and Spanish speakers. Some interesting problems come when the person's native language has "the" but no "a", as in Arabic, and I think also Yoruba.

[NinaZara]

The most difficult for me is determining anything with past tenses. We don't have it in our mother tongue. I learn English with a lot of listening/experience rather than reading. And I depend a lot on my sixth sense (whatever it is) so I don't think I have or had any problems with articles, even then, when I was first introduced to them. But for some reason the same system does not work with me and my tenses.

[Torsten]